I forget. (but so do you ??)

Can you relate to the following situation? If so, I have a solution for you! ??

Current situation ??

• I receive an enormous amount of Microsoft Teams chats and conversations - do you?
• I promise people all day to do something or take action soon - do you?
• It's all coming in quite unstructured (and continuously)

The problem ??

I forget. It's human - and it's ok. In meetings I tend to write (or type) everything down, just to keep me remembering the facts and declared actions. If I forget them, I quickly take a glance at my well-organized (One)notes and "voilà". This is a manual task which pays off eventually.

But if someone (colleague, customer, ...) asks me a question in a Teams-chat or channel conversation - again - I tend to forget sometimes. It could be helpful to open up my (One)notes, To-Do, Outlook or what ever application that could serve as an aid.

I'm stubborn ... so I don't.

While you might find yourself wondering?why is my memory so bad, forgetting is part of life and people forget surprisingly fast. Research has found that approximately 56% of information is forgotten within an hour, 66% after a day, and 75% after six days.

The (re)solution ??

Recently, something new appeared in Microsoft Teams: "Workflows". It might be a little bit hidden from plain sight, but it's there! With just limited effort, I solved my problem of forgetting promises in Teams-chats and conversation. This is what the final solution looks like for me:

1. Click the "..." of the message > "More actions" > "Follow up on message"
2. Add reminder information and context + "Submit".

And that's it! And do you know what's even better? It's not hard to set it up - even if you're not semi-technically like myself (and thus not fixing printers for the entire family because that is what they think I do all day - that and opening up computers, obviously).

The result

1. I receive a Teams-notification at the chosen date and time with limited/sufficient details.
2. I see the notifications in my Teams activities-overview
3. I click the notification which immediately takes me to the specific chat/conversation in Teams, providing me also the context of the action(s) to be taken.

The manual: step-by-step

1. Open up Microsoft Teams desktop/browser application.
2. Click the "Apps" tile, bottom-left on the 'rail'.
3. Click "Workflows" down below.
4. Click "Follow up on message" (or search for it if not immediately suggested by Teams).
5. Enter a name such as "Remind me" or "Don't forget you IT printer repairing man".
6. Click "Sign in".
7. Click "Add workflow". You will now receive a chat-based confirmation from "Power Automate".
8. In the tray (bottom-right next to your clock), right-click the Teams icon > "Quit".
9. Re-open Microsoft Teams.
10. Look for a message, hover it, press "..." > "More actions" > [name of your flow].

Advanced DIY-tip ??

You could try using Power Automate to create a custom reminder flow yourself. I have managed to create an Outlook calendar item (for example: the next day) instead of simply a reminder notification in Teams. Trust in the Power of Automate. And Teams.

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Sources:

The quote: Reasons Why People Forget (verywellmind.com)