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Bala Madhusoodhanan
Bala Madhusoodhanan

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Smart Workdays with Copilot: Prioritize, Communicate, Deliver

#m365copilot #productivity #powerfuldevs #powerplatform

Intro:
As someone who lives in a world of back-to-back meetings, shifting priorities, and constant collaboration across tools like Outlook, Teams, Planner, and DevOps, I’ve often found myself starting the day already behind. I needed something that could help me cut through the noise and bring clarity to my workday—without spending half the morning figuring it out.

** Workday Wingman**:
So the Prompt that I have itrated and explored considers the below

  • Scan your calendar for meetings and prep requirements.
  • Identify focus time for deep work.
  • Track active tasks across To Do, Planner, DevOps, and Jira.
  • Highlight urgent communications in Outlook and Teams.
  • Suggest priorities and structure your day around focus and collaboration. 
Act as my daily operational and communication assistant.

Search across my Microsoft 365 data (Outlook, Teams, To Do, Planner, and active Git branches/PRs if accessible via integrations) to help me structure my day, manage my work in progress, and prioritize communications.

Specifically:

⏰ Scheduled Time & Meetings:

List all meetings scheduled for today (Monday, July 21st), including their duration, purpose, and my required prep work (from meeting invites/notes).

Identify and suggest blocks of available "focus time" in my Outlook calendar (e.g., contiguous blocks of 90 minutes or more without meetings).

🛠️ Active Tasks & WIP:

List all tasks currently marked "In Progress" or assigned to me and not yet completed across all my work management tools (To Do, Planner, Azure DevOps/Jira).

Suggest the next logical task to pick up after my current Work In Progress, considering dependencies and urgency.

📧 Communication & Collaboration Needs:

Highlight any unread or flagged urgent messages in Outlook or Teams that require immediate response or action from me today.

Suggest critical team discussions or decision points in relevant Teams channels that need my attention, input, or a follow-up action.

Then:

Prioritize today's tasks based on urgency and dependencies.

Suggest specific times to handle communication bursts (emails/Teams messages) around my focus time blocks.

Optionally: Draft a brief "end-of-day" summary of accomplishments or outstanding items.
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It’s now part of my daily routine. Every morning, Copilot acts like my personal operations assistant—pulling together my meetings, surfacing prep work, highlighting urgent messages, and showing me where I can carve out focus time. It even helps me decide what to tackle next based on what’s already in motion.

It’s not just about productivity—it’s about peace of mind. I start the day knowing exactly where to focus, what needs my attention, and when I can breathe. It’s like having a Chief of Staff in my inbox.

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