Slack has been around for over a decade and is the primary way many professionals communicate with team members at work; however, it’s still easy to let it fade into the background without ever truly exploring its capabilities. Slack goes far beyond simple messaging, allowing you to conduct meetings, run simple commands, take quick notes, and more, all right from the app. Here, we’ve compiled eight simple productivity tips to help you and your coworkers get more out of the messaging platform.
1. Set Your Status
Just because you’re working doesn’t mean you’re always available to answer messages. You might be at lunch, in a long meeting, or working offsite for the day. Accordingly, updating your status (and incorporating a relevant emoji that conveys what you’re doing at a glance) keeps your coworkers in the loop. Simply click on your profile picture toward the bottom left of the app and fill out the Update Your Status field.
(Credit: Slack/PCMag)
Importantly, you shouldn’t overuse this feature. For example, if you work from home most days, setting your status to ‘working remotely’ doesn’t communicate much useful information.
2. Manage Channel Notifications
Not every channel that you join is necessarily as important as others, so you might not want any notifications from some of them. Likewise, some channels might have important updates only occasionally. Accordingly, you can customize your experience by right-clicking on a channel and selecting edit notifications.
We recommend limiting most channels to just mentions, which means you will only receive a notification if someone tags you. Alternatively, you can limit a channel to channel mentions and here mentions, which also notify you when someone tags the whole channel or those in the channel who are currently online, respectively. These tweaks significantly reduce notifications and keep your team focused on more important work tasks.
You might not be able to control the number of channels you’re part of, but you can certainly organize them. By clicking the three dots next to your channel list, you can create sections. Sections can be groups of channels or direct messages that you can name. For example, you can set up a section for all channels directly relevant to your team.
(Credit: Slack/PCMag)
Stars are a similar tool. Right-click a channel and select Star Channel to add a star to it. These channels appear at the top of your list under the Starred heading, making them easy to access. We generally recommend starring your most important channels.
4. Don’t Use @Everyone and @Channel
This tip is more about Slack etiquette than any feature or setting, but it’s still important: Don’t use @everyone and @channel in your messages. If you have to ask yourself if you need to notify everyone about something, chances are you probably don’t. These commands are the equivalent of sending a company-wide email, which is usually what places of business try to avoid by relying on a platform like Slack in the first place.
In place of @Everyone or @Channel, consider using @Here for moments when you need a larger reach. The @Here option notifies everyone in a particular channel who’s currently online. However, you should still use @Here sparingly, especially if the channel in question has many members online.
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5. Use Huddles for Simple Meetings
If you work remotely, you almost certainly already have access to a dedicated video conferencing platform, such as Google Meet or Zoom. However, these apps are generally necessary only for meetings with multiple participants or when you need to use advanced features, such as recording or transcription. If you just need to catch up with your manager for a few minutes, you can do that in Slack.
(Credit: Slack/PCMag)
In a direct message (DM) conversation, click the headphones icon at the top-right of the screen to start a Huddle, which is what Slack calls its meetings. Alternatively, you can start a Huddle by hovering over a person’s name wherever you encounter it and clicking the Huddle button. Huddles are surprisingly feature-rich, allowing you to share audio, video, and your screen. The Huddle interface is easy to navigate and should be familiar if you have used other virtual meeting apps.
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6. Type / for Commands and Shortcuts
You could spend a lot of time memorizing commands and keyboard shortcuts in Slack, but a better use of your time is to simply remember that you can type a forward slash at the beginning of any message and see a list of options for commands. Choose the command you want from the list by simply typing the next letter of that command.
7. Reply in Threads
Hover over a message and click the message icon to reply within a thread. This converts a message into a comment chain that you must click into to view. For large channels with many members, this reduces sprawl since not all conversations are relevant to everyone.
For channels with just a few members, replying in a thread might not be necessary, but if you value keeping a channel’s feed nice and tidy, it’s absolutely worth it. And don’t worry: You still have full access to @mentions, emoji, file uploads, and more in threads.
8. Message Yourself
You already know that you can send DMs with Slack, but it’s also possible to message yourself in the same way. If you use Slack, you likely have it open all day, every day, in the background, making it an incredibly easy place to store quick notes. Rather than opening up a blank document or a different app, just message yourself.
Just like in messages to other people, you can record clips, send files, and more to yourself. For example, instead of using Google Docs and Meet to set up a meeting and take a few notes, you can do all that in less time right within Slack. Of course, Slack isn’t a full-fledged note-taking app, but that doesn’t mean it can’t serve as one in a pinch.
About Our Experts
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I’ve been contributing to PCMag since 2011 in a variety of ways. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you’re going to have a panic attack.
My latest book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work, which goes into great detail about a subject that I’ve been covering as a writer and participating in personally since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
I write about work culture, personal productivity, and software, including project management software, collaboration apps, productivity apps, and language-learning software.
Previously, I worked for the Association for Computing Machinery, The San Francisco Examiner newspaper, Game Developer magazine, and (I kid you not) The Journal of Chemical Physics. I was once profiled in an article in Vogue India alongside Marie Kondo. I’m currently pursuing a few unannounced long-form projects.
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Remote work, work life, work culture
Personal productivity and organization
Productivity software
Small business software
Language-learning apps and software
I put off buying new hardware until I’ve squeezed every last bit of usage out of the devices I already own. I use both macOS and Windows, iPhone and Android.
My life is organized by Todoist and my notes live in Joplin. Where would I be without Dashlane as my password manager? Probably locked out of all my many online accounts—I have more than 1,000 of them.
When I give out my contact information, it’s an excruciatingly long list of phone numbers, messaging apps, and email addresses because it’s important to stay flexible but also mysterious.
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Ruben Circelli
Writer, Software
Experience
I’ve been writing about consumer technology and video games for over a decade at a variety of publications, including Destructoid, GamesRadar+, Lifewire, PCGamesN, Trusted Reviews, and What Hi-Fi?, among many others. At PCMag, I review AI and productivity software—everything from chatbots to to-do list apps. In my free time, I’m likely cooking something, playing a game, or tinkering with my computer.
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