If you work out of your inbox, this one is for you. I get 200 plus emails a week, so every Friday I paste one prompt into Copilot in the new Outlook. It finds everything still waiting on me in email and Teams, ranks it, and drafts the replies. I read them, send, and close my laptop.
Close my loops. Review my emails and Teams messages from this week. Find anything that still needs action from me, including unanswered questions, promised follow-ups, people waiting on me, and decisions I still need to make. Prioritize everything by urgency and draft a reply where helpful. Do not send anything.
Look in the bar on the left side of the new Outlook, next to Mail and Calendar. Microsoft pins Copilot Chat to Outlook's navigation bar by default. If your IT team unpinned it, you can add Copilot back yourself from the apps in Outlook. There's also a Copilot button near the top of the Outlook window.
Yes, with a paid Microsoft Copilot license and work data turned on. The Work IQ toggle controls whether Copilot Chat can use your emails, Teams messages and files. Without the license, Copilot in Outlook sticks to your inbox, calendar and meetings, and it can't see your Teams chats.
Not with this prompt. It ends with "Do not send anything," and Copilot gives you the drafts to read in the chat. Copy each one into a reply on the right thread, fix it, and select Send yourself. Microsoft says Copilot's drafts are there for you to review before anything goes to another person.
Send the prompt once, hover over it and select Schedule this prompt. Choose when it runs and how many times, turn on the email notification if you want one, and select Save. It needs a Microsoft Copilot license and works in Outlook on the web and desktop. You can have up to 10 scheduled prompts.
How to make the prompt run itself every Friday afternoon, plus two follow-up prompts: one turns the loops you can't close today into time on next week's calendar, the other writes a short holding reply so nobody waits all weekend.
Schedule it once. After you send the prompt, hover over it and select Schedule this prompt. Pick Friday at 3 p.m., choose how many times it runs, turn on the email notification and select Save. The answer shows up in bold in the Chats list on the left of the Copilot window, ready when you sit down. Scheduling works in Outlook on the web and desktop and needs the paid license. You can have up to 10 scheduled prompts.
From the list you just gave me, take every item I can't finish today. Estimate how long each one will take me. Then look at my calendar for next week and suggest a time slot for each, using times I'm free. Put the most urgent ones first in the week. Show it as a table: item, person, time needed, suggested day and time.
For each person on the list who is waiting on me and won't get a full answer today, draft a two-sentence holding reply. Say I've seen their message, and give the day I'll get back to them from the plan above. Friendly and direct, no apologies. Do not send anything.
Add the time slots to your calendar yourself, then send the holding replies. When the schedule runs out, go to Settings and more, then Scheduled prompts, and edit it to keep going.
Prompts, step-by-step guides and checklists you can put to work today.