Out with the Inbox: Tips for Replacing Emails with Teams

In a previous post, I discussed specific uses for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. 

We saw how Teams is Microsoft’s version of professional social media.

When used effectively, Teams should minimize the number of emails and email chains you get involved in. 

Below are a few easy ways to use Teams chat more effectively. 

Channels and Chat 

Reply and Thumbs up 

A common complaint is that chats are hard follow and search through. The following tools help reduce the sprawl and keep your chats concise and focused. Additionally, they will reduce the number of emails that pass through your inbox everyday.

Adding Files

Rather than attaching and downloading files, by using Teams you can share and discuss files in your Team. 

Note: You can get the address for a file by clicking on the … next to the file name and selecting “get link”. Once you upload a file to Teams it will automatically be added to the SharePoint documents as well. We will talk more about this relationship in a later post.

Creating Your Own Sub-team

One thing I love about my job is that I have a great team. And often my team has to work with on another in sub-team units. Three or four of us will be working on special project. Using Teams I can start a chat with the people with my sub team and then name for easy recall.

Turning On and Off Notifications 

Some of you have probably heard me say, “Teams me, if you have a problem”. This is because I immediately get all Teams notifications on my phone and my computer. Of course, all this noise can be too much. This video shows you how to turn off all notifications and how to mute certain conversations.

Text Editing

While we tend to dismiss text as an artless form of communication, Teams has a rich text editor that allows you to send highly stylized, multi-line messages. To access these features click on the text editor icon.

Teams chat dialog with text editor icon highlighted

All of these tools can help your leave your email behind. It takes time, but switching your day-to-day communication from long cc’ed email chains, to focused Team chats, can make communication much more manageable. 

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