🤫 Recommendations to minimize notification overload
Limit the channels you are in.
Mute the channels you don’t need to follow.
Explicitly @mention people when you need a response so they’re notified even if they mute the channel (otherwise muting channels ends up being ineffective).
Disable notifications and instead batch follow ups.
From your desktop, click your profile picture in the top right.
Select Preferences from the menu to open your notification preferences.
Under Notify me about, choose nothing
To use different triggers for your mobile notifications, check the box next to Use different settings for my mobile devices, then select your preference from the drop-down menu.
Disable all sounds if desired
Customize your sidebar to only show relevant conversations
If there are specific channels you would like to be notified on, open the channel, click the channel members at top right, and choose your notification preference from the top drop down
Use Threads in a channel chat when you need to have a longer back-and-forth about a particular topic to spare the rest of the channel a bunch of notifications. The Threads feature starts a side conversation that the rest of the channel can read if they want but it takes it out of the main flow. If other participants in the thread have not muted thread notifications, they will also be notified of a reply even if the channel itself has been muted.
🤝 Slack Etiquette
Be conscious about what notifications you send. Some of your colleagues are unable to limit notifications for business purposes.
When reaching out to a colleague, avoid just saying “Hi” and waiting for their response. By including your question or comment in the initial message, they are able to quickly write a reply rather than waiting for you to phrase your question.
When asking for help, ask in dedicated support channels if available (e.g. #beaker-users, #it). Direct messages bypass teams’ on-call rotations and often delay a response.
Change your slack status as appropriate, and respect the status of others. If someone has set themselves to do not disturb, do not force notification unless absolutely necessary.
When starting a group discussion, prefer channels over direct messages. You can promote a multi-person direct message conversation to a channel if needed, and you can always archive a channel when you’re done with it.
Limit @ mentions to messages which require action or a response.
Use @here sparingly, especially in highly populated channels.
Never use @channel. It notifies everyone in the channel like @here, but also notifies offline members.