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I've actually been thinking about hacking something together for this! I can't stand slack interruptions all day, would love all requests to work with me queued

by dchuk 8y ago

I've actually been thinking about hacking something together for this! I can't stand slack interruptions all day, would love all requests to work with me queued up for certain designated response windows that I control so I can have longer blocks of uninterrupted time.

sixstringtheory 8y ago
Doesn’t email already solve this problem?
- frockington 8y ago
  Not when you can get funded to make an app that implements AI and ML to create a sorted message queue that increase business resiliency in agile environments. In all seriousness I'm looking forward for the announcement from a startup that boils down to "We made email again"
- dahart 8y ago
  Not at all. If people actually chose email over walking over to interrupt me, there wouldn't even be a problem. Email doesn't help me queue up or schedule micro-meetings with people. Email doesn't do anything to work around scheduled meetings. Email is a black hole from the sender's point of view, they don't get any feedback other than a reply, and they don't know when to expect a reply. People who want immediate help will send email and then walk over and interrupt after a few minutes anyway. Email is a communication channel. I'm not looking for a communication channel, I'm looking for a scheduler & queue for micro-meetings. Email could work, of course, if the company sets up rules & expectation. If people knew they were required to send email before interrupting someone, and if people could count on a reply within an hour for anything, then email might be adequate, but as it stands, we already have email and we still have an interruption problem, so it's clearly not solving the problem.
  - sixstringtheory 8y ago
    I should've chosen my words more carefully for such a tacit response... in this case, I'd revise it to "couldn't email solve this problem?" I see where you're coming from though w.r.t. communication vs. scheduling. I found this on a quick search, which has a free tier that I might try: https://calendly.com https://calendly.com. Still, my worries are that: 1. it's not like email/calendaring/slack will go away, so now I have yet another tool to maintain (at least Calendly have calendar integrations) 2. like email, it could be abused, just in new ways I don't know about yet... what problems will arise that drive us towards more new tools to solve them? I'm not sure the marginal improvement over using email/slack/calendars, plus some sort of rules/expectations, would be worth adopting another tool, but I am curious to see how it works out.
    - dahart 8y ago
      I totally see where you're coming from too. You're right; it's not necessarily an app that I want. Ultimately, it's expectations & behaviors that I most want to change, not add yet another app to my day.
  - dchuk 8y ago
    With both email and slack (and other forms of "push" messaging) you have no control over what someone sends to you when (you could of course just close them, but then you have to remember to open them). What I'm instead thinking of is essentially a message queue that holds any messages directed at you until you want to respond to them, and then they're all pushed to you at that time. This would also allow you to naturally auto reply to everything ("this user usually checks things around noon and 5 everyday"). Who knows, it could be a bunch of human nature that needs training that no software can do. I just know that I get a lot of "got a second?"s a day and would love a place for those to sit until I decide to get to them.
- danenania 8y ago
  Email is a low priority queue, and it’s gotten to the point where it’s unreliable because everyone’s inbox is overwhelmed. Slack is (or should be) a high priority queue. It seems like something in between is needed. A place for “please deal with this soon, but don’t stop what you’re already doing” and that has far less noise than email so you know a request will be seen.
WorldMaker 8y ago
Slack at least tries to use platform notifications so you can use your OS' Quiet Hours / Focus Assist tools for immediate help with it.

by dchuk 8y ago

sixstringtheory 8y ago

Doesn’t email already solve this problem?

frockington 8y ago
Not when you can get funded to make an app that implements AI and ML to create a sorted message queue that increase business resiliency in agile environments. In all seriousness I'm looking forward for the announcement from a startup that boils down to "We made email again"
dahart 8y ago
Not at all. If people actually chose email over walking over to interrupt me, there wouldn't even be a problem. Email doesn't help me queue up or schedule micro-meetings with people. Email doesn't do anything to work around scheduled meetings. Email is a black hole from the sender's point of view, they don't get any feedback other than a reply, and they don't know when to expect a reply. People who want immediate help will send email and then walk over and interrupt after a few minutes anyway. Email is a communication channel. I'm not looking for a communication channel, I'm looking for a scheduler & queue for micro-meetings. Email could work, of course, if the company sets up rules & expectation. If people knew they were required to send email before interrupting someone, and if people could count on a reply within an hour for anything, then email might be adequate, but as it stands, we already have email and we still have an interruption problem, so it's clearly not solving the problem.
- sixstringtheory 8y ago
  I should've chosen my words more carefully for such a tacit response... in this case, I'd revise it to "couldn't email solve this problem?" I see where you're coming from though w.r.t. communication vs. scheduling. I found this on a quick search, which has a free tier that I might try: https://calendly.com https://calendly.com. Still, my worries are that: 1. it's not like email/calendaring/slack will go away, so now I have yet another tool to maintain (at least Calendly have calendar integrations) 2. like email, it could be abused, just in new ways I don't know about yet... what problems will arise that drive us towards more new tools to solve them? I'm not sure the marginal improvement over using email/slack/calendars, plus some sort of rules/expectations, would be worth adopting another tool, but I am curious to see how it works out.
  - dahart 8y ago
    I totally see where you're coming from too. You're right; it's not necessarily an app that I want. Ultimately, it's expectations & behaviors that I most want to change, not add yet another app to my day.
- dchuk 8y ago
  With both email and slack (and other forms of "push" messaging) you have no control over what someone sends to you when (you could of course just close them, but then you have to remember to open them). What I'm instead thinking of is essentially a message queue that holds any messages directed at you until you want to respond to them, and then they're all pushed to you at that time. This would also allow you to naturally auto reply to everything ("this user usually checks things around noon and 5 everyday"). Who knows, it could be a bunch of human nature that needs training that no software can do. I just know that I get a lot of "got a second?"s a day and would love a place for those to sit until I decide to get to them.
danenania 8y ago
Email is a low priority queue, and it’s gotten to the point where it’s unreliable because everyone’s inbox is overwhelmed. Slack is (or should be) a high priority queue. It seems like something in between is needed. A place for “please deal with this soon, but don’t stop what you’re already doing” and that has far less noise than email so you know a request will be seen.

WorldMaker 8y ago

Slack at least tries to use platform notifications so you can use your OS' Quiet Hours / Focus Assist tools for immediate help with it.