The complete guide for Slack productivity.
TL;DR: Slack is more than a chat app -- knowing its features well can save you significant time daily. This post covers 7 productivity tips: keyboard shortcuts (Cmd+K, Cmd+F, arrow keys), grouping channels into custom sections, slash commands for quick actions, muting noisy channels, powerful search for messages/files/people, using saved items as a bookmark system, and integrating apps like GitHub, Jira, and Google Calendar directly into your workspace.
Slack has become much more than a communication platform. There are tons of features and integrations in slack.
As a developer you should know how to use your tools efficiently. Below 7 tips and tricks will help you do more and save time.
1. Which Slack keyboard shortcuts save the most time?
cmd+[or]- Navigate between old/new chatscmd+k- Search for channel, people, filescmd+f- Search messages or files in a chat/channelUp Arrow- Edit last message you sentcmd+/- Show the full list of keyboard shortcuts
You can find and remember other shortcuts if you have any actions you do repeatedly.
Find more in Slack's keyboard shortcuts and commands list
2. How do I organise channels into sections?
As you get added to more and more channels it gets difficult to keep track whats going on where.
Its like a messy table, You can group the channels by sections. You can name these section anything(ex. Org, Team, Project channels)
It visually organises the conversations, and helps you get to important messages first.
Read further in Slack's guide to customised sidebar sections
3. Which slash commands are worth learning?
Slash commands are very easy and quick way to do actions or run commands in slack
The ones I mostly use are,
/remind- Remind someone or channel to do something at certain time./away- Toggle your online status./giphy- Post a GIF on chat/channel
There are other slash commands of slack apps that you installed.
4. How do I stop noisy channels from distracting me?
When slack channels and messages get out of hand, its better to mute some channels which do not require your attention immediately. You can check these at end of day or when you get free time
5. Find channel, people or files (browser)
Along with global search for channels, people and files, Slack offers separate browser for each of these entities.
Channel browser, File browser, People and user groups, and App browser.
These are very helpful if you are looking specifically for one thing, Ex. a file you shared 3 months back.
6. How do I save messages to revisit later?
Some messages need to be revisited frequently, It is likely these messages gets lost in chat with newer messages coming in daily.
Its gets very easy to save these messages and find them under saved messages, ( Just like bookmarks in browsers )
7. Apps and Integrations
Slack apps are very useful for specific purpose.
There are many apps available in slack app library, these apps will boost your collaboration and productivity.
- Google calendar
- This app will remind you of meetings 1 min before.
- It gives summary of meetings for the day, So you can plan the day
- Github
- This app helps get updates about that project. Run
/github subscribe [owner/repo]in any conversation to start receiving updates. You will get notifications for Pull Requests, New commits, Issues. This saves time in code reviews.
- This app helps get updates about that project. Run
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I see every Slack keyboard shortcut?
Press Cmd + / on Mac or Ctrl + / on Windows and Linux. Slack opens the full shortcut list.
How do I set a reminder in Slack?
Type /remind me to review the PR at 4pm in any message box. You can also remind a channel, like /remind #team standup every weekday at 9:30am.
Where did Saved items go?
In newer versions of Slack, saved messages appear under Later. It works the same way, as a bookmark list for messages.