Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks
Slack has become a hub for the modern workforce, the go-to tool to Get Shift Done. There’s a lot more to Slack than you might realize, though, and we’ve been helping our readers get most out of it to be more productive in their day-to-day work. Here’s a roundup of our top 7 articles about Slack from the past few months:
1. Use Slack’s Advanced Search to Find Lost Files, URLs, or the Terrible Jokes None of Your Coworkers Truly Appreciate
In Slack, important messages and files can quickly be lost in a sea of emojis. Don’t waste your time scrolling into past conversations — take advantage of the advanced search feature, a time-saving tool with some hidden tricks.
2. Use PomBot for Slack to Co-ordinate Short Sprints with Your Remote Colleagues
The Pomodoro Technique is an effective and increasingly popular way to manage time and work productively. It’s hard to do, though, if you want to do it with others, or are working remotely. That’s where PomBot comes in, a great tool to set up short work sprints with your colleagues and then show what you’ve done.
3. These Two Slack Shortcuts Will Turn You Into a Keyboard Samurai
Easy-to-use keyboard shortcuts are a big part of what makes Slack so great. But for new users, learning a whole new set of shortcuts can be difficult and time-consuming. Here are two easy ways to learn them, putting you on the path to become a Slack keyboard samurai.
4. Slack’s Highlight Feature Will Save You Time and Sanity
If you’re a Slack user, you may have noticed that your name gets highlighted whenever it’s in a conversation. This highlight feature isn’t reserved for just names, however. If there are keywords you want to keep track of — say, the name of an important client — here’s how to make sure they’re highlighted whenever someone mentions them. You can also get a notification every time it happens, too, making it easy to stay on top of things you want to track.
5. Use Slacker To Add A Touch of Anonymous Fun to Your Slack Groups
One of the best things about Slack is that it has injected a bit of fun into everyday work life, especially for remote teams. But if gifs and emojis aren’t cutting it for you and your team anymore, here’s an alternative: a web app called Slacker that lets you anonymously post celebrity messages to any thread you’re in. Be warned, though: Slacker is fun, and seriously addictive.
6. Here’s How to Standardize Your Company’s Slack Usernames (and Simplify the Service)
Without structure and guidance, Slack can quickly devolve into an impenetrable GIF parade of posts by seemingly anonymous users. An easy way to avoid that fate is to set a universal username format. Here’s what you’ll need to do.
7. Colorblind? Here’s How to Customize Slack to Make It Work for You.
The team at Slack prides itself on building an inclusive, accessible product. One of the ways they’ve done so is by adding different color themes for those with color blindness. If you’re colorblind, here’s how to customize Slack so you can use the tool.
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