If you’re using the Slack mobile app, then you know how distracting it can be to have your phone constantly vibrating when you’re in a meeting or trying to focus. This is a great way to address any “gaps” left in the channel settings. Example recommended keywords would be your first name, last name, the name of the teams you are on, and perhaps any project code names. Keywords let you receive a notification when a specific word is posted to a channel. It’s best to do this from the Slack desktop app: Again - big bummer - each team member is going to have to do this on their own in channel settings. For example, the engineers would turn on notifications in #devops and #exceptions, and the marketing lead would flip the switch on #sales and #marketing. The result you’re aiming at is for each team member to be notified 1.) when they are mentioned by name or 2.) when something happens in a functional area of the team they are active in, which you’ve already conveniently mapped to channels. The next step is to selectively turn back on the default settings per channel, per team member. Rather than muting everything, this method ensures that team members can quickly grab the attention of one another if need be, and then we can add other important notifications from there. However, the setting is a good starting point for the whole team. Not good if you want to get dinged when a sale is made or a customer encounters a bug. The latter unfortunately swings the pendulum the other way - you are not notified unless your name is mentioned or a keyword or phrase is posted. Slack seems to recognize this too, and lets users switch their settings from “All new messages” to “Direct messages, mentions & keywords”. That is an absolute torrent of notifications, even if you only have 1 or 2 integrations configured. ![]() ![]() Not only that, but the notifications are also sent to every device where you and the team have the app installed (usually desktops and smartphones). Part 2 of 5: Notifications Fix the notifications delugeīy default, Slack notifications are sent to everyone on your team every single time something gets posted. The Compact theme not only removes some of the noise, it also makes it easier to scan and catch up on channels and DMs because you don’t need to scroll as much. The Clean theme includes users’ avatars and more whitespace. To change the theme, go to Preferences > Messages & Media and chose Compact under the Theme section. Sticking to our theme of reducing noise, switching your theme from Clean to Compact will reduce the amount of visual noise with each message. It’s best to leave a channel when you doubt that you’ll have any involvement in future discussions or regularly need info shared in the room. You will no longer see it in your sidebar but you can rejoin later if you want to. Leaving a channel completely removes you. You want to see the pictures of your co-workers’ dogs but you don’t want to be distracted while in the middle of some deep work. This is good for rooms like #general or #fun. Muting a channel will keep you in the channel but new messages won’t cause it to be bolded in your sidebar, reducing the interruptions. Just go to the channel preferences by clicking the gear icon and choose Mute or Leave.īut what’s the difference between Mute and Leave? This is a great approach for fans of “inbox zero.” If you need to message someone or view a channel that you haven’t starred, just click on “Channels” or “Direct messages” to find them.Ī simple technique for reducing the amount of noise in Slack is muting (or leaving) channels that have a low signal:noise ratio. When you get a DM or there is activity in a channel you’re a part of, the message or channel will appear in your sidebar. Once set, all channels with no activity will be removed from your sidebar. ![]() Go to Preferences > Sidebar > Unreads and starred conversations. To reduce clutter and cognitive load in Slack, one of the first things you should do is change your sidebar settings to only see starred channels and unread messages. Part 1 of 5: Limiting Noise Adjust sidebar settings My goal for this guide is to share those techniques and approaches for limiting noise in Slack and staying productive, while keeping them as actionable and succinct as possible. Through my own personal quest to optimize my use of Slack I discovered there are many settings and adjustments you can play with to fine tune Slack so that it’s still very useful, but not as disruptive.
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