Microsoft Copilot Tips and Tricks to Track Tasks

About this video

In a video made in partnership with Microsoft, the creator shows how Microsoft 365 Copilot can extract and track tasks across Outlook, Teams, Word, and Loop. In Outlook he opens the Copilot pane and asks, ‘do I have any action items in my unread emails today?’ Copilot returns three tasks from that day — from Patti, Diego, and Alex — each summarized, such as Patti’s request to create a video teaser, with citations that open the original message; the prompt can be scoped to this week, last week, or time away on vacation. To act on an item, he flags Diego’s email about website updates, which surfaces it under Flagged email in Microsoft To Do, where he can add a due date, category, and files. He then asks Copilot to convert the tasks into a table with sender, action item, and any deadline mentioned. In Teams chat, the prompt ’extract all action items from this chat’ returns two follow-ups, and the same works in channels. In a Teams meeting on food safety and compliance, with Copilot and a transcript running, asking ‘what open action items are there?’ lists tasks including an allergen labeling update, a supplier check, and more staff training, each with a citation to the transcript portion; after the meeting, the recap’s AI transcript is broken out by speaker and Copilot retains the earlier interaction. Finally, in Word he prompts Copilot to list actions to bake the largest chocolate chip cookie in the world, then refines the output into a table with section, task, owner, and due date, noting owners and dates are best guesses to edit. Copying that table into Microsoft Loop lets him ask Copilot how many tasks the baking team has — it answers five steps — and turning the table into a Loop component and pasting it into an Outlook email keeps it live: changing an owner from research team to himself in Loop updates the table in the email automatically. He closes by pointing to Copilot Lab for prompt inspiration and free Microsoft 365 Copilot training courses by role.

Key takeaways

• Ask Copilot in Outlook for action items in unread email for a scoped period; each result is summarized and cited back to the original message.
• Flag an email to move it into Microsoft To Do under Flagged email, then add a due date, category, or files — or ask Copilot to convert the items into a sender/action/deadline table.
• In Teams chats and channels, prompt Copilot to extract all action items; it found two follow-ups in the example chat.
• Run Copilot with a transcript during meetings so open action items can be pulled afterward from the recap, with citations to who said what.
• Generate a project plan in Word, refine it into a section/task/owner/due-date table, and share it as a Loop component so edits sync everywhere it is pasted — while treating Copilot’s owners and due dates as guesses to verify.

Episode details: published September 30, 2024 · 12:46 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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