5 tricks to get the most out of Slack

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These five easy tips will enable Slack to simplify your work life.

A short slack series

This is the third part of our series exploring how we use Slack here at Brightec.

Read parts one and two to find out more about what Slack is and why and how we use it.

Below are a few useful tips I have found invaluable and some links to some that others have posted about.

1. Star to do list

A great little tip this!

If something comes up that you want to remember to-do in Slack just mark it with a star. You then get a handy list of starred items which can be viewed in the right hand pane.

I also use this for general to-do items, by writing the item in the slackbot channel and then ‘starring’ it there. Once you’ve completed the to-do you just un-star it. So simple but so helpful.

2. Slackbot

Slackbot is great as it can become a really straightforward notes area.

If typing in Slack already and I want to remember something I just add it as a message to slackbot and then I can come back to it whenever I need.

Of course, as it instantly syncs across my devices, I can just send myself messages when I need to in an easy way using a system I’m already using.

3. Snippets

If sharing or storing a larger amount of text in Slack, always use the snippet function by pasting with cmd+shift+v. It's so useful for storing text with slackbot.

The search will index what is in the snippet so you can find it again afterwards.

It’s also invaluable for sharing code snippets as you can set the syntax to many common languages.

4. IFTTT

This is probably my favourite tip.

Using IFTTT is incredibly helpful with Slack. For those that aren’t familiar it stands for If This Then That.

You can set up all kinds of automated triggers to post messages in Slack.

For example, I have to do a particular report every single Monday and so I have a notification in Slack every Monday at 12pm that reminds me to do the report. Simply use this recipe to set it up.

I also have a tendency to forget internal meetings and phonecalls (don't tell anyone), I’ll get caught up in a task and forget the time.

So, I have a private group called notifications in slack and IFTTT posts a reminder 10mins before any meetings if the location is set at our office in my Google calendar. For that I use this recipe.

5. /Remind me

As you’ve probably gathered from the rest of this series, I love tools that make it easier to remember things and Slack have a great command for helping you remember things easily and inline.

I often find myself being messaged by someone on Slack while I’m in the middle of a task and I don’t necessarily want to action what they’ve said straightaway, but also I don’t want to rely on my memory to remember to actually do it.

That’s where /remind comes in. Just type it into any conversation thread and fill in the command:
/remind me <time> to <message>

The reply from slackbot is only shown to you and when it’s time to remind you slackbot direct messages you.

Don't miss...

Don't miss our first post 3 great ways to set up Slack and the second 3 simple Slack rules.

Links:

Some general slack tips: medium.com/@slackhq/11-useful-tips-for-getting-the-most-of-slack-5dfb3d1af77

Slack Automation: medium.com/why-not/what-will-the-automated-workplace-look-like-495f9d1e87da


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