Learn concrete Slack settings and workflow tricks that cut scrolling, mute low-priority channels, and use reminders to turn noise into focused async communication, saving engineers and managers tens of hours each year.
Engineers and managers waste up to two hours a day scrolling Slack, rereading threads, and juggling countless channels. The piece shows that a few deliberate settings turn Slack from a time-sucker into a focused async hub, reducing mental load and freeing hours each year. The first trick is to show only unread channels, which collapses the UI and lets you spot pending conversations instantly. Next, group channels by reading cadence - hot-fix alerts go in a read-immediately group, low-priority updates in read-daily or read-weekly groups - and mute the groups you don't need to hear from all week. A scheduled Friday 15-minute unmute session clears the weekly backlog without constant distraction. Slack's built-in reminder feature replaces the habit of leaving messages unread. By setting '/remind' commands for non-urgent items you get a gentle nudge at a convenient time, and you can also schedule reminders for whole channels. Finally, the edit-all-sections mode lets you rearrange groups in under 15 minutes, creating a repeatable process that compounds benefits over months.
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