Microsoft 365: 7 tips to be more productive

After 60+ tenant audits across SMBs (50–500 seats), the single biggest driver of Microsoft 365 ROI is not which license tier you pay for — it is how deeply end users adopt the platform’s built-in productivity features. Most teams use Outlook, Teams, and Word as a glorified email–chat–word-processor. The seven features below consistently unlock the largest gains we measure across SMB rollouts.

The 7 tips at a glance

#1 💡 Tell Me — the forgotten search bar

Tell Me is a command-search field built into every Office app since 2016. Type what you want (convert to PDF, insert pivot table, record macro) and Office surfaces the exact command. It is the fastest way for non-admins to learn the apps without documentation.

Access it via Alt + Q on Windows, or click the lightbulb icon next to the ribbon tabs.

Wintive observation: we consistently see teams pay for Copilot licenses ($30/user/month) while ignoring Tell Me, which is free, built in, and solves most of the same feature-discovery problem. Deploy Tell Me training first, Copilot second.

#2 🤝 Real-time collaboration (OneDrive + SharePoint)

The moment a file lives in OneDrive or a SharePoint library, multiple people can edit it simultaneously in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint — desktop or web. Changes sync in real time with colored cursors showing each editor.

This kills the eternal email chain of proposal_v2_final_FINAL_REVIEWED.docx that every SMB accumulates. Set OneDrive as the default save target across the tenant: File → Options → Save → uncheck Save to Computer by default.

#3 📎 Share+ attachments via SharePoint

Instead of attaching a 5 MB deck to 10 recipients (creating 50 MB of mailbox bloat), upload it to SharePoint or OneDrive and share a link. Recipients open the current version, no divergence, one source of truth.

In Outlook, when you attach a file stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, a dialog offers Share link or Attach as copy. Always pick the link.

Mailbox impact: we routinely see 200–400 GB reclaimed across a 200-seat tenant after 90 days of consistent Share-as-link adoption.

#4 👥 Create Microsoft 365 Groups properly

A Microsoft 365 Group bundles a shared mailbox + calendar + SharePoint site + Teams channel under one identity. It is the right container for project teams, departments, and recurring collaborations.

Create one from Outlook (New → Group) or Teams (Join or create a team). For bulk creation or automation, use PowerShell:

# Create a Microsoft 365 Group with a named owner
Connect-ExchangeOnline

New-UnifiedGroup -DisplayName "Project Alpha" `
    -Alias "project-alpha" `
    -PrimarySmtpAddress "project-alpha@contoso.com" `
    -AccessType Private `
    -Owner "jane@contoso.com"

# Add members after creation
Add-UnifiedGroupLinks -Identity "Project Alpha" `
    -LinkType Members `
    -Links "bob@contoso.com","carla@contoso.com"

Governance tip: always assign at least 2 owners. If the sole owner leaves the company, the group becomes orphaned and cleanup requires a Global Admin.

#5 ✍️ E-signatures in Word and Outlook

Contracts that used to take 3–5 days of print-sign-scan-email now take five minutes. DocuSign, Adobe Sign, and Microsoft’s built-in Signature Line (Word → Insert → Signature Line) all integrate with Outlook and OneDrive.

For high-volume contracting, DocuSign Business Pro or Adobe Sign provide template libraries, bulk send, and audit trails. For occasional internal sign-off, the built-in Signature Line is enough and free.

#6 📅 Scheduling Assistant

Open a new meeting → Scheduling Assistant tab → drag the meeting block across the timeline. Every invitee free/busy appears as shaded bars; you land on the first green slot instantly.

For external attendees (customers, partners), use Microsoft Scheduler (formerly FindTime) — a free Outlook add-in that polls attendees without exposing your calendar.

#7 💬 @mentions in Outlook

Type @ followed by a name in the body of an Outlook email. The recipient is automatically added to the To line, and their name is highlighted in their inbox preview, pulling their attention directly.

In audits, roughly 70% of SMB users have never used this — a two-keystroke habit that eliminates most “did you see my email?” follow-ups.

Wintive take: 3 productivity mistakes we see in SMB audits

1. Users email attachments instead of sharing links. Every tenant we audit has 10–30% of its total mailbox storage consumed by duplicated attachments. One 5 MB PDF sent to 15 recipients is 15 copies across mailboxes. Fix: enforce OneDrive as default save target + coach users on Share-as-link during onboarding.

2. Microsoft 365 Groups accumulate silently. Someone creates a group for a project, the project ends, nobody owns cleanup. After 2–3 years a 100-seat tenant will have 40+ zombie groups, each with a stale Teams site + SharePoint site eating storage and muddling license visibility. Schedule a quarterly review using this:

# Find Microsoft 365 Groups inactive for 180+ days
$cutoff = (Get-Date).AddDays(-180)

Get-UnifiedGroup -ResultSize Unlimited | Where-Object {
    $_.WhenChanged -lt $cutoff
} | Select-Object DisplayName, ManagedBy, WhenCreated, WhenChanged |
    Sort-Object WhenChanged |
    Export-Csv -Path C:temporphan-groups.csv -NoTypeInformation

Write-Host "Review C:temporphan-groups.csv before deleting anything."

3. Copilot is licensed, Tell Me is ignored. SMBs add Copilot at $30/user/month while their users still cannot find basic Word features. Copilot amplifies skill; it does not replace skill. Deploy Tell Me training and a 10-minute power-user shortcuts onboarding before Copilot, not after.

Microsoft 365 Productivity Tips for IT Administrators

Beyond end-user tips, Microsoft 365 offers several administrator-level features that dramatically improve organizational productivity. First, enable Microsoft Copilot for eligible users to surface AI-generated summaries, drafts, and action items across Teams, Outlook, and Word. Second, configure Microsoft Viva Insights to give managers visibility into collaboration patterns and meeting habits without exposing individual data. Third, use Microsoft Lists for structured tracking across projects, replacing fragmented Excel sheets with a centralized, permission-controlled view. For a deeper dive into Microsoft 365 capabilities, see our guide on Microsoft Entra ID and our overview of hidden features of the E3 license.

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