Keep your todos out of Slack

I read through a P2 thread at work discussing Slack and productivity, and figured I should share my thoughts and practices here.

These were some ideas mentioned for Slack messages:

• Star if you need to take action.
• Mark as unread until you respond.
• Open the Slack archive page in a browser window.
• Slackbot reminders.

I’ve done the first two, but these all blur the primary purpose of Slack: communication and collaboration.

Embrace your task manager and calendar. When used properly, these are your spam-free lists of time-specific events, todos, and projects. When I’m unsure what I should be doing next, I check these.

Embrace your inbox, and “empty” it often

A colleague asks for a favor that isn’t time-sensitive while you’re in the middle of something. What do I do?

• Determine expectation — Ask/confirm when they need to hear back from me.
• Click the “Copy Link” icon of the Slack message.
• Open the quick entry feature of my task manager (Things).¹ Keyboard shortcuts!
• Enter a concise name of the todo. e.g. Update En.Support “Shortcodes” page.²
• Tab to the Notes field, and paste the URL to the Slack message. Copy paste any other relevant URLs, plus a 5-second brain dump for additional context, if needed. (Consider: What do you need to consider when working on this item?)
• Save it to your Inbox.

Next, designate a few blocks of time daily to clarify the items in your Inbox³, which leads to organizing them out of your inbox. 😉

Now what?

When you need to settle down for deep work, communicate that with your team, then work from your calendar and task manager!

Also highly recommended: The five steps of GTD Methodology