OneNote 2016: I created 6 section for the process to work, but you can expand that and use section groups if for example you want to work in projects: This is what I came up with, I’ll start with the setup of each application and then go through the workflow. I wanted all of my reference information in one place, I didn’t want to hunt for the relevant information related to the task in different applications.I wanted a separate task management app other than Outlook a standalone app would allow me to focus on the tasks, and I find the task management in Outlook a bit cumbersome.This is a mobile first world, so I shouldn’t have to depend on my desktop clients for the information/task collection process, it needs to work from my phone.When setting out to create a process that works for me, I had a few requirements: Using my Outlook inbox as a collection place for things to do just doesn’t capture everything. I also get tasks in meetings, in phone calls and in interactions with my colleagues. I found myself finishing a task and then going fishing for new tasks in my inbox with the result of being constantly interrupted by new email, and not really having a firm grasp of my total task list and the priority within that list. I receive most of my tasks via email, and I found it non-sustainable to flag emails and then scroll through my inbox every day to find things I should work on.įor one it’s not very effective I read emails multiple times to figure out the action that’s associated with each email, and second, it doesn’t allow me to focus on the items that are important.

You can of course use the rest of the MS Office family and OneDrive, but they’re not necessary to implement the productivity scheme as outlined here. The pre-requisites are that you are operating in a Microsoft 365 universe, with access to Outlook, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft To-Do, OneNote, all tied together with an Office 365 subscription. Just wanted to share my workflow which has worked very well for the last couple of years, and with the release of Microsoft To-Do and Microsoft Power Automate, this iteration finally feels solid enough to share.

Create a to do list in onenote