The document provides a comprehensive set of tips for effectively using Slack in a remote work setting, highlighting strategies for project organization, communication channels, and managing notifications. Key suggestions include creating specific channels for projects and events, using topics for todo lists, and employing strategies like `/collapse` for file management and `@here` for non-urgent communication. It emphasizes the importance of organization and asynchronous communication to enhance team collaboration and productivity.

1. Slack pro-tips

2. Hi,
I’m Andrzej Krzywda

3. In 2007 I founded
Arkency

4. Arkency has been remote
and async from the
beginning

5. We’re now 18 people

6. We love Slack

7. We learnt how to use
Slack in the best ways

8. Today, we’d like to share
those lessons with you

9. Let’s start!

10. create a channel for
each project

11. in project channels make a topic
with the link to github, trello and
hackpad describing the project.

12. use the channel topic to create
a list of tickets - manually
update after every change.
Think about it as micro-trello. We use it for managing customer
support issues for people who bought books. We keep a list of
leads that await our answer. When trello is too much for given
micro-project, just use topics as TODO list.

13. create a `#project-with-
customer` private channel
(they don't see other channels)

14. star the most frequently
visited channels for you -
they will appear at the top

15. mute the channels which
distract you the most and
don't bring daily value

16. create a `#calendar` channel which
overcommunicates about absent times. We
use it to write that we will be on holidays,
absent, starting later, finishing earlier than
usually. That kind of stuff.

17. create `#alternativeworld` channel
where all crazy ideas are welcome,
but all scepticism is not welcome

18. are you going to a conference together? - create
a temporary channel for that and discuss it over
there - when it's already after the conference,
consider archiving it. This works great before
the conference to discuss itinerary, payments,
schedules, routes, in general to plan every
aspect of it. It works great during the conference
for writing notes and comments.

19. create `#recruitment` channel
- where you coordinate all
recruitment activities

20. create `#social` channel and integrate all
the people twitters here - easier for others
to RT or Fav. We have integrated our
coworkers twitter notifications there as well
as our gurus and inspirators.

21. use `/collapse` to
collapse all the files ( `/
expand` to revert)

22. `/shrug` to make the
shrug thingy ` ¯_( )_/¯ `.

23. disable notifications in Notifications
in System Preferences. Nothing is
more disruptive than random
'@channel' or chatter.

24. use `@here` to ask for review or feedback. It won't
send external notifications to those who are not right
now on Slack. They will only see in-app notification
when they are on Slack. It's a great technique when
want to communicate something to more people but
there is no need for immediate action, no urgency.

25. create a self-channel (`#andrzej`) for
yourself (as the developer), invite all,
but accept that some may not be
interested in reading/attending

26. overcommunicate your ideas/
thoughts/tasks in you self-
channel, treat is as a microblog

27. if you often create new channels,
periodically remind others about them. We
do it on `#arkency`, our most general
channel

28. suggest a routine to your team to
review the list of channels - maybe
they're missing some new ones?

29. `/hangout` is the fastest way to
open a new hangout (and you
don't need to go through the
broken google UI)

30. create #links channel - encourage people
to post interesting links. Avoid discussion
on how old/fresh the link is. Don't care
about duplicates. People discover internet
in their own tempo.

31. watch the links people post and
turn them into tweets. Same
with thoughts and smart replys.

32. Slack-driven
blogposts
http://blog.arkency.com/2015/10/slack-driven-blogposts/

33. create `#non-work-related` channel (ours
is called `#lifestyle`) - nice way of learning
each other, learning some lifehacks etc.
Your internal company facebook wall.

34. post code snippets (use three grave
accents to wrap it) - it's a great way to start
discussions about something real - the
code

35. not everyone deals well with huge
walls of text - if you wrote a lot of
things, add a TLDR at the end

36. some people are frustrated when you @mention
them, some are totally OK with this - learn what's
best to everyone - remind them, they can setup
the notification settings to avoid interruptions.

37. if you feel/fear that during a
conversation things are hard to explain
- consider recording a screencast
(Tapes is a great tool for that)
http://usetapes.com

38. if you feel/fear that during a
conversation things are hard to
explain - consider jumping into
hangout/skype/mumble/screenhero

39. t's OK to defer answers/dicussions - that's
the spirit of async, you don't need to drop
all you do, just because someone asked
you something (use `/reminder` to go back
to it later)

40. you were asked for something, but
you don't remember on which
channel? consider searching for '?'
in the Slack search

41. you can bookmark any message
by Starring it - then you can
access it in the Starred Items
menu option

42. slackbot random
responses
You can use it to randomly select one person

43. let slackbot resolve shortcuts. For example
writing 'mumble' generates a response
with link to open Mumble connected to our
server `mumble://mumble.arkency/weekly`

44. use shift-ctrl-cmd-4 to make
screenshots (mac-only?) and then
paste the picture directly to Slack

45. use shift-cmd-4 to make Dropbox
screenshots (benefit: it saves in Dropbox and
you get the link, drawback: takes longer to
upload and often doesn't expand in Slack)

46. be careful with
integrations after
renaming a channel

47. don't send private
messages unless it's
really private

48. when quoting a slack massage - copy the
link instead of plain text (simply right click
on the time next to message, then choose
something like "Copy link address", then
paste the link as a quote)

49. use `+:emoji:` to add a
_reaction_ that others can
upvote. For example `+:rage:`.

50. close Slack. you don't need
it open all the time. Close it
and enjoy your focus.

51. use ctr-enter to write longer
messages - this a good trick to avoid
scepticism and criticism before you
actually explain everything.

52. use backticks `foo` to highlight one part
of some message and refer to that. It's
a good way of answering some longer
messages with multiple points.

53. THAT’S ALL!

54. Did you like it?

55. Interested in learning more
how to make your team
more async and remote?

56. You may enjoy our ebook:
Developers Oriented
Project Management
http://blog.arkency.com/developers-oriented-project-
management/

57. Not sure yet?
Read the interview with
Robert - the main author
http://www.infoq.com/articles/developers-oriented-project-
management