The main problem for me with Slack, is that I much more regularly need to communicate with an individual than do I need to check a whole channel, and yet if I open it for the former I get the latter.
It has just occurred to me to just mute all the channels, which I’ve now done. We have one ‘time-sensitive’ channel I haven’t muted, and I’ll still see if I get directly @-mentioned, but otherwise I’ll find out if discussion has happened when I choose to check and not randomly when I need to share a file with a colleague.
I’m pretty relived, this might now make Slack not painful to use.
Update after 2 weeks: this has worked out as intended. I now am happy to open Slack to ping individuals, I don’t expect to get hijacked by recent channel convo. At the same time, it’s no problem to click through all the channels once per day to see what’s been going on. We have one time-sensitive channel that I haven’t muted, and that’s not been abused.
Update after 2 months: this continues to be what makes Slack good for me, and to stop hurting me. I have 100% of channels muted except for DM’s and a channel called “team-time-sensitive” that we use for immediate things (like if someone is late for a meeting or there’s an urgent problem on the site). I regularly scroll through all the channels with option-down, but only when I actually have the time to deal with things. Otherwise, I just open Slack to talk with who I need to talk with at that time.
Update after 7 months: This is just how I use my Work Slack now. Life improved.
Btw, I don’t do this on my House Slack, and I wouldn’t be overly surprised if I had stopped doing this 2 years from now, as my relationship to my devices continues to change.
But it’s definitely been a major improvement for me for 7 months and counting.
The main problem for me with Slack, is that I much more regularly need to communicate with an individual than do I need to check a whole channel, and yet if I open it for the former I get the latter.
It has just occurred to me to just mute all the channels, which I’ve now done. We have one ‘time-sensitive’ channel I haven’t muted, and I’ll still see if I get directly @-mentioned, but otherwise I’ll find out if discussion has happened when I choose to check and not randomly when I need to share a file with a colleague.
I’m pretty relived, this might now make Slack not painful to use.
Update after 2 weeks: this has worked out as intended. I now am happy to open Slack to ping individuals, I don’t expect to get hijacked by recent channel convo. At the same time, it’s no problem to click through all the channels once per day to see what’s been going on. We have one time-sensitive channel that I haven’t muted, and that’s not been abused.
Am way happier with Slack than I’ve ever been.
Yay, happy to hear it was helpful!
Update after 2 months: this continues to be what makes Slack good for me, and to stop hurting me. I have 100% of channels muted except for DM’s and a channel called “team-time-sensitive” that we use for immediate things (like if someone is late for a meeting or there’s an urgent problem on the site). I regularly scroll through all the channels with option-down, but only when I actually have the time to deal with things. Otherwise, I just open Slack to talk with who I need to talk with at that time.
Update after 7 months: This is just how I use my Work Slack now. Life improved.
Btw, I don’t do this on my House Slack, and I wouldn’t be overly surprised if I had stopped doing this 2 years from now, as my relationship to my devices continues to change.
But it’s definitely been a major improvement for me for 7 months and counting.