Users of Outlook may soon find it much less of a hassle to organise their meeting schedules and allocate their work time in light of a recent upgrade.

There is in development on a new feature for the email client that will enable users to schedule their own blocks of time throughout the day.

This “bookable time” will be set aside so that others may schedule an appointment during that time, giving managers, employers, and company owners a dedicated window for meetings apart from their regular duties.

Planned gatherings in Outlook

According to Microsoft’s official 365 roadmap, the new bookable time feature will work in tandem with the current “Bookings with me” function, which helps Outlook users locate mutual availability in their calendars so that they may organise a meeting.

Even though Bookable Time is still “under development,” it is expected to be available to the public in January of 2023. It will first roll out to Outlook online users worldwide and then expand to other platforms.

This is the most recent in a series of updates that Microsoft has made to Outlook in an effort to make the programme more user-friendly.

It has now announced the launch of “Focus Time,” which will enable users to temporarily disable all alerts in order to concentrate on important activities.

If you block off time in your calendar, Outlook and Microsoft Teams won’t bother you about anything during that period, eliminating two of the most distracting factors for many employees.

Anyone with access to their Outlook calendar, including coworkers and clients, will be able to see when they have blocked off time for “focus events,” at which point they will know to leave you alone.