We use Slack... a lot. It's our main channel for internal communication (we only use e-mail for external communication). We expect everyone to follow some guidelines to keep our communication smooth:

#1 - Use threads 🧵

Replying in a thread keeps the channel feed clean, so people can quickly catch up when they’ve been away from the channel. It also avoids that everyone in the channel gets pinged for each new message.

#2 - Default to public channels 👀

Keep direct messaging (DMs) to the minimum. It’s generally better to share a message in a public channel and just tag the person you’re addressing. This keeps transparency high so people can stay in the loop.

#3 - Don’t expect immediate answers ⌛

Don’t let Slack hijack your day. It’s easy to be constantly disrupted by all the beeps, sounds, and DMs. Deep work is an important driver for success. You can put yourself on ‘Do not disturb’ mode, mute your notifications for some channels and turn off phone notifications. Foresee a minimum of 2 moments a day where you check your messages. Don’t be busy. Be productive. If something is genuinely urgent ASAP, then make this clear in your message or reach out via WhatsApp. Bear in mind that there are very few occasions where this applies.

#4 - Set reminders to ensure you respond ⏰

It’s your own responsibility to make sure you stay on top of messages and respond in a timely manner. Don’t expect your colleagues to ping you reminders. You can set reminders on Slack to return to messages. Hover over a message → click on ‘More actions’ → ask Slack to 'Remind me about this'. Your Slackbot, your digital personal assistant, will then remind you about these messages so you can respond when you're ready.

#5 - Emphasize deadlines 📅

Clearly communicate if there is a deadline attached to your message. A good way to do this is by putting the deadline in bold and setting an automatic Slack reminder via the shortcut /remind [@someone or #channel]. We avoid bottlenecks this way.

#6 - Indicate your availabilities

We are a distributed team, so we don’t always know who’s where and who’s available. Go to your profile and set a status to indicate you’re on holiday, don’t want to be disturbed,...

Bonus tips to make Slack work better for you

• Prefix your comments to indicate your intent. Written communication can sometimes be ambiguous in intent or sound harsher than intended. Get some great tips in this article.
• These are some commonly used emoji responses with their meaning. Adding them to a message shows the status to everyone in a blink. And it’s a fast way to communicate without polluting the feed.
  • ✅ = done; 🔛 = I’m on it; 👍 = ok/understood/...; ➕ = I agree
• If you have multiple discussion points that require an answer, then post them as separate messages instead of within 1 big message. People can then respond in thread without having to re-quote each point.