Work doesn’t happen in Slack.
Something I started doing with $JOB-1 was to write a “Working with rufius” document and share it with the broader org (in slack profile or intranet profile). One of the things I provide is an SLA on responding to communication. It roughly looks like:
- phone call - synchronous
- email - if I am directly on to-line, response by end of next business day
- slack/teams - hours to never
I basically only answer slack if I’m paying attention to it for whatever reason. My typical work schedule has me open it 3 times a day - once in the morning, once after lunch, and once about 30 mins before I end my work day.
The other thing I note is I don’t make decisions in slack. Decisions happen in documents or worst case, email. Something durable.
That “Working with” doc has done wonders for setting expectations with coworkers. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from coworkers as well that they appreciate it and have created their own.