We’ve all been there—coming back from a well-deserved holiday only to be greeted by a mountain of emails, messages, and chats demanding your attention. Sometimes it feels like you need another holiday just to get over the holiday!

According to Gartner, the average corporate professional receives about 100 emails a day and 30 messages via apps like Teams. That means your ten-day family break in Mexico just set you back by around 800 emails and 600 messages. Yikes!

What if we told you that you could clear it all by day one back in the office? Not only that—you’d have a comprehensive understanding of what you missed and could get up to speed almost instantly. Here’s the Digital Bricks approach to clearing post-vacation digital overload:

1. Take a Training Session

Before you dive into your inbox, make sure you're equipped with the right tools. At Digital Bricks, we offer role-specific Copilot training to help you use AI to your advantage. You can find our Copilot training course on our website or, if your organization is part of our accelerator program, you can schedule a session with your dedicated educator for a personalized refresher on AI skills. Having this knowledge in your toolkit ensures you can dive straight into your inbox with confidence.

2. Get a Summary of Important Emails

Begin by prompting Copilot [specifically with graph grounded chat] to summarize unread emails and chats marked as important and identify any with looming deadlines. This gives you a clear picture of what requires your attention first, so you can prioritize your tasks right away.

3. Sort Emails by Sender

Now that you have a summary, sort your inbox by sender to quickly identify key stakeholders, your leadership team, and direct reports. This isn’t just about sorting through emails but determining who you might need to schedule a 1-on-1 with to catch up, especially if they haven’t shared much information in email or chat.

4. Group Emails by Subject

For the bulk of remaining emails, group them by subject. Using Copilot, you can easily summarize long email threads. This feature—available in Outlook—gives you a concise, chronological view of who said what and highlights any actions required from you. Now, instead of reading every detail, you can focus on what matters most.

5. Create Insights for Related Email Chains

For topics with multiple emails—like a major project with a key client—ask Copilot to create a table summarizing each thread. This will show you key decisions, actions taken, and areas where your input is still needed. You can even save this handy prompt for future use:

6. Summarize Teams Chats

Overwhelmed by long Teams chats? Let Copilot handle it! Ask Copilot to summarize chats where you were mentioned, so you can quickly respond and add any necessary actions to your plan. For all other chats, Copilot helps you catch up by providing a helpful summary.

7. Catch Up on Missed Meetings

The thought of watching long meeting recordings can feel daunting, but luckily you won’t have to. Copilot’s meeting summaries and speaker-based navigation let you quickly catch up on key topics. For critical meetings, you can even ask follow-up questions or dig into specific details provided by particular speakers. [see how here]

8. Feel Refreshed, Not Overwhelmed

What once seemed like two days’ worth of work can be tackled in less than a day with the help of Copilot. With this approach, you’ll be fully refreshed after your vacation without that nagging feeling of needing another one to recover from your digital overload!

At Digital Bricks, we are here to support your journey with Microsoft Copilot. If you’re curious about how it can change the way you work, visit www.digitalbricks.ai to learn more and explore how our Copilot training can help you master the art of productivity.

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