Most of us work in Office 365 or Google Workspace. We all have busy schedules and want to work as efficiently as possible. Here are some tips to work smarter and faster.
Google Workspace (or GApps) have some great features. Here’s some time saving techniques for Gmail, Slides, and Meet.
Gmail has a great tool for email that allows you to schedule when your email is sent. Say it’s Monday morning and you need to send an email to a client. Their inbox is most likely full and your email may be ignored due to the volume of mail in their inbox. In this instance you may want to schedule your email to be sent later in the day when your client will have time to read and respond. Compose your email and then simply go to the bottom of the email and drop down the arrow on the send button. Then choose schedule, insert the time for it to be sent, and click send.
Google slides are a great way to put together and display a presentation. Did you know you can insert diagrams into your slides? There are many diagrams you can select including a grid, hierarchy, timelines, process, relationship, and cycle. Simply go to the insert tab and you will see diagrams. Choose the category, for example hierarchy, and you will have tools to build an operational chart. You can finesse your chart by adding style, levels, colors, and text labels. Explore this function to create more dynamic and engaging presentations. Here is a great blog about how to use the diagram feature in Google Slides.
Google Meet is a great way of displaying your google slideshow to your work team. Did you know it has a captioning feature? Simply turn on captioning while in Google Meet – in the lower right hand window of the presentation there is a button to turn on captions. This is also available on mobile devices.
Have a tough time keeping track of your calendar events? Google will email you an agenda every morning to remind you what your schedule is and your tasks. This helps you avoid and surprises when an appointment or deadline rolls around.
To do this, open Google Calendar, go to Settings, Select your calendar, scroll down to general notifications, change the Daily Agenda from None to Email.
We also have some great time-saving tricks for Office 365.
Did you know that you and your team can use Office 365 productivity tools on any device? They can edit, research visuals, and watch Powerpoint on their device. Office 365 apps work on mobile and tablets as well as desktop computers.
No need to check files for updates in Sharepoint. Activate Alert Me in SharePoint, and you will be alerted automatically when anyone makes a change to a document file or the library. When this feature is activated you will get a text or an email whenever a change is made – saving you the time and hassle of checking for updates manually.
Did you know that Excel has an entire menu of shortcuts? Save time using these simple navigation tools. Using these shortcuts make it much faster to create spreadsheets. They are also great shortcuts for employees that have impairments – they don’t need to use the mouse or computer touchscreen to make changes. Send your employees this list to increase their efficiency.
During the Pandemic, Microsoft Teams has become a very valuable working tool. Did you know you can transfer a call in Teams? There are two ways to do this. You can click Transfer under the wheel setting, or you can select Consult Then Transfer. If you select Consult then Transfer you can talk to the person and introduce the call and then transfer.
Do you have any time saving shortcuts in Google Workspace of Office 365? Share them in the comments.