Calm the chaos with Microsoft To Do & Viva Briefing email

Here are two facts. The average professional receives 121 emails per day, according to a study by Campaign Monitor. In an experiment, Russian scientist Zeigarnik established that waiters remember unfinished table orders perfectly compared to finished orders. How are these facts related, you ask? Fair question.

A universal truth of our lives today is that we are constantly bombarded with information. The Zeigarnik effect says that this information (till it’s actioned upon) tunnels into our brain, and instead of focussing on how best to complete our tasks, we focus on how many tasks and what tasks we have to complete. And so there you are, attending an important strategic meeting, cooking a meal with a partner, playing with your dog – but your restless mind is thinking about the 120+ emails in your inbox, your unfinished tasks from yesterday, all the colleagues you must follow up with, bills for claiming reimbursements... And it goes on.

There’s a very elegant solution to this predicament; start your morning with planning and task management. Put it all down, prioritize it, and then do it, so your mind can be freed to focus on the important stuff. Let To Do and Viva Briefing email take care of Zeigarnik for you.

Own your time with Commitments & Follow-Ups

Microsoft To Do’s integration with Viva Briefing email will ensure you stay on top of your tasks through personalized, relevant, and actionable insights, presented to you at the beginning of your workday. If you are an M365 enterprise user and Viva Briefing email is enabled for your organisation*, then focus on the Commitments & Follow-Up section to capture and manage all your tasks in a single place. It is divided into two parts:

Due tasks from To Do

Due tasks for the day from To Do are shown in the “From your task list” section. On clicking Remind me, a reminder for the task is set for the next day in the Briefing email. On clicking Done, the task is marked as complete in To Do.

                                                                          Due tasks from To Do

Intelligent suggestions for potential tasks from emails

If you’ve missed something in your 120 emails, then don’t worry. Based on commitments, requests or follow-ups in your email messages, task suggestions are shown in the “From your messages” section. On clicking Remind me, the task is added to To Do and a reminder for the task is set for the next day in the briefing email.

Potential task suggestions from email messages & editing in To Do

If you want even more control over the reminders for each task, there is an option to customize your reminders through the options in the dropdown. If you want to explore and manage these tasks, to make the best of your day, then the tasks can be further managed in To Do through the “Edit Task In To Do” option.

To Do’s vision is simple – be where you are and be the single pane of glass for all your tasks, no matter where they originate from. Through our integration with Viva Briefing email, we are moving one step closer to this vision.

It’s your day, and it’s about time you took control of it, rather than the other way around.

How to try this feature

* The Viva Briefing email is sent to Microsoft 365 Enterprise users with Exchange Online mailboxes, if the email is currently enabled for your organization. It has been locales and will soon be available in other regions as well. Contact your admin to enable the Briefing email for you.

We’d love to hear your feedback. Let us know in the comments below or over on Twitter and Facebook. You can also write to us at todofeedback@microsoft.com.