Knowledge Base - University of Leeds IT

What is it?

Viva Insights (formerly MyAnalytics) is a productivity tool in Office 365 and Teams – a ‘fitness tracker for work’. It is completely private to you and is GDPR-compliant.

Viva Insights shows you patterns in your working day and week (from your Office 365 data), such as how much time you spend in meetings. It suggests ways to work smarter and how you might improve your work–life balance.

Who can use it?

Viva Insights is available to all University staff.

Do I have to use it?

No, you choose if you use Viva Insights or not.

This article tells you How to opt out.

Why use Viva Insights?

Viva Insights can help you to:

identify your most productive meetings and emails
make time for focused work and planning
separate work time and personal time

Viva Insights can help you improve your time management and build helpful habits. It uses your existing Microsoft Office 365 data to show you how you spend your time and suggest ways you could work smarter.

How exactly does it work?

Viva Insights uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise existing Microsoft 365 data about your emails, meetings, calls and chats, and presents this back to you.

Read more about data collection and storage in Data privacy.

The parts of Viva Insights

You can use some or all the parts of Viva Insights, according to your needs. Explore the different parts with the Microsoft guides (linked below).

MyAnalytics dashboard – statistics on how you've spent your time over the past month, including how many days you were able to disconnect from work, and how effectively you’re networking with your co-workers.
Viva Insights Outlook add-in – reminders and suggestions to help you plan your time in work and away from work, and improve your overall work–life balance. (Currently only available in Outlook 365)
Digests – a weekly digest in your Outlook inbox to help you better understand your work patterns and ways to improve them.
Inline suggestions in Outlook – brief notifications that appear while you’re reading or composing an email or meeting invite.
Viva Insights in Teams – a range of activities, from reminders of meetings and actions to sending praise to colleagues, planning your virtual commute and experiencing a guided meditation.

Please note: The MyAnalytics dashboard, in its current form, will no longer be accessible after mid-December 2022, and users will be redirected to the Viva Insights web app to discover key work-pattern insights. Since Viva Insights Teams and web apps are becoming the central place for personal insights, Microsoft are streamlining the user experience.

Popular things you can do

In the Teams app you can:

Set your virtual commute to help you disconnect from work at the end of the day. It includes things like:
- review your ‘to do’ list, tick off tasks and set follow-up items
- preview and adjust the next day’s schedule
- reflect on how your day has been (and track how you’re feeling over time)
- close with a Headspace guided mindfulness meditation
Send praise to recognise colleagues’ contributions – in a private chat or a Teams channel. You can also set yourself praise reminders to build the habit.

How do I access Viva Insights?

You can access Viva Insights via the app available at https://office365.leeds.ac.uk/. If you cannot see the Viva Insights app, click on the 'All apps' icon All apps icon - four small squares stacked to form a larger square, with the top right one at an angle (usually near the bottom left of your screen), then choose Viva Insights from the list of apps.

You can also access Viva Insights through Teams. First look for Viva Insights in the app navigation bar (usually on the left on a PC or laptop and at the bottom on a mobile device). If you don't find it there, click on the three dots, type 'Insights' into the search box and click on Viva Insights to open it.

Screen shot of the apps toolbar with the three dots clicked to show the search box

How To Videos for VIVA Insights
Short clips on how to add and navigate through Viva
Viva HTVs (How To Videos)

Data privacy

The data in Viva Insights is only accessible by you. The tool is entirely private and is not designed to enable evaluation, tracking, automated decision-making, profiling, or monitoring.