Use Slack’s Built-in Reminders to Stay on Top of Tasks
Slack is loaded with many features that most casual users don’t know exist. One of my favorites is the function / remind.
It works quite simply: you just type “/ remind” into the Slack channel, and then follow what you want Slack to remind you of and when. For example, you can tell Slack “/ remind me to email John in 15 minutes” or “Remind me to consult Sarah about this investment project next Friday.”
Reminders can literally be about anything. I could only remind myself personally of things, but depending on where you sit in your office’s Slack food chain, you might as well remind colleagues .
You can also install them in any channel. I always do this in my personal account, so as not to annoy all my colleagues, and here you are.
When it’s time for your reminder, you will receive a DM from Slackbot with any message you ask him to send to you. For example, this afternoon I asked Slackbot to remind me to email my friend John in 15 minutes about the time I thought I would finish a project I was working on.
After 15 minutes, I got this DM from Slackbot.
Once received, you can mark something as complete or delete if you are ready to do so. If you’re not quite ready to complete a task, you also have the option to postpone it for 20 minutes or a week. When the snooze period ends, you will be reminded again.
There are MANY other options for reminders, the key is simply finding something that works for you.
For me, my working day is completely dedicated to Slack. Even when I’m not sitting at the computer, I have it on my phone. Since Slack grabs my attention more than my phone or anything else during the day, Slack is the most effective way to remind myself of tasks I don’t want to forget during the day.
I found myself just turning off alarms (or not setting them at all), but using a tool I’m already using makes things a lot easier.