Organize your Slack channels by "How Often", not "What"

Summary

A few weeks ago, I changed my Slack channel sections. I’m now more responsive and engaged, while also feeling less stressed. How? By sorting my Slack channels by urgency, or how often I want to read them. WhatProjectsTeamAlertsSibling TeamsAnnouncementsSF OfficeSocialNoisy How OftenRead NowRead HourlyRead DailyRead Whenever Sorting by “how often” lets me read my most urgent messages first, focusing my energy on what matters to me. Once I feel tired, I stop reading. By focusing on my most urgent and important channels, I hold confidence that I have already taken care of what I need to, reducing my stress. A screenshot of my Slack sections. The top consists of my “high priority” sections like Read Now, Threads, DMs, and new channels. I go through my unreads from top to bottom until I am tired or I’m done. By framing a channel’s importance through the Eisenhower Matrix, I focus on how I contribute to channels. UrgentNot UrgentImportantRead Now / Read HourlyI directly answer questions, engage in conversations frequently, or react to them in the real worldRead WheneverI read announcements and keep up-to-date with changesNot ImportantRead DailyI can push the conversation along by forwarding it to different channels or tagging more appropriate peopleRead NeverReading and writing in these channels are meaningless to me This framework is flexible. Your needs and availability will change. Projects go from active development to finished. Social channels go through ups and downs. As these changes happen, you can slide the channel between any category, and it’ll still make sense. Misprioritized channels are a source of burnout. Noisy channels in important sections waste time and hide the valuable signal. Important channels in noisy sections are missed opportunities. It’s clearest when you think of some sections like Office, Social, and Project. Intuitively, Project is important. Office is important, but maybe not? Social is less important, but I still want to live a happy life. ...