6 essential Microsoft 365 habits I adopted for flawless collaboration

Picture this: an email chain with 50 replies, five different file versions floating around, and confusion as to whose turn it is to edit a file. This used to be my everyday Microsoft 365 environment, until I adopted these six habits that transformed chaos into flawless collaboration.

Using Teams group chats and communities instead of mass emails

Whether I’m organizing a family vacation or managing a volunteer group, a long chain of emails is one of the biggest collaboration killers. So, when I moved communication to a structured space in Microsoft Teams, things instantly became more centralized, organized, and less stressful.

Context is key: emails disrupt the continuity of files and tasks. By using Teams communities and chats, I ensure that discussions always remain side-by-side with the relevant files, keeping everything in one place.

As a Microsoft 365 Personal subscriber, I use a group chat for small, quick discussions (as in the screenshot below), or a community—which supports its own channels—for a larger, ongoing topic. This keeps all files and conversations centralized.

If you’re using Teams as part of a business subscription, you can create a dedicated team for the project and manage discussions within specialized channels.

Not sending Outlook emails with editable attachments

Sending editable attachments is a surefire way to sabotage collaboration. Indeed, I used to be guilty of sending “Final_Draft_V3” and immediately receiving multiple “V4” versions back. Instead, I adopted one simple habit: I always send cloud links instead of attaching files. This instantly guarantees that everyone is editing the same single document, meaning I achieve flawless version control.

To do this, I follow a quick process. First, I make sure the file is saved to the cloud. Then, I access the file and click “Share”—whether that’s within the desktop app itself or via the OneDrive web or mobile app—and select “Copy Link.”

Next, I set the permissions in the Link Settings area of the window that appears.

Finally, after clicking “Apply” and copying the link, I paste it into an email or a Teams chat, replacing the traditional attachment.

Co-authoring Excel and Word files in real time

Sequential edits—where one person edits, saves, and emails the Excel or Word file to the next person—felt like a slow, frustrating game of pass-the-parcel. I find it far more efficient to treat spreadsheet and document creation like a shared whiteboard session, where everyone contributes simultaneously.

Co-authoring has many benefits. For example, nobody is wasting time waiting for an updated version of a file to be sent to them, meaning the final draft is reached much more quickly. Also, it avoids the confusion and frustration of merging multiple copies of the same file.

To initiate co-authoring, share the file via a cloud link with “Can Edit” permissions (as described in the section above). As soon as someone starts working on the same file as you, you’ll see their initials wherever their cursor is placed.

As soon as co-authoring became part and parcel of my daily routine, I ran into a new problem: people didn’t know when or where their input was needed inside the live file. I fixed this by using the @mention feature in comments.

Instead of sending an email with a vague request like “Please check the budget,” I tag the person directly in the relevant Excel cell or Word paragraph. To do this, after clicking “New Comment” in the Review tab, I simply type the @ symbol, followed by the first few letters of their name or email address, into the text field. When the contact card appears, I click it to complete the tag. Then, I type the comment, and click “Send.”

At this point, the tagged person gets an email with a direct link to the file.

Formatting Excel spreadsheets and Word documents so they’re easy to understand

A poorly formatted file with inconsistent fonts, hidden data, and unclear headers slows my collaborators’ workflow because they need to spend time getting their head around the structure. So, the habit I adopted is to format for universal appeal.

In Word:

And in Excel:

Setting time-out periods in Teams and Outlook

Flawless collaboration requires firm boundaries. While the habits above created a culture of instant, responsive collaboration, I quickly realized that being in “always-on” mode came with a hidden cost—my own focus—with constant pings seriously hampering my ability to do deep, independent work. So, my final but just as important habit is scheduling time away from the noise.

This isn’t about ignoring my team—it’s about respecting my own time to think. By scheduling periods of focus, I ensure that when I return to the collaborative workspace, I have clear thoughts, completed tasks, and meaningful contributions to offer.

In Teams, I click my profile picture and change my status to “Do Not Disturb.” This silences most notifications, allowing me to crack on without being disturbed.

In Outlook, I create a recurring calendar event titled “Me Time.” I also silence notifications by clicking the “Settings” gear in the top-right corner, toggling “Notifications In Outlook” in the Notification area of the General tab to “Off,” and clicking “Save.”

If you’re using Outlook linked to a business account, head to the calendar, click “New Event,” and select “Focus Time.”

Although collaboration is good, sometimes, you might want to completely fix a file’s content and layout before sharing it with a wider audience. Although you can lock editing, another option is to share your Microsoft Word document as a PDF, thus ensuring its consistency and integrity.

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Microsoft 365 includes access to Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on up to five devices, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and more.