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Hey! It’s Jack. 👋
People spend around 30 minutes managing activities around each meeting; that doesn’t include attending the meeting! With this week’s Deep Dive, you’ll cut that time in half.
In this edition of On The Pulse:
Microsoft have messed up big time (again!)
How bees have halted the construction of an AI data centre — we’re not kidding!
Use these calendar features to save time messing around in Outlook
Table of Contents
Let’s get started!
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🔍 FAVOURITE FINDS
📰 News
Microsoft is steaming ahead with its plan to phase out Windows Mail, with support ending December 31st. You can technically use the app beyond the 31st, but it won’t be able to send or receive email.
Microsoft have messed up — again! A seemingly routine security update turned out to be a full operating system upgrade for Windows Server 2022 users; a sysadmin’s worst nightmare.
🧐 Interesting
Following months of troubling AI news, including last week’s comments from Perplexity AI’s CEO, we’re all on edge where AI is concerned. This week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says there’s “no question” that you’ll have to work alongside AI “colleagues” in the future. On the flip side of the coin, we’ve got AI safety advocates telling CEOs like Huang to slow down.
“You’ve got mail!” The voice of this iconic AOL greeting, Elwood Edwards, died at 74 this week; a day before his 75th birthday. The story behind Edwards’ iconic sound bites is fascinating and well worth a read.
An unlikely spanner in the works for Meta’s planned nuclear-powered AI data centre: bees! A rare, endangered species of bees was discovered on the land earmarked for the project.
✨ DEEP DIVE
💯 Save HOURS with these calendar secrets
Today, we’re giving you 3 calendar “secrets” that help you better utilise Outlook, boosting your efficiency.
Scheduling Assistant
Time blocking
Colour coding calendar entries
How you can schedule meetings with ease
I find the Scheduling Assistant in Outlook incredibly useful for organising meetings. Instead of emailing back and forth, I can see everyone’s availability at a glance. It suggests times that work for all attendees, which helps avoid scheduling conflicts and missed meetings.
Scheduling Assistant makes coordinating group meetings easier, so I can focus on the actual meeting content rather than the logistics.
To use Scheduling Assistant:
Start a New Meeting
From your Inbox, select New Items > Meeting or go to the Calendar and choose New Meeting. Alternatively, press Ctrl+Shift+Q.
Add Attendees
Enter attendees in the To box.
Enter Meeting Details
Write a meeting description in the Subject box.
Open Scheduling Assistant.
Select Scheduling Assistant from the Ribbon. This displays each attendee’s availability in colour-coded blocks, allowing you to find a time that works for all. Select an available time.
Block out focus time
We wrote about the importance of focus time in last week’s newsletter. Blocking out time in your calendar is a great way of making others aware you’re focusing while you use Focus Assist (Windows) or Focus (Mac).
Blocking out time in my calendar helps me stay focused on tasks without interruptions. Marking focus time as Busy shows others that I’m not available, which prevents them from scheduling over it.
Your status also syncs automatically to Microsoft Teams, alerting your colleagues that you’re focusing. The sync helps avoid interruptions, as others can see at a glance when you’re unavailable to chat or attend an impromptu meeting.
Blocking out time in your calendar is very simple:
Open Calendar
Go to the Calendar in Outlook.
Create a New Event
Click New Appointment to start a block of focus time.
Label and Describe
In the Subject box, enter a label like “Focus Time” or “Project Work,” and add details as needed.
Save the Appointment
Click Save & Close to add this time block to your calendar.
Colour-coding calendar entries
I use colour-coding in my calendar to visually organise my time. By assigning different colours according to the type of event — e.g. meetings, personal tasks, focus time — I can see at a glance how I’m spending my time.
Colour-coding entries is a great way of prioritising tasks, as you can quickly identify where you’re spending your time and whether or not you’re maximising your working hours.
I colour-code my calendar with the ‘Categorise’ feature. There are some pre-made options, but you can customise categories to your requirements. I have a very simple traffic light system of red for meetings, yellow for focus time, and green for personal tasks.
Open the Calendar
Go to your Outlook calendar and right-click an event.
Access Categories
After right-clicking, hover over Categorise on the dropdown menu.
Choose a Category
Select a colour category from the list. To create/customise categories, click All Categories > New.
The colour now appears on the event. Do this for all calendar entries.
✅ WRAPPING UP!
That’s all for this edition of On The Pulse.
Thanks for reading and see you soon! 👋