Some of the most common distractions while working, especially in professional & office environments, are meetings, emails, and unintended notifications. All these can distract you from your work and impact the Work-Life balance. To make sure it doesn’t happen, you can set up Focus Time in Outlook. Focus Time lets you set apart a specific amount of time so that you can work without interruptions and distractions.
In this tutorial, I will show you two methods to set up and schedule Focus Time in Outlook. Let’s get started.
Manually Set Up Focus Time in Outlook
To manually create Focus Time, we need to create a new appointment and tag it as Focus Time. This method works in Outlook 2019, 2021, and Microsoft 365. Here are the steps.
1. Open the Start menu, search for Outlook, and click Open.
2. Once Outlook opens, click on the Calendar option on the sidebar.
Note: On Outlook 2019 & 2021 you will see the Calendar option at the bottom of the sidebar.
3. Click on the New Appointment option under the Home tab.
4. In the new appointment window, configure the following options:
- Title: Set a title of your choice. Add “Focus:” at the start of the title. This makes these blocks easily identifiable not just for you but to other users also.
- Start time: Set up the date and time when you want to start the Focus mode.
- End time: Set up the date and time when you want to end the Focus mode.
Schedule Focus Time by Making it Recurring (Optional)
5. To schedule Focus Time, you can make the task recurring. To do that, click the Make Recurring option.
6. In the Appointment Recurrence window, configure the following options:
- Appointment time: Set the start and end times.
- Recurrence pattern: Set up how often the Focus Time should recur. For example, I want to schedule Focus Time on all weekdays. So, I selected Weekly and then selected the weekdays. If you want to enable Focus Time daily, select Daily.
- Range of recurrence: This option lets you select how long the appointment recurs. You can choose a specific date (End by), number of occurrences (End after), and no end date.
7. Click the OK button.
8. In the main window, hit the Save & Close button.
With that, you’ve manually configured Focus Time in Outlook. From now on, that specific time block is reserved and anyone who tries to set up a meeting at that time will see you as busy or in focus mode, depending on their permissions.
Limitations of Creating Focus Time Manually
When creating the Focus Time manually, there are a few limitations you should know:
- Manually created Focus Time does not automatically adjust your status in other apps such as Microsoft Teams.
- Depending on user permissions, other team members may not be able to see that you are in focus mode. As such, it requires manual communications.
- It will not block notifications or email alerts. If you don’t want to be disturbed, you have to manually turn on the Do Not Disturb mode.
Use Microsoft Viva Insights to Automatically Schedule Focus Time in Outlook
Rather than setting up Focus Time manually, you can use Microsoft Viva Insights to set up Focus Time automatically. The advantage of this method is that Viva Insights will look at your calendar and carve out a chuck of time block to add Focus Time.
Before You Start
Microsoft Viva Insights is part of Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business plans and access to it depends on your organization’s subscription level.
Configure Outlook Focus Time using Viva Insights
1. Open the Start menu, search for Outlook, and click Open.
2. Under the Home tab, click on the Viva Insights option.
3. On the right sidebar, click on Want focus time every day? option.
4. Click the Book Now button.
5. Viva Insights will scan your calendar and choose the best time for your Focus Time. If the recommended times don’t fit your needs, edit the date and time settings and click Done or OK.
That’s it. You’ve configured Focus Time in Outlook. Depending on how Viva Insights is configured in your organization, the Do Not Disturb mode will be activated so that you are not disturbed when in Focus Time. If anyone tries to set up a meeting at that time, they will see you as busy or in focus mode, depending on their permissions.
Key Differences Between Manual and Viva Insights Setup
Compared to using Viva Insights, the manual setup is limited.
One of the major differences when setting up the Focus Time using Viva Insights is that your status is automatically updated in other apps like Microsoft Teams. Additionally, other members of your organization can see that you are focusing on your work.
Also, depending on how Viva Insights is configured, the Do Not Disturb mode is automatically activated so that you are not distracted by new emails, notifications, and meeting alerts.
What Happens After Setting Up Focus Time?
Once you set up Focus Time in Outlook, that time block is reserved. Anyone who tries to set up a meeting at that time will see you as busy or in focus mode, depending on their permissions.
If you are using Viva Insights to configure Focus Time, depending on your organization settings, the Do Not Disturb mode is automatically activated to reduce distractions during the focus time. If you are following the manual approach, you have to turn on the Do Not Disturb mode manually.
Wrapping Up – Scheduling Focus Time in Outlook
As you can see, setting up and scheduling Focus Time in Outlook is a pretty simple task. Whether you follow the manual approach or use Viva Insights, once configured, focus time surely improves your productivity by reducing distractions.
If you have any questions, post them in the comments box below and I will answer them.