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Year-end reflection: Use MyAnalytics to discover your digital work habits and set goals for the new year
Many of us found ourselves working virtually this year more than ever before, and our reliance on digital tools and workspaces increased along with that change. You may have found yourself using Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and other M365 apps and services for the first time or perhaps just more than usual.
One unique Microsoft 365 (M365) tool you may not have heard of is MyAnalytics. MyAnalytics is constantly working in the background analyzing your digital work habits and providing you a personalized view into how you spend your time.
MyAnalytics can help you reflect on your virtual collaboration and work habits, such as how much of your week you spend in meetings, as well as provide ideas for improving your digital work life, such as blocking focus time each day when you’re most productive. MyAnalytics is private and specific to you as an individual user and serves exclusively as an information resource for your own consumption.
What can MyAnalytics do?
MyAnalytics breaks your digital behaviors and work into four areas: Focus, Wellbeing, Network, and Collaboration. It includes data on a rolling four-week basis, meaning you’ll see insights based on your previous four weeks only.
Let’s explore each segment of MyAnalytics, beginning with Focus.
Focus
Did you know it can take 23 minutes to refocus after checking just one email or chat? The focus segment of MyAnalytics counts “focus time” as:
- The percentage of work time leftover after meetings
- Time blocked on your calendar with no attendees (other than yourself)
MyAnalytics suggests finding 2 hours every day to get work done, leave breathing room for creativity, complete lingering tasks, and get more done each day.
Check out your own Focus segment here.
Wellbeing
Do you work in the evenings and weekends outside your typical work hours? The Wellbeing segment of MyAnalytics tells you how often you’re working outside your work schedule (defaults to 8-5 M-F, but can be changed in your settings).
Working beyond your work hours can create additional stress and anxiety in your day, and can affect your sleep.
The Wellbeing segment reports your quiet days, or days in which you didn’t work outside the workday. You’ll see the previous four weeks’ data including quiet day streaks.
Check out your own Wellbeing segment here.
Network
When we expand our network, and change those we surround ourselves with regularly, we create room for innovation, new ideas, and new opportunities. The next person you welcome to your network might be the colleague that helps you reach new and unexpected achievements.
MyAnalytics builds your Network report on your meaningful, digital connections with collaborators. For example, someone you have 2-way communication with (emails, chats, calls, or meetings) would be considered a collaborator in your network. Your Network page shows the number of Active (last 4 weeks) as well as Total (last 12 months) collaborators in your network.
Those you frequently collaborate with will appear in the Top Collaborators section. This is broken into four areas:
- Active: Those you’ve collaborated within the last 4 weeks.
- External: A collaborator outside your company.
- New: Someone new you haven’t had as a collaborator before.
- Important: You can mark any collaborator as important (bottom of Network page) and they’ll then appear here in your own, customized Important section. This makes it easy to keep tabs on your interactions with direct reports, supervisors, or people of interest.
You can view collaborators in a list view, or a map view that arranges collaborators’ profile images in proximity to your own based on the amount of time the collaborator spent working with you overall.
Check out your own Network segment here.
CollaboratioN
You’ve likely experienced unproductive meetings in your lifetime. In fact, 47% of meetings are considered unproductive. The Collaboration page of MyAnalytics shows how you collaborate with others during your working hours and includes a time percentage breakdown for meetings, chats, emails, and calls. Any time not spent collaborating is focus time.
The Collaboration segment of MyAnalytics includes Meeting habits and Communication habits.
Your Meeting habits section shows habits such as how many meetings had a Teams meeting link included, those with high attendance, those that were during working hours, invites sent with 24 hours’ notice, and more.
The Communication habits is a numeric breakdown of emails sent and read, and chats and calls over the last 4 weeks shown by hour of the day.
Check out your own Collaboration segment here.
What goals can MyAnalytics help me set?
Make a goal to improve each segment of MyAnalytics. The Insights plugin for Outlook is a good place to start. It offers suggestions as well as one-click actions to improve your focus time and review upcoming time expenditures.
Now let’s look at specific goals for each of the four MyAnalytics segments, beginning with Focus.
Focus: Set 1-2 hours of focus time each day, mute Teams chats during focus time, and subscribe to weekly reports on your focus stats to stay informed and aware.
MyAnalytics can do these automatically for you. After it books your focus time for the week, you’ll find time blocked on your calendar each day during which you can master your task list and get work done. During these auto-blocked segments of time, MyAnalytics will automatically set your Teams status to Focusing as well, letting colleagues know you’re hard at work and that you’ve muted chats temporarily.
Wellbeing: Use the Insights Outlook plugin to help book more focus time on your calendar to get work done during the day. Have conversations with collaborators about respecting each other’s time and keeping work during work hours for non-emergencies.
Network: Update your important people list. Set up regular, brief 1:1s with important collaborators. Make time to attend networking events and opportunities. See more ideas here.
Collaboration: Reduce meeting lengths and always show up with an agenda and actionable items. Give people time to prepare for meetings, sending invites at least 24 hours in advance. Be sure to respond to meeting invites so others can better prepare for meetings. Don’t have recurring meetings for the sake of it – make each meeting have a purpose and goals or cancel (at least 24 hours in advance!). See many more collaboration tips here.
Check out these additional resources and studies on work-life balance, productivity, and digital collaboration habits.
Where is MyAnalytics?
First, sign in to Office.com (if not already) using your work or school account.
Then, using your app launcher (waffle icon in upper left-hand corner), select All Apps > MyAnalytics as demonstrated in the animation.
Who has MyAnalytics?
If your company uses Microsoft 365, M365 Enterprise, or M365 Business (with Exchange Online), your subscription includes MyAnalytics at no additional cost per user.
If you don’t see MyAnalytics in your app launcher’s app list, your administrator may have removed your license. Ask your global admin about the possibility of being licensed to use it. It’s included with your subscription at no additional cost.
Conclusion
Take some time, now that schedules are loosening up a bit for the end of the year, to look at your MyAnalytics. How is your Focus, Wellbeing, Network, and Collaboration?
Be sure to not just leave time, but dedicate time to get work done outside meetings but during working hours.
Consider how you’re networking and communicating with others in your company and how their experiences (and yours) can be improved through changing habits.
Take time to review the insights and suggestions of MyAnalytics, and then commit to taking action on a few of them. What can you actively work to begin improving today? Is there time set aside on your calendar to master your task list next week?
Happy Holidays from all of us at Centriq, and may your new year be more productive than ever.