Discover Microsoft’s New Outlook Calendar Feature - The Kanban Style Board View
Have you noticed or interacted with Microsoft Outlook's new feature yet? The one that improves your workflow by letting you organize multiple calendars, schedule meetings, set reminders, and complete your tasks more efficiently? If not, don't worry, as we've got you covered! This comprehensive article introduces the Kanban-style board view for Outlook Calendar.
What is it, how does it work, and how can you benefit from using this Kanban solution? Please keep scrolling, and you'll discover all the answers plus everything else you need to know about this new Microsoft Outlook calendar feature!
What Is The Kanban Style Board View?
In a word, the Kanban-style board view is a new way of organizing your Outlook Calendar. It provides an easy-to-use interface that lets you quickly see what needs to be done next, when, and who should do them. You can also create a list of tasks to help you manage them better.
The Kanban-style board view is based on the Kanban methodology. In short, the Kanban method is a process improvement technique used to increase efficiency. It was developed back in the 1960s by Toyota and has been widely adopted by many other companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Google, and IBM.
In essence, the Kanban method helps teams improve productivity by breaking down large projects into smaller steps. Each step represents something that you must do before moving on to the next step. By doing so, you can focus on completing each task instead of getting overwhelmed by the sheer size of the project.
In the Kanban-style view, every item represents a step in the project. When you add an item to the board, it becomes the project's first step. When you finish the current step, you move on to the next step. As soon as you start working on the next step, you mark it as completed. And once you're finished with the last step, you can close the entire project.
It's critical to note that the Kanban-style board doesn't replace existing views in Outlook. Instead, it complements them and adds another layer of functionality. So while you may still want to use the traditional view for certain situations, the Kanban-style one is excellent for planning long-term projects or managing multiple projects simultaneously.
How Does The Kanban-style Board View Work?
As you open up the Kanban-style calendar view, you will notice that there are three distinct sections on top: "Today," "Upcoming," and "Scheduled." These correspond to the different types of events in your Outlook Calendar. For example, the "Scheduled" section would appear on top if you schedule a meeting.
You can effortlessly switch between these sections by clicking on their respective tabs. To add items to today's agenda, click on the Today tab. Similarly, just click on the Upcoming tab to add items to your upcoming plan. Finally, click on the Scheduled tab to add items to the Scheduled section.
You can also use the search bar to find specific items. Simply type the name of the event into the search box and press Enter. The results will display only those items matching the text you entered.
Kanban-style Board View Unique Features
Let's take a quick tour through some of the features available in the Kanban-style Calendar view.
Multiple Projects
If you have more than one project going simultaneously, you can create separate boards for each one. How so? Simple! Right-click on the board header and select Add Project from the context menu. You can now add new tasks to the selected project.
Task Details
When you hover over a task, you can see additional information about it, such as its status and whether it's due today or not.
Due Dates
You can set a date for each task. If the task isn't due yet, it will appear in red. Once the deadline arrives, it turns green.
Workflow
You can also configure your workflow settings using the Kanban view. For example, if you need to send out reminders for upcoming deadlines, you can do so trouble-free.
Hide Completed Tasks
If you don't want to see all the tasks that are already completed, simply hide them. To do so, click the triangle icon next to the task name and choose Hide from the context menu.
Customize The Board Layout
The layout of the board itself is customizable. You simply need to drag and drop items around to rearrange them as you please.
Add Notes
You can add notes to each task. Clicking the pencil icon next to a task allows you to write down comments or instructions related to that particular task.
Sort By Status
You can sort the tasks based on their current status. Choose either Complete or In Progress from the Sort By menu.
What Are The Benefits Of Using The Kanban Solution?
In addition to providing a simple way to manage your tasks, the Kanban solution has some additional benefits:
- Collaboration. With a Kanban board, multiple people can collaborate on one project. They can add tasks, update the board, and even discuss ideas in real-time.
- Visual Feedback. As you complete tasks, the board automatically updates to show how much you have left to go. If you finish early, the remaining tasks will disappear. Conversely, if you don't finish, the remaining tasks will remain visible.
- Self-Organization. The Kanban board helps you stay organized because it gives you visual feedback about what needs to be completed. You can easily see which tasks need more attention than others.
- Flexibility. Because the Kanban board is flexible, you can use it to track any kind of project. It works well when you want to keep track of customer requests, sales leads, or marketing campaigns.
- Customizable. With the Kanban board, you can customize the look and feel of the application to fit your specific workflow. You can choose from different themes and colours, and even change the font size and colour.
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Thanks to Aaron Kane with CTI Technology in Chicago for his help with this article.
