Virtual commute

Review tomorrow's upcoming meetings, tasks, and commitments, and end today mindfully with a virtual commute.

To start a virtual commute, find the virtual commute card in the Take action to improve your wellbeing section. Select Start virtual commute.

Virtual commute sections

After you select Begin your commute, your virtual commute starts.

The commute guides you through the following sections. All sections are optional; to skip a section, just select Next.

Meetings

In Meetings, review tomorrow’s events—those that last all day, those that you’ve accepted, and those that still need your RSVP.

Screenshot of the "Meetings" tab within the virtual commute experience. The section header prompts you to review your meetings for the next day. The section subtitle reads, "Review and address meetings that need responses or have conflicts." Beneath the subtitle, there's a section titled, "Events." There are four events listed in vertically arranged rectangles. Each rectangle lists the event time, duration, title, and location. There's a button on the right-hand side of each rectangle. One says, "Needs RSVP." Two say, "Accepted." One says, "Delete." There are two buttons in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen: "Done" and "Next."

If an event needs your RSVP, Accept or Decline it from this screen.

Note

If you don’t have any events coming up tomorrow, you’ll see open blocks on your calendar that you can use for focus time, instead. Select Book time to add that focus time to your calendar.

When you’re ready to move to the next section, select Next at the bottom-right of the page.

Tasks

Use the Tasks section to review your open tasks. These tasks originate from Microsoft To Do, and they’re are either due today or have a reminder set for today.

Screenshot of the "Tasks" tab within the virtual commute experience. The screen shows an expandable rectangle titled, "You have 5 suggested tasks." Beneath suggested tasks, there's a section titled, "Your tasks," which contains four rectangles. The first says, "Add a task" with a plus icon to its left. The rest of the rectangles are tasks on the user's To Do list. Each contains a circle, which users can select to check off a task, along with the task title and an ellipses to access more options. There are two buttons in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen: "Done" and "Next."

In addition to viewing your existing tasks, you can do a few other things in this section:

• Add a new task. Below Your tasks, select Add a task.

• Add a suggested task surfaced from Outlook or Teams. If To Do notices a potential task in your chats or emails, a notification appears above Your tasks. Select the down arrow to expand the message. If you want to put this task on your To Do list, select the Add to your tasks button.

  

  Screenshot of the suggested task rectangle, which has been expanded. The expanded content shows an email title, a task that the user committed to do over email, the coworker to whom the user committed to help, and where the user made this commitment, which was Microsoft Outlook. There's an ellipses to the right of the task, which the user can select for more options. In the bottom right of the image, there's a button that says, "Add to your tasks."

• Cross a completed task off your list. Select the circle to the left of the task name, which sends the task to your Tasks completed today list. If you want to delete the task from To Do, select the trash can icon to the right of the task name.

• Set a reminder. Select the ellipses (…) to the right of the task name, then pick a time you want to be reminded. Reminders appear in your Microsoft To Do list and in your Briefing email, if you’re subscribed to receive Briefing emails. You can also Edit and Delete tasks from this menu.

  

  Screenshot of the "Tasks" tab that shows three tasks. The options menu, which is titled, "Remind me," is expanded. There are two reminder options, one for "Tomorrow" and one for "Next week"; each shows a day of the week and a time. Below the reminder options, the menu gives options to edit the task or delete the task.

After you’re done reviewing and managing your tasks, select Next to move to the last section.

Wind down

Wind down provides some activities to help you close out your workday mindfully and disconnect from work:

• A breather break
• A few guided meditation videos
• The opportunity to reflect, just like you would using the Reflect feature on the Home page

Screenshot of the "Wind down" tab of the virtual commute experience. The tab's subtitle says, "Choose an optional closing activity to help you disconnect from work for the day." Below the subtitle, there are four mindfulness activities arranged on individual cards; two are created by Viva Insights and two are created by Headspace. Each activity card has a "Start" button. There's a "Done" button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Start one or more of these activities to help transition to the next part of your day.

When you’re ready to complete your virtual commute, select the Done button.

Set a reminder to complete your virtual commutes

Want to get reminders to wrap up your day and start your virtual commute?

1. Go to your settings page: select the ellipses (...) at the top right corner of your Viva Insights app, and then select Settings.

2. Select the Virtual commute tab from the left pane.

3. Turn on the Reminder toggle.

4. Configure which days and what times you want to get a virtual commute reminder.

5. Select Enroll now.

Screenshot of the Viva Insights Settings page that shows Virtual commute settings. There are four settings options: "Reminder," which has a toggle switch you can turn on and off; "Days of the week," which provides checkboxes for each of the seven days of the week; "Notification time," which prompts you to select a time from a dropdown menu beneath text that says, "Start my virtual commute around"; and "Time zone," which shows a time zone with a link that says, "Change." There's a "Save changes" button in the bottom left of this section. Beneath the section, there's a link to the Privacy guide.

Near the time you picked, a Teams desktop notification will remind to start your virtual commute. When you select the notification, Viva Insights will guide you through the commute, like we described earlier.

Note

• You can schedule virtual commute reminders for any day of the week, including days not configured as workdays in your Outlook settings.
• The time you select will apply to every day on which you'll see reminders. You can't set different times for different days of the week.
• The reminder might not arrive at exactly the scheduled time, but most reminders appear within five minutes before their scheduled time. For example, if your reminder is scheduled for 5:00, the reminder could appear between 4:55 and 5:00.

You can change your virtual commute settings, or turn off your reminders, at any time.

Related topics

• Viva Insights introduction
• Productivity