☕ Tech Tips & Tales from The MS Office Maestro

Your weekly guided mini lesson on Microsoft, Copilot & smart working

☕ A quick note from me

This week has been a full one… in the best possible way.

I delivered the first session of my Microsoft 365 with Copilot – The Human Advantage course and honestly, it was such a good session.
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The conversations, the questions, the realisation moments… everything I hoped it would be.

What stood out again is this:

Copilot is only powerful when it’s grounded in how you actually work. Not generic prompts. Not theory. Real practical workflows.

That’s exactly how I teach it and why I’m updating content constantly.

Microsoft has made a lot of changes recently and I’ve been busy making sure everything I’m delivering is fully up to date and reflects how Copilot works now, not 3 months ago.

Alongside that, I ran a 2-hour AI tools session for assistants this week and the feedback has been fantastic (I’ll share a screenshot below because it says it better than I can 😊).

And tonight I’m running the final session in my current AI Duo webinar series.
It feels like a bit of a milestone moment.

✨ This week's Copilot Moment

This week’s Copilot Moment comes straight from that first session.

We were working with meeting transcripts and prompts that turn busy, messy information into something clear and useful.
And very quickly, we could see the shift.

Copilot isn’t just about creating content.
It’s about helping you focus on what matters.

Here’s a simple way to use that in your own work this week.

Friday Exec Summary (5 bullets)

After a busy week, when everything has blurred into one, this helps you reset.

Instead of starting from scratch, let Copilot pull together a short snapshot your exec can actually use.

Try this in Copilot:

Role: Acting as my reporting assistant
​Goal: Create a weekly summary for [Exec name]
​Context: Use this week's key emails, tasks and meetings; keep the tone concise
​Steps: Cover achievements, blockers, decisions, deadlines for next week and any asks
​Expectations: Five bullets only; no more than 120 words

Why this helps at work:

It gives your exec a clear picture of the week in minutes and makes decisions and follow‑ups much easier.

Quick Win

Send this every Friday at the same time so it becomes a predictable, trusted rhythm.

📌 A tiny Microsoft tip

Planner - My Tasks view

If your tasks live in lots of different plans, boards and lists, My Tasks gives you one place to see everything you’re responsible for.

It quietly pulls tasks together so nothing slips through the cracks.

Where to find it:

Open Planner and go to My Tasks. You can group tasks by progress or priority to suit how you work.

Why this helps:

You start the week with a clear, focused view instead of hunting through multiple places.

Try this today:

Open My Tasks and flag 2 priorities you want to focus on next week

🎙 Behind the scenes

This week has really reinforced something I’ve been noticing for a while.

The biggest shift with Copilot isn’t about features.

It’s about how people think about using it.

In this week's session, once people stopped trying to “get the perfect prompt” and instead focused on what they actually needed, everything changed.

They got better outputs.
Faster.
With less frustration.

That’s the real skill now.

And it’s why I’m so focused on keeping everything practical, current and grounded in real work. That’s exactly what I’ll keep focusing on in the sessions ahead.

✨ Before I go

Cohort 4 is live right now and I’m already thinking ahead to Cohort 5.

Microsoft 365 with Copilot — The Human Advantage runs again in September and if you'd like to be first in line when enrolment opens, you can join the waitlist today.

No pressure, no commitment, just your name on the list so you hear about it before anyone else.

The course covers four live sessions: Copilot fundamentals, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook & Teams.

Everything is built around one core idea:
Copilot is only as good as the person using it. That’s what we fix.

If you’ve been thinking about it, September is a great time to make it happen.

✍️ Shelley Fishel

The MS Office Maestro​
Expert-led, human-centered Microsoft 365 training