Bogged down by Admin? These 11 Slack Hacks Will Make Your Work Life Less Painful
Ah! Working life. Who knew it would be this hectic?!
When you have a constant stream of tasks coming in and they’re all competing for your attention, there’s no room for frittering away your time on tasks that can be automated, time-hacked or eliminated.
At first glance, this could be viewed as quite a tall order, but the great thing is you can use Slack to do it.
So, with this in mind, let’s jump right into some of the Slack shortcuts that will help you get your precious time back…
1) Mark important parts of a conversation for later viewing
When you are having a conversation that you know you’ll need to reference later, don’t set yourself up to waste time endlessly scrolling through Slack trying to figure out where it is.
Think ahead and save that spot by using the Alt tab (in Windows) or Option key (on Mac) and clicking the timestamp to mark it for later.
If you’re doing this on the run, open the Slack app and hold down on the message to and hit ‘Mark as unread’ to earmark that position.
Simple yet effective.
2) Got a lot on your mind? Let Slack do the remembering
Whilst it’s certainly useful to have a razor-sharp memory, it probably isn’t fail-proof when you have tons of different things going on at once. Avoid the risk of missing something by letting Slack act as your second brain.
Use the /remind command to ask Slack to erm…pick up the slack by giving you a nudge when the time comes.
For instance, if you normally check your Trello boards each Friday at 3:00pm you could write something like this:
‘/remind me to check my Trello boards at up to date every Friday at 3 pm’
Slackbot will respond confirming that your request has been noted, so you know you can peacefully forget it for now.
Yay!
If you want to get super advanced with it, you can have Slack remind other people of things they need to do.
This is especially handy if you’ve got a few team tasks you repeat each week and are responsible for managing them. In Slack, you can automate the reminders to alert every one of their duties.
Use the /remind command and @ plus their username or #channel, followed by the task and the time it should be sent and voila! There’s another task you can confidently check off your to-do list.
#Winning.
3) Bullet point your messages for easy reading
It can be hard to catch important points when reading through large blocks of text.
We all know tactful formatting makes messages easier on the eyes, but you can take it a step further by using ‘Alt 7’ on Microsoft, or ‘Option 8’ on Mac to generate bullet points. Use ‘Shift’ and ‘Enter’ to create one for the next line.
Alternatively, you can use emojis like the Star as a fun bulletpoint, if that’s your kind of thing.
Try it out and see what works for you.
4) Collaborate on projects in Slack by syncing your Project Management tools
If you’re crazy about staying organised, rave on about time-hacking and are frequently torn between which project management software to use, then this one is for you.
Collaboration is made effortless with Slack’s awesome software integration capabilities.
Software like Monday, Trello, and Asana can be synced to Slack, making Slack the central hub from which you can view, edit, and manage your workflow. You’ll also be able to familiarise yourself with your team’s tasks and track notifications.
How’s that for a productivity hack!
And you can keep the momentum going in your sales and customer service tasks. If you regularly handle support tickets and sales processes, you can integrate Talkus to your Slack so you receive all information and support requests in Slack.
You can even respond to them from Slack and the recipient will get an email back. So cool!
5) Need to dash but have to send a quick message? Use a quick command
We all know how it is. You’re making a mad dash to your next client proposal and then suddenly you remember that you’ve forgotten to let a colleague know about a change in the project you’re both working on.
It’s a pretty important development, so it can’t wait ’til after the meeting.
‘What do I do?’ you ponder.
Don’t fret.
With Slack’s quick commands, you can drop your teammates a quick message and still make it to that at all important meeting (just be sure to download the Slack mobile app in advance to make the process even faster).
Type /msg along with @ and the username to send a message in a chat.
Or use /dm plus the @ sign and username into any message text box to send a direct message to someone.
Disaster averted.
6) Catch up on the latest news and messages
When you’re running around all day, your messages can easily pile up. Slack can put them into one easy feed so you can view everything you’ve missed without having to faff around with different tabs and chats.
To view these messages on a desktop, use:
⌘ + [Shift] + A / (for Mac) [Ctrl] + Shift + A (for Windows)
When you’re done looking at a message, you can move to the next unread conversation using:
[Option]+[Shift]+[↑] (for Mac) / [Alt] +[Shift]+[↑]
Say you need to double check something, it’s:
[Option]+[Shift]+[↓] (for Mac) / [Alt]+[Shift]+[↓] (for Windows) to go back one.
And there you have it. Productivity at its finest.
Don’t you think?
7) Get straight to point with Gifs
When you’re short on time yet still being bombarded with messages, keep your responses short and sweet by dropping cheeky Gifs that will do the talking for you.
Use the command /giphy and the emotion you want to express, to get the ball rolling. For example, you can use a combo like /giphy Yes for when you’re in agreement with something.
This ensures you give your attention to where it is required and adds some variety to your speech.
After all, who doesn’t love a good Gif?
Get Gif-ing!
You may just be pleasantly surprised by the response you receive…
8) Use keywords to find an earlier conversation
We all have words, phrases and acronyms we use in our daily working lives.
So, if you forgot to mark an earlier conversation, don’t worry! Slack has your back.
Use those common words to your advantage by working with a quick command to help you track down them down.
Key in:
[Command and F] on Mac
[Ctrl and F] on Windows
plus the word(s) you’re looking for.
It’s that simple!
9) Quickly let people know you’re busy
There comes a point when you have buckle down and tackle that to do list head on.
So, distractions, even from colleagues who unknowingly interrupt your flow, won’t bring you closer to clearing jobs off your list.
And, on a more human note, sometimes you’ve got to rest, switch off and relax.
Yes, you!
But there’s a problem. Your Slack app won’t stop pinging. How can you fix this?
I’ve got one command for you.
/dnd.
This triggers the do not disturb mode in your Slack account and turns off your notifications.
This feature is especially useful if you have a remote team working in different time zones. It’ll help you avoid those dreadful instances where you’re woken in the dead of the night by the violent buzzing of your phone.
Now, you can work or chill out distraction free.
Enjoy!
10) Looking for something? Use Search Modifiers to find it faster
Have you ever heard of Search Modifiers?
Well, if you haven’t, listen up because they’ll save you heaps of time.
Search Modifiers narrow down your search results making it easier to find what you want in Slack.
What makes these shortcuts so amazing is that you can combine search modifiers to niche down your search even further.
For example, from:user, in#channel would cut the pool down to a particular user in a specified channel.
Want to know more?
Well, some useful ones include :-
- In:#Channel
- From:User
- From:@Display Channel
- Has:Star
It’s mind-blowingly efficient. Just try it.
11) Use the shortcut of all shortcuts
When you need a reminder of Slack’s keyboard shortcuts, look no further than Slack itself. Just hit:
- [Ctrl and /] on Windows or [⌘ and /] on Mac
to pull up the full list of shortcuts.
Now you know!
To finish up…
Slack shortcuts are an easy way to get heaps of work done without compromising on quality, hampering team communication or damaging client relations.
Improve your efficiency by memorising key shortcuts, so that you can navigate around Slack like a pro.
Be sure to get your team on board so you can all finish your work quicker and have more time to enjoy a well-earned team drink!
Yve is the Chief Wordsmith and Content Maven at Captive Copy.
When she’s not gorging sweets and snacks, you’ll find her wander-lusting over travel blogs and planning her next exotic getaway.
