In 2011, Microsoft released the popular Microsoft 365 service. At the time, it was simply a Microsoft Office subscription service. The platform has now matured into a great, modern productivity package and was recently rebranded to Microsoft 365 from Office 365.
It is estimated that platform users now make up over half of the 81% of all organizations that have switched to cloud services.
In this case, I have conducted a list of The Top 5 Microsoft 365 Productivity Tools in 2021. But the tools will not give you the expected results if you do not have a proper office 365 backup.
Working from anywhere is a vital component of Microsoft 365, which will significantly enhance user’s productivity in 2021. If your business is no longer limited to clean office work, productivity can increase by 30-40%. It is according to Microsoft research.
Teams
The business section is always buzzing about which new hot collaboration platform fits best. Indeed, there are plenty of options to select. But there is one practical solution: Microsoft Teams.
And it’s completely free with Microsoft 365 and Office 365. Have you ever wanted your team to have a central meeting, work, share, and chat center anytime, anywhere? Well, now we have a solution with Microsoft Teams!
Teams is a cloud-based collaboration platform provided by Microsoft, with features that combine meetings, notes, files, and various non-Microsoft real-time applications.
When introduced in March 2017, Teams is combined with Microsoft 365 subscriptions for businesses. Since then, it has matured into an important product. Not only improved employee collaboration, but it has also helped teams’ productivity by bringing people, conversations, and content altogether in a single, intelligent center.
In 2020 it was revealed that the platform has now overtaken Slack with over 15 million active daily users and is Microsoft’s fastest-growing service ever!
Forms
Microsoft Forms is already becoming one of the most effective business tools in your arsenal. It is since it allows you to easily create forms that gather real-time information about a product, service, internal process, concept, or experience from colleagues and co-workers.
Once you start using Microsoft Forms, it will be easy for you to display data using the Auto Draw feature visually. This tool has countless uses, including collecting feedback, measuring satisfaction, and improving real-time information-based decision-making.
Microsoft Forms is an easy-to-use intuitive tool that is a great business solution included in most Office 365 subscriptions and is integrated with Microsoft Teams.
The software delivers engaging forms, charts, and graphs to deliver a unique user experience, including when accessing mobile devices, and is therefore still one of Microsoft’s best tools in 2021.
Planner
Like Asana, Slack, or Trello, Planner is a task management tool that integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and the rest of the Microsoft 365 suite.
Provides a place for teams to create, organize, and assign tasks to other users and check for updates for progress, removing the chaos of teamwork and helping you do more.
Without a Planner, teams often have to go through a time-consuming process to switch between different third-party applications to manage their tasks.
Switching between them is tedious, and a massive killer of productivity but risks losing the visibility of their teams’ workflow. Using a Planner allows your employees to build a plan, build a team to complete it, assign tasks and follow the whole process, all under one window!
OneNote
OneNote is a Microsoft cloud service that connects users to all of their files. You can save and protect your files, share them and access them from anywhere on all your devices with the tool.
Microsoft is always trying to improve the user experience and practices of the platform to protect and manage their data with ease. OneNote shares a family resemblance to other Microsoft Office applications.
A OneNote download is available for both Windows and macOS as well as Apple and Android mobile devices. Advanced features vary slightly depending on where you use the tool. The Windows application is the strongest of the package, not surprisingly.
Choosing to keep your files in OneNote instead of any other cloud storage services, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, will improve productivity as it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, allowing you to work faster and wiser.
Organizations across all industries have chosen to adopt OneNote to improve productivity and reduce costs.
MyAnalytics
Dive into analytics with Microsoft MyAnalytics. It is a set of regularly updated personal productivity insights available to Microsoft 365 users. MyAnalytics dashboards can send you an email monthly status update on how well you use your time for things like networking via Outlook.
The theory behind MyAnalytics is that users must first be aware of the story their data uses before they can change that narrative with different habits. Individuals who make deliberate efforts to follow a daily routine are more productive and happier in their work.
MyAnalytics makes it easy for you to view data about how you spend your time and with whom.
By showing you data-driven insight, you can plan for better work habits in areas that need improvement. This knowledge is available on a personal board that displays easy-to-read visual aids about how you spend time and collaborate.
There are details about MyAnalytics available for:
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- Meeting time
- Emails
- Focus hours
- After hours
By following the data available in MyAnalytics, you will immediately know which areas of time management need to be strengthened and set some challenging time management goals for the future.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 suite offers more tools, but these 5 are The Top 5 Microsoft 365 Productivity Tools in 2021. If you run or own a business, be sure that your employees are well-familiar with them.
