Organize your Slack channels by How Often, not What

Overview This blog post explains a simple method for technical leaders to reorganize their Slack workspace by sorting channels based on how frequently they need to read them, rather than by topic. By creating sections such as "Immediately", "Daily", "Weekly" and "Low Priority", leaders can focus on the most urgent messages first, stay more responsive, and feel less overwhelmed.

Key Takeaways

• Arrange Slack channels by urgency and reading frequency, not by subject matter.
• Use custom sections (e.g., Immediate, Daily, Weekly, Low Priority) to prioritize communication.
• The approach improves responsiveness, reduces stress, and helps maintain focus on high-impact work.
• It works for both managers and individual contributors in engineering teams.

Who Would Benefit

• Engineering managers looking to streamline team communication.
• Technical leads who need to stay on top of critical updates.
• Developers who want to reduce Slack fatigue.
• Any leader managing remote or distributed teams.

Frameworks and Methodologies

• Personal productivity techniques (priority-based inbox management).
• Communication hygiene best practices for distributed engineering teams.