![]() More on this choice in a moment.Ĭreate Channel Sections: Slack allows you to group conversations into different sections. Underneath that, I select Show… Custom, depending on the section. I fire up preferences, select Sidebar, and only check All DMs, Mentions & reactions, and Slack Connect (these are Slack channels across workspaces). Remove Sidebar Detritus: The sidebar can have a lot of different categories, many of which you don’t need. With the current default Slack configuration, this can lead to channel sidebar proliferation, but here are my sidebar set-up moves: Don’t Read EverythingĪggressively Join Channels : I don’t join every channel available, but the bar to get me interested in a channel is incredibly low. As single or multi-human conversations tend to be higher signal since they’re directed at me, this history is full of conversations between individuals and groups that I need at the ready for the next week. The more I work with an existing team, the more I find this conversation history useful daily. What I’m looking at here is a history of all of my single and multi-human conversations sorted by time. Show me a recent conversation ( CMD-SHIFT-K / Ctrl-SHIFT-T ) Throw a SHIFT into the Quick Switcher keyboard combination CMD-SHIFT-K (or Ctrl-SHIFT-T on Windows) brings up Direct Message Quick Switcher. ![]() It’s a prioritized list of direct messages and unread messages. If I’ve been away from Slack for a bit, I hit Cmd-K and glance at the list in Quick Switcher. The Quick Switcher is inspired by LaunchBar, QuickSilver, and other handy context switching tools, and it’s dead simple: hit Cmd-K and start typing the name of a person or a channel, and when you see what you need, you can instantly jump to any context by hitting ENTER. ![]() Switch to my unread things ( CMD-K / Ctrl-K (Mac / Windows) ) If there is only one keyboard tip I want you to remember, it’s Cmd-K. There are a handful of well-defined actions that literally instantly need to be at my fingertips. This is good news because my ability to quickly and efficiently find, triage, and respond to information within Slack is not a mouse task it’s a perfect keyboard job. Keyboard support has always been quite good in Slack. There is no more important area where I need to move quickly and efficiently than how I communicate. It allows for curious unhindered exploration, but once a mouse teaches us the virtual landscape, a mouse’s utility fades once we understand how to work, and I need a clearly defined path to move faster. I understand and appreciate that the mouse’s broad optionality is perfect for novice users. It is the intrinsic power of a mouse that its default workspace is my entire desktop – each and every pixel is available to click, whether it’s the suitable pixel or not. With due respect to illustrators and other deft operators of the mouse, I am presented with too much optionality when I am required to use one. For years, I’ve written about the maddening imprecision of the mouse. The rule has always been: if my hands leave the keyboard, I’ll screw it up. The following is full of my opinions, quirks, and neuroses and not those of Slack. Important to note upfront that I am the former VP of Engineering at Slack. ![]() ![]() If you’re on a Slack team with one channel and ten humans, much of the following will feel like overkill, but there are helpful optimization nuggets below. In this piece, I’ll explain how I use the desktop version of Slack to sift quickly through these channels and conversations. If I’m away from the keyboard for a few hours, my sidebar can be ominously full of unread channels and conversations. The majority of my interaction centers on these teams. Three out of my six teams have 100+ active humans, 100+ channels, and are high traffic with hundreds to thousands of messages per day. I’m actively on six teams: Work, Leadership, Destiny, two private nerd Slacks, and a private family Slack. Each Slack team I’m on has a different set of humans building their own unique communication culture. ![]()
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