An Outlook dashboard: your inbox, calendar and to-dos on one page
Most mornings you don't need all of Outlook. You need to know three things: what's unread, what's next on the calendar, and what you promised to do today. Here's how to get that at a glance, first with what Outlook already has, then with a one-page dashboard.
What Outlook already gives you: My Day
In Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows, the My Day button (top right, a calendar-and-check icon) opens a side pane with today's calendar and your Microsoft To Do tasks.
- Open Outlook on the web or the new Outlook.
- Click My Day at the top right.
- Switch between Calendar and To Do at the top of the pane. You can drag an email into To Do to make it a task.
It's handy, but it lives inside Outlook. You have to open Outlook to see it, it shows one thing at a time, and it can't add the other things you check every morning, like the weather, a family Google calendar or the news.
A one-page Outlook dashboard
OnePane is a start page made for this. It opens in your browser (or every new tab) and shows:
- Outlook Mail: your unread count and latest messages. Click one to open it in Outlook.
- Outlook Calendar: today's and upcoming meetings, with the one happening now highlighted.
- To-do: a quick task list with due dates (overdue ones turn red).
- Plus anything else you like: weather for your places, world clocks for colleagues abroad, Google and Apple calendars, news, notes and bookmarks.
Set it up in about two minutes:
- Create a OnePane account. Your first 7 days include Pro (which has the Outlook widgets), no card needed.
- Click ＋ Add widget → Outlook Mail → Connect Microsoft account, and approve read-only access.
- Add Outlook Calendar the same way. One connection covers both.
- Add To-do, Weather and anything else, then drag the widgets into the order you want.
- Make it your browser home page.
My Day or a dashboard?
- My Day is free and built in, and it's great once you're already working in Outlook.
- A dashboard answers "what does my day look like?" before you open anything, puts mail and calendar side by side, and adds your non-work calendars and the weather.
Plenty of people use both: OnePane for the morning glance, Outlook for the actual work.
Questions
Does Outlook have a dashboard?
Not a full one. Outlook on the web and the new Outlook have My Day, a side pane with today's calendar and Microsoft To Do tasks. For your inbox, calendar, to-dos and other information on one page, use a start page like OnePane.
Can I see my Outlook inbox without opening Outlook?
Yes. OnePane's Outlook Mail widget shows your unread count and latest messages on your browser home page. It's read-only; clicking a message opens it in Outlook.
Does it work with Outlook.com and Hotmail?
Yes. The Outlook widgets work with Microsoft 365 work and school accounts, Outlook.com and Hotmail.