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How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

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Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#31

Post by nrjames »

steipete wrote: post #21
nrjames wrote: post #18

I'm reminded of this Agile Bits blog post about "curing" themselves of Slack. https://blog.agilebits.com/2016/04/19/curing-our-slack-addic...

Thanks for the link - it's linked in the post as well, certainly interesting to know. We also have someone working at our company who previously worked at 1Password and is really happy that he can use Slack again.

Slack is the epicenter of all manner of communication problems where I work, and sadly, we have not yet figured out how to solve the problems. We have no remote employees, yet the 30 of us, who all sit right near each other, spend all day Slacking. I believe about 85% of messages are Direct Messages. It's extremely frustrating.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#32

Post by dewiz »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #2

The most useful thing about Slack is you can press Shift+ESC (sometimes you have to press it twice) to mark all conversations as read. Inbox zero with two keystrokes. Whoever implemented that, I'd like to buy a coffee someday. (Also, I discovered this because I use Ctrl+Shift+ESC instead of Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the Windows Task Manager immediately without going through the intermediary screen that pops up, and on…

Wasn’t the Windows Start menu shortcut Ctrl+ESC?

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#33

Post by s3r3nity »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #28
s3r3nity wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory is that the extra entropy / noise / cognitive load of booting up yet another tool when you turn on your computer didn't match the gain in utility (productivity, etc.) For both cases we used Slack, I agree with your assessment in that we used Slack JUST for IM. But if you already have Hangouts / Skype, what's the marginal gain from Slack? As OP points out, initially most people start using it for IM (as this…

In my company, Slack has replaced email and Skype, so that we have fewer tools to search rather than more. The marginal gain is lightweight group discussion, and the ability to pull people into a conversation that's already in progress. It actually lightens the cognitive load of which you speak by organizing information by topic.

I think that's the best way it can work: it has to replace those other tools, and have buy-in from the group to almost exclusively use Slack.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#35

Post by plehoux »

s3r3nity wrote: post #4

In two companies where we had piloted Slack, I led successful campaigns to transition away from it. Combining your choice of Email / IM client (Gmail / Hangouts or Outlook / Skype) satisfies 99% of use cases for Slack. Overall we were less stressed and didn't miss a beat. I'm sure there are industries / companies working in areas that it makes sense - but I don't think it just works for everyone by default in the sam…

At Missive, we offer a hybrid approach that merges the silos of both external and internal communication back into one app.

https://missiveapp.com/slack-vs-missive (detailed post, with meat)

As foreign as chat is to email, mixing them unleashes unforeseen possibilities, like directly referencing customer emails in dev chat conversations discussing feature implementation.

Making collaboration between email heavy teams (sales, support) and chat heavy teams (dev) easier.

I personally think that using a threaded based UI is more efficient to use than the infinite channel Slack offers even for chat.

e.g. Having your Github notifications grouped into different threads based on branches and pull requests all labeled with a Github label.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#36

Post by dberg »

nrjames wrote: post #31
steipete wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link - it's linked in the post as well, certainly interesting to know. We also have someone working at our company who previously worked at 1Password and is really happy that he can use Slack again.

Slack is the epicenter of all manner of communication problems where I work, and sadly, we have not yet figured out how to solve the problems. We have no remote employees, yet the 30 of us, who all sit right near each other, spend all day Slacking. I believe about 85% of messages are Direct Messages. It's extremely frustrating.

This x 1000. I constantly remind my team to favor face to face communication where possible. We have peopl hipchat each other sometimes literally sitting across the desk from each other. It creates such a frustrating "i spend half my day in chat" culture i just cant imagine the productivity drain.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#37

Post by ravenstine »

jrootabega wrote: post #23
minor3rd wrote: post #5

I literally mute every channel except my direct team's channel. If you need me, @ me baby.

Not really sufficient, unfortunately. People will always abuse this and mention you whenever they feel like it, without thinking if it really needs immediate attention. The only solution is disabling notifications entirely.

If it were email, those same people would abuse email. I don't think what you're saying is really a problem with Slack. Those people you're referring to are disrespectful morons.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#38

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

stanlarroque wrote: post #26
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #2

The most useful thing about Slack is you can press Shift+ESC (sometimes you have to press it twice) to mark all conversations as read. Inbox zero with two keystrokes. Whoever implemented that, I'd like to buy a coffee someday. (Also, I discovered this because I use Ctrl+Shift+ESC instead of Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the Windows Task Manager immediately without going through the intermediary screen that pops up, and on…

And I'd like to buy you a coffee someday for teaching me about the Ctrl+Shift+ESC shortcut.

Happy to help.

If anyone's going to DEFCON this year, I'll be hanging around the Crypto & Privacy Village a lot, so feel free to say hi.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#39

Post by charlietango92 »

Kliment wrote: post #22
lolsal wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sincere question: How is Skype not a near-real time async messaging system? What features is it missing that 'a messaging system should have'?

Reliable message delivery, reliable history and history search.

can't you history search through outlook under the 'conversation history' folder? (or click the 'see more in outlook' hyperlink on skype.) Although yes, it's not built in to the skype app UI itself. And that would be nice.

Re: How to Use Slack and Not Go Crazy

#40

Post by ravenstine »

minor3rd wrote: post #5

I literally mute every channel except my direct team's channel. If you need me, @ me baby.

That's definitely key, and I think that behavior should be default. (though arguably that wouldn't be in the financial interest of Slack)

Another thing that's key in my experience is learning to take one's time in replying to people or learning who to say "no" to. When people learn that you're not 24/7 tech support, they'll bother you less often. But it really depends on the kind of company you work for, what your role is, etc.

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