Slack is one of the best collaboration and instant messaging apps, but many people and teams don’t use it to its full capabilities. It’s also easy to get distracted if you don’t customize your app. In this guide, you’ll discover some tips and tricks for getting the most out of Slack (with real-life examples).
- 1. Getting Slack Reminders
- 2. Reducing Noise
- 3. Text Formatting for Messages
- 4. Quickly Search and Send a GIF Image
- 5. Keep Track of All Important Messages
- 6. Quick Conversation Catch-Ups
- 7. Integrate Google Drive and Zapier
- 8. Only Using Slack on Desktop
- 9. Leaving Channels That Aren't Relevant to You
- 10. Deleting Unimportant Chats
1. Getting Slack Reminders
You can use this feature to set up reminders for yourself and other channel members. For example, I use Slack reminders to ensure that I don’t miss important deadlines. You can also set it up in specific channels if you want everyone to remember meetings, to-do items, etc.
To set a reminder for a specific person, type:
/remind {@person's_name} {to-do item} {time}For example: /remind @Danny Drink Water 2 PM
To set a channel reminder, type:
/remind [#channel] [task name] [time]
For example: /remind #general [meeting] [today at 14:00]
If you want to set a reminder for yourself, start by opening Slack and typing /remind in the text box and hitting the Enter key. Then, select Set yourself a reminder.
When the pop-up window appears, add a description and adjust the time accordingly. You can add bullet points if you need to break down your action points. Select Save when you’ve finished.
You can edit and delete saved reminders in the Later tab.
2. Reducing Noise
Slack notifications can quickly become out of hand if you don’t set up parameters. On a personal level, I like to write without distractions; besides closing the app, I will sometimes mute or turn off notifications. Do Not Disturb (DND) is another alternative.
To mute notifications when you are mentioned and also make sure unread messages are not bold, type /mute in the message box. This is especially useful for channels where you have a lot of updates from bots.
If you just want to have some “me” time and not have anyone to disturb you, you can enable DND mode by clicking the bell icon from the sidebar and selecting the time or typing the /dnd command.
When the DND pop-up window appears, choose how long you want this period to last. People can still send you messages, but you won’t see the notifications until later. After customizing the time, click on Pause notifications.
Another alternative is to turn off your notifications altogether. Do this by first going to Preferences.
On the Notifications tab, go to Notify me about… and tick the circle next to Nothing.
3. Text Formatting for Messages
Just like many messaging apps, Slack allows the formatting of messages. This comes in handy when you need to point something out or perhaps bring others’ attention to your message. Some basic formatting can be done with the use of asterisks (*), underscores (_), and tilde (~) symbols.
- Asterisks (*) are used to make words bold by placing them at both ends of the intended word. I often use this command when I want to emphasize specific words and passages.
- Underscores (_) around any word makes it appear in italics. In the past, I have also used this to draw the recipient’s attention to specific parts of my text.
- Tilde symbols (~) around a word makes a strike-through appear.
You can also use other Slack commands to turn your day around if you wish to be even more productive. There are also lots of Slack keyboard shortcuts to make finding people, accessing previous searches, and many other actions more efficient.
4. Quickly Search and Send a GIF Image
This might be one of the coolest features of Slack. I often spend time on Giphy trying to find the right GIFs or animated images to include in conversations. You can read how to use Giphy in Slack, which covers everything from integrating the app to searching for and sending GIFs.
5. Keep Track of All Important Messages
I try to organize my Slack messages as much as possible, because scrolling through everything to find one message is not a good use of my time. I recommend two options in Slack for tracking important messages:
- The Pinning feature
- Saving messages for later
To pin a message in Slack, select the icon with three vertical dots and tap Pin to this conversation.
After pinning a message, you can find it at the top of your page.
To save a message for later, hover over it and the Save for Later bookmark icon. You can then access your content in the Later tab.
6. Quick Conversation Catch-Ups
I spent a lot of my early days on Slack trawling through every channel to catch up, but this wasted a lot of time. I found that a better way to read my new messages was showing unread messages and quickly accessing these. If I need to recap something, I can then go to the specific channel.
To make this feature visible, start by selecting Preferences -> Home. Under Always show in the sidebar, tick Unread messages.
7. Integrate Google Drive and Zapier
I use Google Drive to store almost all of my writing, and integrating the tool with Slack makes it easy to share documents with others. Zapier is also an excellent app for creating automations in Slack.
To integrate Google Drive, start by going to More -> Automations.
Search for Google Drive and select Add.
When you’re redirected to the Slack App Directory, select Add to Slack.
Google Drive will then ask for permission to integrate with Slack. Scroll to the bottom of the next window and select Allow.
Sign into your Google account and grant permission to integrate with Slack.
Select Save integration on the next page.
In the Activity section, you should see a notification that Google Drive has successfully integrated. If you don’t see this, close and reopen the app.
To integrate Zapier, follow the same instructions but search for Zapier and connect said accout instead. You should receive a notification when everything is working as it should.
8. Only Using Slack on Desktop
For a couple of years, I’ve been very comfortable with sticking to my schedules. The biggest change has been only using instant work-related messaging apps, including Slack, on my computer.
If you have the Slack app on your smartphone or tablet, I strongly suggest deleting it. Doing so will ensure that you don’t get distracted outside the office, and to ensure that you get deep work done, I’d close the app on your computer. until you’ve finished.
You can read how to delete and uninstall Android apps to remove Slack from your Android device. If you have an iPhone, hold your app icon and delete Slack when the option appears.
9. Leaving Channels That Aren’t Relevant to You
Another way that I use Slack more productively is by only staying in channels that are relevant to me. To leave a channel, start by selecting one and pressing control + trackpad (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows). Select Leave channel when the dropdown menu appears.
10. Deleting Unimportant Chats
Besides leaving unimportant channels, I also try only to keep the most essential chats open. Otherwise, I start to feel overwhelmed. If you’re the same, you can always start a new chat with people later via the search bar.
Deleting chats is identical to leaving channels. Go to the chat you want, hold control + trackpad (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows), and select Close conversation.
A whole lot more can be done to optimize your Slack usage and make you even more productive, from customizing notifications to leaving channels. Integrating apps like Google Drive and Zapier will also enhance your productivity. If you want more control over Slack workspaces, you can always create and manage a Slack workspace.
Image and screenshots by Danny Maiorca.
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