Simplify your self-organisation in Microsoft 365

Whether you are a solopreneur or the head of a large corporation, our time is limited. We all want to focus on our core work whenever possible, instead of killing time with administrative tasks.

In this post you will find tips that are easy to put into practice, that make your working day easier and that simplify your self-organisation.

Link meeting notes in OneNote with Outlook

Apps involved: OneNote and Outlook

Save time on your meeting notes by pulling existing information from Outlook (subject, agenda, location, attendees) into OneNote.

Here is how: in OneNote, choose Home and then Meeting Details. Pick a meeting from today’s list. For another day, choose the date with the calendar icon, then the meeting and Insert Details. OneNote creates a new page. The details are plain text, so you can remove people who did not attend without changing the Outlook invitation. According to Microsoft, Outlook and OneNote need to be installed on the same computer (Microsoft Support).

Set up every meeting as an online meeting

Apps involved: Outlook and Teams

In a hybrid working world it matters that we can work together regardless of location. That applies to meetings in particular. So that your meetings can be held from anywhere, it pays off to set up every meeting as a Teams meeting.

In the new Outlook and Outlook on the web, go to Settings, Calendar, Events and invitations. Tick Add online meeting to all meetings, choose Teams as the provider and save. If you have a Teams licence, Microsoft says the setting is on by default (Microsoft Support).

Turn an email into a task in To Do

Apps involved: Outlook and To Do

Capture emails as tasks in To Do whenever they contain an assignment or a request and cannot be dealt with right away.

The simplest way is the flag: every email you flag in Outlook appears in To Do in the Flagged email list. The task takes the subject of the email and Open in Outlook takes you back to the message. You can give it a due date, add it to My Day or mark it as important.

Turn an email into a To Do task with a single click

Apps involved: Outlook and To Do

Set up To Do once so that flagged emails arrive. After that, one click on the flag is enough. If you cannot see the list, turn on Flagged email in the To Do settings. When you first switch it on, To Do picks up the 100 most recently flagged emails from the last 30 days. Microsoft names two limits: only emails from your own mailbox count, not from shared mailboxes. Also, flagged calendar events do not become tasks (Microsoft Support).

Undo sending an email

Have you sent an email to the wrong recipient, forgotten something or worded it badly? You can set Outlook up so that you can undo the send for up to ten seconds.

In the new Outlook and Outlook on the web, open the View tab, choose View settings, then Mail and Compose and reply. Under Undo send, pick five or ten seconds and save. After you send, a notice appears at the bottom of the window that lets you cancel. Once that time is up, the email has gone out (Microsoft Support).

Use quick actions to process your email

With quick actions you get through your emails in Outlook faster. These are the small icons that appear when you hover over an email in the message list. You choose which actions appear there in the settings under Mail. Put there what you use every day, for example the flag for To Do.

Planner tasks in your Outlook calendar: what has changed

This section used to suggest showing the Planner tasks assigned to you in your Outlook calendar via a calendar feed (iCalendar). Microsoft retired this connection with the Planner update in early 2026: new feeds can no longer be created and existing feeds no longer show any tasks. There is no direct replacement.

Today you see your Planner tasks directly in the new Outlook next to email and calendar. I show how in Microsoft Planner 2026: tasks in Outlook and Copilot. What else the Planner update removed is covered in a post on the Planner changes (in German).

Conclusion

Each of these tips takes only a few minutes. Start with whatever costs you the most time today: switch on undo send or flag the next email that contains a request instead of leaving it in your inbox.