Source: google.com
Communication is the foundation of any successful team. As remote work becomes more prevalent and more teams shift to dispersed models, the methods we communicate at work are changing—and not always for the better.
Workers are now required to communicate synchronously and asynchronously using various communication technologies. From emails to Slack, phone conversations to video conferencing, in-person meetings, and beyond, separating our personal and professional lives can be challenging.
Workers may set stronger work-life boundaries and feel empowered to construct their best weekday by automating these critical communication tools. For teams, this automation enhances not only communications but also general employee relationships.
While it may appear easy, automating your Slack status might make the difference between attention and distraction, chaos and quiet, and a good day and a poor day. When employees properly communicate their limits, schedules, and demands, they create the potential for improved trust and respect within their teams.
Are you ready to take control of your workday? We’ll discuss the how, why, and when of automatic Slack statuses below.
What Exactly Is A Slack Status?
Your Slack status is a brief statement displayed next to your screen name. It informs your colleagues if you are accessible or unavailable and what you do during the day.
Slack updates can be unique and inventive, such as promoting a favourite new song or cracking a funny joke.
Source: google.com
Statuses can also be simple and valuable, such as informing colleagues when you leave your desk or in a conference.
How to Manually Set a Slack Status
You can manually update your Slack status within the app at any moment.
You can avoid receiving messages during important meetings or breaks using an automated Slack status. It’s also a terrific approach to communicate with your team about when you’re available to talk and how quickly you’ll respond to a message.
Slack statuses that are commonly used:
? During a meeting
☎️ On the phone
? Out due to illness
? We’re on vacation! Returning on May 25th
? Working from home
? commuting
What Exactly Is Slack Availability?
Your Slack availability is represented by a coloured dot next to your name. This informs your team whether you are present or absent or if you have suspended your notifications.
Source: google.com
When your availability is configured, it will display either a green circle indicating that you are active or an empty circle indicating that you are unavailable.
? Active
⭕ Away
For How Long Does Slack Shows You As Active?
Your availability is active when you open the Slack app on your desktop or mobile device. After 10 minutes of inactivity, your availability will be displayed as unavailable.
By clicking on your profile image in the top right corner of the app, you can set yourself as active or away at any moment. Then, based on your current availability, click Set yourself as away or Set yourself as active.
What Exactly Is Slack’s “Do Not Disturb” Function?
You can also use Slack’s Do Not Disturb (DND) function to give yourself time to focus on deep work.
Setting up Do Not Disturb automatically is an excellent method to keep track of work hours, breaks, and focus.
You can manually enable Do Not Disturb by clicking on your profile image in the top right corner of Slack. Hover over the Pause notifications button and enter the amount of time you want to use DND. You’ll notice options ranging from 30 minutes to Tomorrow and a Custom option.
You can also set a notification schedule here, generating times when the DND feature will be automatically triggered.
For example, this is an excellent approach if you don’t want to receive notifications after 6 p.m. on weekdays.
The DND capability appears as a Z on your Slack availability when enabled. When this function is enabled, notifications, noises, and haptics will be paused.
Why Should I Have My Slack Status Automated?
Automated Slack statuses are an excellent method to notify your colleagues when you are available, away, or engaged in focused work time. Teams can better manage their working time by defining clear boundaries and muting notifications during critical work sessions.
While you can constantly manually update your Slack status, scheduled status updates are an excellent method to define distinct and recurrent boundaries within your timetable.
For example, if you frequently struggle to find time for a daily lunch break, setting a distinct “On a lunch break” automated Slack status can assist you in developing this practice.
You can also create an automatic Slack status that says you are away, have your alerts turned off if you work remotely frequently, or loathe getting work messages late into the nighttime hours. This is a valuable method to plan your ideal work week while also informing your team that you will not be responding during those hours.
How Might Slack Statuses Help To Foster Team Culture?
Healthy employee communication allows team members to form stronger ties with one another. This improves collaboration and teamwork while also establishing respect and trust, increasing worker productivity.
Team members can easily communicate when they are available or unavailable for communications by using automated Slack statuses. This empowers individuals to plan their workdays to maximise their productivity.
Trust is natural when team members feel at ease in their working environment. From there, it’s all about nurturing that trust, building respect, and supporting personal boundaries to create an individualistic working atmosphere.
How Can Slack Statuses Help You Concentrate?
According to University of California research, it can take an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on track after being interrupted. If you’re in the middle of a focused work session and constantly interrupted by Slack notifications, your productivity will suffer with each new notification.
This is a significant impediment to worker efficiency in modern teams, particularly remote teams.
By muting channels, snoozing Slack notifications, and minimising disturbances during critical moments of concentrated work, bespoke, automatic Slack statuses can boost worker attention and productivity.
While manual Slack statuses might be helpful when inspiration strikes, automated Slack statuses can assist you in scheduling particular blocks of concentration time during your working day.
How Might Slack Statuses Help You Avoid Embarrassing Workday Moments?
We’ve all been in an awkward circumstance at work where our supervisor or a coworker asks where we are, what we’re doing, or how we’re doing it.
For most employees, these scenarios bring our productivity into question and reduce our comfort in the workplace.
All employees want to be trusted, have their time valued, and put their energy to good use.
Workers must be respected from the top down to achieve this. No one questions their locations or outputs during their working days.
You can clearly express where you are, what you’re doing, and how you manage your day by automating your Slack status.
This can assist you in avoiding another team member being irritated since you did not respond to their communication soon. It can also help your manager understand that you are on a break and should not be contacted.
Automated Slack statuses set defined boundaries for daily discussions and collaborations for employees.
Automated Slack statuses manage expectations about worker availability for leaders and coworkers.
What Special Slack Statuses Do Teams Employ?
Slack statuses are configurable, so you may be as creative as you want when making your own.
Regarding setting automated Slack statuses, several teams have developed their way. Managers of enterprise Slack accounts can also create Slack status suggestions from which team members can select.
We’ve compiled a list of the most frequent Slack statuses that teams are currently using.
Check out our Slack Emoji cheat sheet for more fun status alternatives. You can even make your Slack emoji to use in ordinary messages.
Time to concentrate
? Time to concentrate… DND
Lunchtime
? Out to lunch… return at 1 p.m.
Daily physical activity
?️ Getting some exercise in!
Coffee on the internet
☕ Coffee on the internet
Taking a breather
? Recharging… in 20 minutes
How to Automate Slack Status Reporting
Slack has a variety of third-party apps that can automatically set your Slack status.
With certain apps, such as Holopod, you can configure Slack to determine your state of work depending on your tools. If you’re at a Zoom meeting, for example, you might see something like this:
Here are some apps that can help you automate your Slack status:
- Holopod
- Calendar on Google
- Zapier
- RescueTime
How to Remove a Slack Status
Automating your Slack status is a terrific way to do it if you want to stay on a schedule. But what if you want to clear your Slack status manually? Assume you just finished a long work session or your morning workout.
You may manually clear your Slack status at any moment by clicking on your profile in the top right corner and then clicking Clear Status. Alternatively, when on the Set a Status screen.
When you manually pause your notifications, Slack’s built-in options for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and Tomorrow, or Custom status updates will appear. When you pick this option, your Slack status and availability will be cleared and changed at the stated time.
For example, if you want Do Not Disturb to occur every weekday at 6 p.m., your Slack status will change from available to away, and your notifications will be muted.
Slack Status Updates That Are Automated Can Help You Accomplish Better Work
Finally, the more of the daily routine you can automate, the more time you will have to focus on your business.
By automating your Slack status, you can connect your calendar events, daily plan, and concentrate time with your most-used daily communication tool. This results in a unified, easy-to-follow plan that allows you to schedule critical breaks, lunch, and concentrate time.
It also allows you to establish clear limits with your coworkers, giving them more peace of mind in the workplace.
Remember that automating your Slack status isn’t the only technique to boost your productivity in Slack. Other tools, such as Slack read receipts or muting your Slack conversations, can assist you in establishing concentration time and doing more productive work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, keeping slack always active on your desktop is easy when you use these tips. You can always be up-to-date on the latest changes and discussions by keeping slack open in your browser or adding it to your desktop environment. Finally, follow the guidelines outlined in this article so that all your conversations are easily searchable and accessible.
FAQs
How do you tell if Slack is being monitored?
There are a few ways to tell if your Slack is being monitored. The best way to tell is if you’re getting a lot of notifications or messages from people you don’t know and they are asking questions about your identity.
You can also check for unusual activity on your profile, like someone following you or sending messages in bulk. If you’re still unsure, log out and log back in again.
Does Slack monitor your activity?
We should not consider Slack a personal messaging app because it does not allow users to send direct messages to one another. The only way you can reach someone on Slack is by using the @mention function or by having them added as a contact in your team’s directory.
Slack does not monitor what users say on its platform, but it does monitor the activity of its users. When you are connected with someone on Slack, they can see what you do on their screen and vice versa.
What does the green dot with Z mean on Slack?
Green dot with Z:
The green dot with the letter Z is a symbol that appears in the upper left corner of the chat window. It means someone has added you to their contact list.
You can also use this symbol to indicate that you’re unavailable for chat and want others to know.
