Extract every action item you were asked to take this week

Step 1: Scope the date rangeOutlook

Decide the week you're covering — Monday through today, or the last seven days — so the extraction doesn't pull in stale requests from weeks ago.

Step 2: Run the extraction promptCopilot

Open Copilot Chat in Outlook and run the prompt against the date range you just confirmed — be explicit about the range in the prompt itself ("this week" can mean different things depending on when you run it) so the results don't quietly drift into last week's mail.

Prompt idea:

Go through my email from this week and list every request someone made of me directly. Include the sender, exactly what they asked for, and any deadline mentioned. Skip anything that's just FYI.

Step 3: Check for requests buried in thread repliesOutlook

Scan a few long threads yourself — a request made three replies deep in a thread is the most likely thing for the extraction to miss.

Step 4: Cross off what's already done and prioritize the restOutlook

Remove anything you've already completed, then sort the remainder by deadline so the most time-sensitive requests are handled first.

Check the work

• Confirm each listed action item traces back to an explicit request, not an implied one.
• Check a sample of long email threads manually for requests the pass might have missed.
• Verify deadlines match what the sender actually wrote, not an assumed standard turnaround.

Source: Gethyn Ellis, "Copilot in Outlook: Inbox Management and Email Triage" (2026)