☕ Tech Tips & Tales from The MS Office Maestro

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

☕ The Recipe I Did Not Have to Reinvent

Hello Reader

This week I baked my honey cakes.

They come out once a year and by now I don't really think about how. The recipe is worked out. I know how long they need, I know what the batter should look like and I know my own oven and its opinions.

That was just as well because it's been a difficult week physically. Those of you who have been on this list a long time will know that I live with chronic back pain. This past week it's been particularly bad and I've got two specialist appointments coming up to work out what to do next.

So, there wasn't a great deal of spare attention going.

What struck me, standing in the kitchen, was how little the cakes actually needed from me. Not because they don't matter but because the method was already sorted.

The thinking had been done years ago. What was left was the part that genuinely needs a person. Tasting. Watching. Judging when they're done.

A couple of days later I was at my desk doing something surprisingly similar.

As a Microsoft Copilot trainer, I'm asked about Microsoft Copilot Cowork constantly at the moment and I'm running a session on it at The Autumn PA Show Summit. I didn't want to teach it from the outside. I wanted a real process in my own business, one I actually depend on, so that what I say about it has been tested rather than imagined.

This newsletter turned out to be the obvious candidate.

I already had half a process. There is a bank of Copilot Moments and Microsoft tips that my VA Zita pulls from each week and it works but something had been quietly bothering me for months. Some weeks the tip did not match the content. The story would go one way and the tip would go another, and the issue would arrive at the reader as two separate things sitting next to each other rather than one piece.

Nothing was broken exactly. It just wasn't right.

So I sat down with Copilot and we took the whole thing apart.

What came out of that session was not more automation. It was a cleaner split between the two halves of the job.

The newsletter now runs on two main prompts. The first one goes off on its own each week, looks back over what I have actually been doing and comes back with a handful of possible stories for me to choose from. It suggests. It does not decide.

The second prompt does something quite different. It interviews me. It asks what happened, what I noticed, what I realised, what else was going on that week. Then it drafts from my answers.

That second half can't be automated and it shouldn't be. It's the bit that makes this a newsletter rather than a bulletin.

The tip problem solved itself once the split was clear. The tip is now chosen to fit the story, rather than taken from the top of the list. The bank is something to choose from, not a queue to work through.

Here is the part I didn't expect.

The lesson was not that more of my work could be handed over. It was that quite a lot of it shouldn't be. What Copilot actually helped me do was find the line between the two.

And it took a while. Longer than I would like to admit for something that now looks obvious written down.

✨ This week's Copilot Moment

Proofread and flag what still needs judgement

You know when something is nearly finished and you want it tidied up without quietly losing the parts that still need a proper decision?

Ask Copilot to do both jobs at once. Correct the mechanical things and mark the things it should not be deciding for you.

Try this in Copilot:

Role: Acting as my proofreader and reviewer

Goal: Proofread this document. Fix grammar and spelling, improve flow and flag unclear sections

Context: Use the content I provide as the source material

​Steps: Correct the mechanical errors directly, then list separately anything that reads unclearly or needs a decision only I can make

​Expectations: A corrected version, followed by a short list of the points still needing my judgement

Why this helps at work

It combines correction with review, so the document improves while the areas that still need human judgement are pointed out rather than smoothed over. You end up knowing exactly where to spend your attention.

Quick win: Try it on one real document this week and read the flagged list before you read the corrections.

📌 A tiny Microsoft tip

Use a list to hold the process, not your memory

If you are working out a repeatable process of your own, put it somewhere it can be seen. A Microsoft List works well for anything that comes round regularly, with columns for the things you would otherwise be holding in your head.

Where to find it:

Open Microsoft Lists from the Microsoft 365 app launcher, select New list, then create columns such as Channel, Owner, Status and Publish date.

Why this helps

It turns a set of good intentions into a practical plan with ownership and a cadence. It also makes the process visible to anyone helping you, which matters enormously if you work with a VA or an assistant.

Try this today: Take one thing you do every week and give it four columns. What, who, when and what state it's in.

🎓 Coming Up: Microsoft 365 with Copilot - The Human Advantage

My next Microsoft 365 with Copilot: The Human Advantage programme starts on 8th September and runs on the 15th, 22nd and 29th.

Across four practical sessions, we look at how to get more from Microsoft 365, where Copilot genuinely saves time and where your own judgement remains the thing that matters most. Copilot Helps - You Decide.

There is still time to register.

​Find out more and reserve your place today.​

💛 Before I Go...

If you are looking at something in your week and wondering whether AI could take it off your hands, I would gently suggest starting somewhere else.

Not with what could be automated. With where your judgement is actually required.

Work that out first and the rest sorts itself. Skip it and you will automate the wrong half and wonder why the result feels hollow.

It sometimes takes a while to work out what the process is. That isn't wasted time. That's the work.

Until next week,

✍️ Shelley Fishel

The MS Office Maestro
​Helping busy professionals work smarter with Microsoft 365 and Copilot ☕