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When messages fly by in Slack, it can be difficult to keep track of what’s important. Luckily, there are a few built-in features that can help you stay organized. Here’s how I take advantage of them.
Bookmark Messages With Save for Later
If you need to keep a few important messages or announcements on hand in Slack, you should try using the Save for Later feature. When you archive messages with Save for Later, they will be directly accessible in your Notifications tab.
The Save for Later feature is useful as a to-do list or for storing important reference material over the long term. The only major drawback to the feature is that messages you have saved may be buried when you receive new notifications.
Pin Important Messages for Everyone
If you want an important message to be easily accessible to everyone, you might prefer to pin it instead. You can only pin direct messages or messages in workspaces where you have an owner or admin role.
When someone has pinned a message in a direct message or channel, you can access it by clicking thePinnedbutton in the header, just under the channel name. These messages will be permanently stored until someone deletes or unpins them.
Find Messages Efficiently With Search
If you don’t know where an important message is, you can use Slack’s search feature to locate it. Slack is effective at finding relevant messages (unlike some other platforms, like Gmail) and returns an easily scrollable list sorted by recency after each search.
If your search returned too many messages, you can use filters to narrow things down further. Slack allows you to filter by channel, sender, and even the reactions you or other users have added to a post. You canfind nearly anything with the right Slack search techniques.
Use Lists to Manage Tasks From Messages
The newLists feature is especially useful if you want to keep track of thingsyou need to do within Slack. You can create a list by clicking the… Three Dotmenu icon, selectingLists, and pressing theNew Listbutton.
Once you’ve created your to-do list, you can add any message as a task by hovering over it and clicking on theAdd to list…button. Afterward, you’ll have the ability to sort through, complete, and add new tasks as you work through the day.
Categorize Channels and People in the Sidebar
If you want to organize Slack itself rather than specific messages, it’s crucial to take advantage of the sidebar organization features. You can create a newSectionto organize your channels or direct messages by hovering over either dropdown, right-clicking, and choosingCreate > Create section.
Once you’ve created a new section, you can add direct messages or channels by dragging them into your new section. Afterward, you can move direct messages or channels and create or delete your sections without any limits.
In the future, we might see more organization features added to Slack. Andwith the help of third-party integrations, you may even be able to expand your toolset today. But no matter what tools you have, the right organization technique will help you stay on top of your workflow at all times.
