Picture this…you are heads down, in a groove, cranking out your to do list. Tss Tss Tss: Slack ping. Microsoft Chime: Teams Message. Enter the distraction. While we may be working in an increasingly remote world, we are still somehow facing the same amount(if not more) of distractions that we face in the office. While many of these distractions are just a matter of course of how we do business, one of the major contributors to interrupted work and therefore incredibly expensive context switching are the chat or messaging tools.
Our working relationship with these tools is complex. On the one hand, we rely on them for communication, collaboration, problem solving etc etc etc. That being said, they are also incredibly intrusive interruptions to any “rhythm” we may be striving to achieve at work. So how do we solve this paradox? Here are some concrete ways to leverage these messaging tools with guardrails so that they don’t act as a constant barrier to flow state and productivity.
Saying “I’m Not Available”
- Use the “away” feature available in Slack.
- Set standard Heads Down time for the whole team. During this time, all team members refrain from sending messages to one another.
- Assign one team member to manage any channels that are externally facing each week, this way only one person at a time has to deal with the “noise” of messages.
- Customize notification settings to control how often you're alerted about new messages. Use "Do Not Disturb" mode when you need focused work time.
Organizing Content
- Create dedicated channels with specific purposes to allow for selective notifications depending on the topic.
- Within each channel, use threads to keep conversations organized
- Use reaction emojis to quickly acknowledge messages without needing to write a response.
- Use formatting tools like bullet points, lists, and headings to make your messages more organized and easily scannable.
Communicating with “Heads Down” Colleagues
- Schedule messages to send at a later point in time.
- Encourage respect for response times.
- Implement guidelines for how to indicate the urgency of a communication.
- Share documents or files with plenty of time built in for feedback and collaboration