Adjusting your Slack status is an excellent method for informing your team about your current activities and your availability level. It’s an uncomplicated functionality that can enhance communication and ensure everyone is informed. In this article, I’m going to demonstrate how you can adjust your status on Slack, along with sharing a few of my own strategies and advice to fully leverage this feature.
Setting Your Status on Slack
To set your status on Slack, follow these steps:
- Open the Slack app on your computer or mobile device.
- Click on your profile picture or initials at the top right corner of the screen.
- From the dropdown menu, select “Set a status”.
- In the status input field, type a message that describes your current status or what you’re working on.
- You can also choose an emoji to accompany your status message. Just click on the emoji icon next to the input field and select the one you want.
- Specify how long you want the status to last by selecting the duration from the dropdown menu. Options include: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, or “Don’t clear”.
- Finally, click the “Save” button to set your status.
Now that you know how to set your status, let me share some personal touches and commentary to make it even more useful.
Adding Personal Touches
When setting your status, don’t be afraid to add some personal touches. For example, instead of just saying “Busy”, you could say “Busy working on an important project, but feel free to reach out if it’s urgent!” This gives your team more context and encourages them to only disturb you when necessary.
Using emojis can also help convey your status more effectively. For instance, if you’re on a lunch break, you could set your status to “Out to lunch ?”. This not only lets your team know that you’re away from your desk but also adds a fun and relatable touch to your status.
Using Status for Focused Work Time
One of the most valuable ways to use the status feature in Slack is to indicate your focused work time. If you’re working on a task that requires deep concentration, set your status to “Do Not Disturb” or “Deep Work in Progress”. This signals to your team that you should only be interrupted for urgent matters and helps create a more productive work environment.
Additionally, you can add a link to the specific task or project you’re working on in your status message. This makes it easier for your team to find and join the relevant conversation or provide updates, saving you time and keeping everyone on the same page.
Conclusion
Setting a status in Slack is a powerful way to communicate your availability and current focus to your team. By taking advantage of personal touches, emojis, and utilizing the status feature for focused work time, you can enhance communication, reduce interruptions, and ultimately increase productivity. Give it a try and see how it improves your team’s collaboration!
