My approach to Slack is to treat it like email. It lives in an open browser tab during work hours, tucked away in a corner of the screen where I can't see the

My approach to Slack is to treat it like email. It lives in an open browser tab during work hours, tucked away in a corner of the screen where I can't see the "IMPORTANT! EMERGENCY!!! READ ME NOW!!!" warning that is permanently on in the icon. From time to time, when I'm at a natural stopping point, I'll check email then I'll check Slack. Never allow it to send notifications or make noise. Certainly never install any form of native client. That means it's not on your phone or tablet (since the web version doesn't work on mobile devices anymore). That means it can't seek your attention when you're not in your office. It'll send little digest mails if you forget about it for a whole day. For me, that's enough to remind me that it exists and that I should open a Slack window as part of my morning email spin. I've worked with people who have alerts turned on for things, and they can't even hold a conversation for all the bongling going on on their devices. It seems unbearable.