Microsoft Outlook turned 21 on 16th November 2017. Birthdays and anniversaries are a good time to reflect on the past, rejoice in the present and re-appraise the future. Perhaps now would be a good time to look again at how you are managing yourself, your workload and the results you are responsible for delivering through your use of Microsoft Outlook and the other tools you use day-to-day to achieve your future results. Because ……

The world is very different to the way it was in 1996. For most of us the volume and velocity of our workloads have increased dramatically. Customer expectations have increased dramatically whilst lead-time and delivery dates have reduced dramatically. ‘Agile’, ‘Lean’, ‘Just-in-time’ is the order of the day.

Our personal contributions to team and business results are more visible now than they ever were.

Most people carry a number as the price of earning a salary. It might not be the defined monetary numbers that sales people have always carried. It might be a ‘customer happiness’ index, but most of us are responsible for a defined outcome these days, and big, deep data is making that measurement easier to define, allocate and evaluate.

The technology we use to get stuff done has become more sophisticated and complex yet more easy to use. Software, Apps, Saas are all at our fingertips – a tap or a swipe away. But… How well are we using it to keep on top of all the things we are responsible for delivering?

Are we maximising the technology at our disposal to drive our results easier in this tech-rich era or are we driven by it?

Are we using our software programmes the same way we did 2 years ago or have we discovered new ways to leverage the productivity potential in the latest release of that software whilst staying true to the foundational principles of personal and team productivity?

I’m convinced through my experience of supporting thousands of great people in welding their daily competing priorities to the overarching purpose of their roles, that most people are unaware of the unused productivity potential in this 21 year old email and calendaring tool called Microsoft Outlook. Place Outlook within the ever expanding and improving ecosystem that is Office365 and there is a massive opportunity for most people to work smarter, work less and deliver their results easier than they ever thought possible.

Clearly it is not just about the technology. It’s about how we use it to deliver our results easier. Feel free to share how you use Microsoft Outlook, either stand-alone on with other Office365 Apps to help you manage your workload and critical results a little easier every day.