Efficiency Best Practices for Microsoft 365

Dr. Nitin Paranjape

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781801078221
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Desktop Applications
• Index: Computer Science

A practical guide to working with Microsoft 365 apps such as Office, Teams, Excel, and Power BI for automating tasks and managing projects effectivelyKey Features• Learn how to save time while using M365 apps from Microsoft productivity expert Dr. Nitin Paranjape• Discover smarter ways to work with over 20 M365 apps to enhance your efficiency• Use Microsoft 365 tools to automate repetitive tasks without codingBook DescriptionEfficiency Best Practices for Microsoft 365 covers the entire range of over 25 desktop and mobile applications on the Microsoft 365 platform. This book will provide simple, immediately usable, and authoritative guidance to help you save at least 20 minutes every day, advance in your career, and achieve business growth.You'll start by covering components and tasks such as creating and storing files and then move on to data management and data analysis. As you progress through the chapters, you'll learn how to manage, monitor, and execute your tasks efficiently, focusing on creating a master task list, linking notes to meetings, and more. The book also guides you through handling projects involving many people and external contractors/agencies; you'll explore effective email communication, meeting management, and open collaboration across the organization. You'll also learn how to automate different repetitive tasks quickly and easily, even if you're not a programmer, transforming the way you import, clean, and analyze data.By the end of this Microsoft 365 book, you'll have gained the skills you need to improve efficiency with the help of expert tips and techniques for using M365 apps.What you will learn• Understand how different MS 365 tools, such as Office desktop, Teams, Power BI, Lists, and OneDrive, can increase work efficiency• Identify time-consuming processes and understand how to work through them more efficiently• Create professional documents quickly with minimal effort• Work across multiple teams, meetings, and projects without email overload• Automate mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming manual work• Manage work, delegation, execution, and project managementWho this book is forIf you use Microsoft 365, including MS Office 365, on a regular basis and want to learn about the features that can help improve your efficiency, this book is for you. You do not require any specialized knowledge to get started.

Section 1: Efficient Content Creation

This section will help you get off to a flying start – with immediate improvement in efficiency. We will learn how to detect inefficiency and how to find the most efficient way to do something. We will also learn how to create several types of content, including documents, spreadsheets, presentations, web pages, emails, survey forms, and reports. Finally, we will see how to store the files we create in an efficient and secure way.

In this section, there are the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, Fortunately, You're Inefficient!
• Chapter 2, Components of Work
• Chapter 3, Creating Content for Effective Communication
• Chapter 4, Intelligent Data Analysis
• Chapter 5, Managing Files Efficiently

Chapter 1: Fortunately, You're Inefficient!

You can save at least 20 minutes every day if you read and follow this book. Welcome to the world of efficiency! The title says that you are inefficient, referring to inefficiency in the context of using Microsoft Office tools.

My apologies if you feel I am being too harsh. I'm not doubting your ability, expertise, domain knowledge, or experience. Just try the efficiency tests in this chapter to understand what I mean by "inefficiency."

When you use any software, such as Office 365, that has thousands of features, inefficiency is inevitable. Why so? Because you can get the same results in multiple ways. We find one of the ways – usually by trial and error – and stick to it. We never try to find out whether there is a better, faster, smarter way.

Exact probability: Let's say one activity can be done in four different ways. Only one of these methods is efficient. You find one of the methods. You have a 25% chance of finding the best method. How many activities do we perform with Office? Let's say 120. What is the chance of finding the best way every time? 5.6597994e-71%, which basically means zero! In fact, with just 7 activities, the probability drops to 0.006%.

Note

It is statistically impossible to be efficient by using trial and error.

Why did I say "fortunately"? Because you have already taken the first step. You are reading this and thinking about it. Noticing the problem is the first step of solving a problem. By the end of this book, you will be super efficient. You will save an enormous amount of time, which is the immediate reward of efficiency. You can then invest that time in activities that drive your growth or add value to your life. That's fortunate, is it not?

Let's begin your efficiency transformation. The main topics we will cover in this chapter are as follows:

• What's in it for you?
• Evaluating your inefficiency
• Inefficiency audit – how to find your own inefficiency
• Why are there so many features?
• Discovering your needs behind features
• Moving from a vicious cycle to a virtuous cycle
• Frequent questions answered

Technical requirements

The example files used in this chapter are available here in the Chapter 01 folder: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/978-1-80107-226-7_ExerciseFiles.zip.

There is a separate folder for each chapter. You can download the files as needed.

What will you gain by reading this book?

You will save at least 20 minutes every day by learning and applying the skills explained in the book. What will you do with the time saved? Use it to your advantage!

Finish your backlog, analyze data more effectively, learn additional skills, improve your work-life balance, focus on your hobbies, get additional certifications – the opportunities are almost limitless. The only limiting factor is time. You cannot purchase time.

But you can create time by being more efficient and use it to achieve more and grow faster in your chosen field.

What Is Efficiency?

Efficiency is putting in less effort and getting a better impact or more output.

Improving efficiency is a simple, two-step process:

1. Detect inefficiency.
2. Learn how to find a more efficient method.

Most people with a PC use Microsoft Office. We usually learn how to use it by trial and error or on the job. Once the job is completed, nobody checks whether there is a better, more efficient way. That is why most activities are inefficient.

Evaluating your efficiency

Remember – inefficiency does not mean that the method is inaccurate or wrong. Your output may be correct, but there is a better, faster, smarter way to do the job. If you knew about the better way, you could have saved time and used it somewhere else to your advantage.

The question is, who is going to tell you that? Is anybody checking how you work using Office tools? Most probably not. You must do it yourself.

Sounds complicated? Not at all. Let's do some quick tests.

Before we go ahead, let's learn exactly what inefficiency means and how much difference efficiency makes. We will take three examples: one with Word, one with Excel, and one with PowerPoint. You can choose which one you want to try.

Fitting a table in a Word doc

When we copy and paste a table from Excel or a web page, it often goes beyond the Word page boundary, like this:

Figure 1.1 – Table exceeding...

Table of contents

• Efficiency Best Practices for Microsoft 365
• Contributors
• Preface
• Section 1: Efficient Content Creation
• Chapter 1: Fortunately, You're Inefficient!
• Chapter 2: Components of Work
• Chapter 3: Creating Content for Effective Communication
• Chapter 4: Intelligent Data Analysis
• Chapter 5: Managing Files Efficiently
• Section 2: Efficient Collaboration
• Chapter 6: Time and Task Management
• Chapter 7: Efficient Teamwork and Meetings
• Section 3: Integration
• Chapter 8: Automating Work without Programming
• Chapter 9: Putting It All Together
• Chapter 10: Maximizing Efficiency across the Organization
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