5 ms·

I put myself on "tentative" in teams meetings except the ones with my direct team members. I don't check my email more than 5 times a day: start of day, mid mo

I put myself on "tentative" in teams meetings except the ones with my direct team members. I don't check my email more than 5 times a day: start of day, mid morning, before lunch, mid afternoon, end of day. In your case that's 20 emails to look at each time and I bet adding some inbox rules would break it up into something even more manageable (3 to 5 emails per folder they hit). Teams and slack chats are muted by default for me unless I'm mentioned and that's what most people expect. This yields good ~90 minute chunks for me to work with despite all the noise. I don't even block out my schedule. I just let some days be shitty if they're going to be (usually no more than about 3 half days lost per week).

hackernewds 3y ago
You can use an app such as Day wise to batch your notifications, else I would totally not check anything. I still do want a ping, but only every X hours. Not sure if such an app exists for web/desktop.
wonderwonder 3y ago
These are all pretty good ideas. Will give it a try. Thanks
keyle 3y ago
Same, but I get pinged twice per hour on average on Slack. And it's direct questions not @here. It drives me bonkers and I tell people off but somehow it still happens. I think direct conversations online is turning people into junkies of the now. I actually day dreamed about going back to emails sometimes last week... Then I woke up when the notification bell went off.
- nvarsj 3y ago
  Just quit out of slack when you need to focus. I’ve done this before at gigs where people abused Slack notifications. The strategic solution is to improve the culture around chat notifications.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- wonderwonder 3y ago
  The alert sounds drive me insane. I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in. Slack and Teams at the same time is a disaster. I miss only email too.
  - scubbo 3y ago
    > I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in You can remove that number, and I highly recommend you do so (and, more, that you set your taskbar to auto-hide).
- tobr 3y ago
  You know, you can just quit. (Not your job, Slack.)
  - keyle 3y ago
    That is not true. It's embedded in the way we work and essentially not being on it is either not working, or not being part of the team. You have to use the tools of the job that your team is using.
    - fknorangesite 3y ago
      They weren't suggesting quitting Slack permanently.
  - adrianmsmith 3y ago
    Maybe. One place I was at the CEO said everyone needed to be reachable on Slack within 15 minutes during work time. Nevertheless I would go offline for an hour or two at a time (which is as long as I can do deep work anyway) and it never seemed to be a problem. But directly disobeying the CEO always felt like something that was one unanswered Slack message away from disaster.
- dasil003 3y ago
  Telling people off is no good because it reifies your frustration, leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the counter-party and ultimately fails to achieve your goal since it's just one person out of (presumably) many who are pinging you. A better way to handle this is to just stop responding. Disable alerts, turn off Slack if you must. Put a message in your bio setting ground rules for how to engage with you with some context on your time management philosophy. If folks complain, have a conversation with your manager about it. In some cases prioritizing responsiveness may be a priority, but this naturally comes at the expense of deep work, and it needn't be everyone all the time. Twice an hour is ridiculous for an IC in any case, hard to diagnose without more details, but it definitely indicates some kind of problem that a competent manager should be able to help you address.
  - keyle 3y ago
    This might work in a large company. But not in a smaller company where you are the domain knowledge for many parts of it. I have raised it with my manager but it's one of those things "that come with the job". I have this pet theory that you're never as productive as the first year of employment, where you know your stuff and you're getting things done but people don't know it's you yet!!
    - dasil003 3y ago
      yeah I've spent 13+ years in companies of 1-50 engineers, and another 10+ years in larger orgs with thousands of technical staff. Even as a CTO in a small company I still found ways to protect focus time (including telling the CEO to call my cell if something was urgent). There are solutions if you are willing to examine your assumed constraints. Look at it this way: what will they do if you get fed up and leave?
    - ketzo 3y ago
      I mean, in a smaller company, you should theoretically be able to have closer relationships with the people asking you questions; surely you should be able to establish "hey, I might not always respond right away"
    - 3y ago
- throwaway292939 3y ago
  Snooze alerts? Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there.
  - fknorangesite 3y ago
    > Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there. Seriously. Keeping these conversations in DMs keeps the knowledge siloed and ensures the current situation will never get better.
  - sublinear 3y ago
    Teams channels are often much better than meetings. They might get their answers faster and for complex ones they can study it better. Also, nobody has to be put on the spot. Leaving them waiting a couple of hours max for an answer is usually the same wait time anyway. In the meantime you can also ask refining questions before producing the final answer.
user_named 3y ago
Putting tentative is the biggest asshole move you can do calendar-wise.
- sublinear 3y ago
  Where I work it's fine. They're stuff like standups or sprint planning for projects I'm not always actively contributing to. If I need to be there it's because I have a significant number of Jira issues assigned to me. The other meetings I set to tentative are the huge (hundreds of attendees) quarterlies, monthlies, etc. I don't usually do this for one-off meetings unless the organizer just optimistically added people from the org chart. In that case I will ask about it. I'm not saying I won't attend, but just that I don't know if I can. It's an honest answer. All this time adds up.
- d1sxeyes 3y ago
  Why? I often respond tentative to meetings, and don't want to come across as an asshole.
  - user_named 3y ago
    It's a way of you telling them you're not going to tell them if you'll attend or not.
    - d1sxeyes 3y ago
      I see it a bit differently, I see it as 'I have seen this invitation and know this call is happening, but I have other priorities at that time. I will attend if I can, but I don't think my participation is important enough to reschedule', and it gives the organiser an opportunity to say 'actually, we will need you on this call, can you suggest a time when you could definitely make it?'
- mdekkers 3y ago
  > Putting tentative is the biggest asshole move you can do calendar-wise. First of all, thats not a very nice way of putting things. Secondly your answer has little conversational value, you are not adding to the debate. Thirdly - that’s just like, your opinion, man.

hackernewds 3y ago

You can use an app such as Day wise to batch your notifications, else I would totally not check anything. I still do want a ping, but only every X hours. Not sure if such an app exists for web/desktop.

wonderwonder 3y ago

These are all pretty good ideas. Will give it a try. Thanks

keyle 3y ago

Same, but I get pinged twice per hour on average on Slack. And it's direct questions not @here. It drives me bonkers and I tell people off but somehow it still happens. I think direct conversations online is turning people into junkies of the now. I actually day dreamed about going back to emails sometimes last week... Then I woke up when the notification bell went off.

nvarsj 3y ago
Just quit out of slack when you need to focus. I’ve done this before at gigs where people abused Slack notifications. The strategic solution is to improve the culture around chat notifications.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
wonderwonder 3y ago
The alert sounds drive me insane. I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in. Slack and Teams at the same time is a disaster. I miss only email too.
- scubbo 3y ago
  > I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in You can remove that number, and I highly recommend you do so (and, more, that you set your taskbar to auto-hide).
tobr 3y ago
You know, you can just quit. (Not your job, Slack.)
- keyle 3y ago
  That is not true. It's embedded in the way we work and essentially not being on it is either not working, or not being part of the team. You have to use the tools of the job that your team is using.
  - fknorangesite 3y ago
    They weren't suggesting quitting Slack permanently.
- adrianmsmith 3y ago
  Maybe. One place I was at the CEO said everyone needed to be reachable on Slack within 15 minutes during work time. Nevertheless I would go offline for an hour or two at a time (which is as long as I can do deep work anyway) and it never seemed to be a problem. But directly disobeying the CEO always felt like something that was one unanswered Slack message away from disaster.
dasil003 3y ago
Telling people off is no good because it reifies your frustration, leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the counter-party and ultimately fails to achieve your goal since it's just one person out of (presumably) many who are pinging you. A better way to handle this is to just stop responding. Disable alerts, turn off Slack if you must. Put a message in your bio setting ground rules for how to engage with you with some context on your time management philosophy. If folks complain, have a conversation with your manager about it. In some cases prioritizing responsiveness may be a priority, but this naturally comes at the expense of deep work, and it needn't be everyone all the time. Twice an hour is ridiculous for an IC in any case, hard to diagnose without more details, but it definitely indicates some kind of problem that a competent manager should be able to help you address.
- keyle 3y ago
  This might work in a large company. But not in a smaller company where you are the domain knowledge for many parts of it. I have raised it with my manager but it's one of those things "that come with the job". I have this pet theory that you're never as productive as the first year of employment, where you know your stuff and you're getting things done but people don't know it's you yet!!
  - dasil003 3y ago
    yeah I've spent 13+ years in companies of 1-50 engineers, and another 10+ years in larger orgs with thousands of technical staff. Even as a CTO in a small company I still found ways to protect focus time (including telling the CEO to call my cell if something was urgent). There are solutions if you are willing to examine your assumed constraints. Look at it this way: what will they do if you get fed up and leave?
  - ketzo 3y ago
    I mean, in a smaller company, you should theoretically be able to have closer relationships with the people asking you questions; surely you should be able to establish "hey, I might not always respond right away"
  - 3y ago
throwaway292939 3y ago
Snooze alerts? Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there.
- fknorangesite 3y ago
  > Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there. Seriously. Keeping these conversations in DMs keeps the knowledge siloed and ensures the current situation will never get better.
- sublinear 3y ago
  Teams channels are often much better than meetings. They might get their answers faster and for complex ones they can study it better. Also, nobody has to be put on the spot. Leaving them waiting a couple of hours max for an answer is usually the same wait time anyway. In the meantime you can also ask refining questions before producing the final answer.

user_named 3y ago

Putting tentative is the biggest asshole move you can do calendar-wise.

sublinear 3y ago
Where I work it's fine. They're stuff like standups or sprint planning for projects I'm not always actively contributing to. If I need to be there it's because I have a significant number of Jira issues assigned to me. The other meetings I set to tentative are the huge (hundreds of attendees) quarterlies, monthlies, etc. I don't usually do this for one-off meetings unless the organizer just optimistically added people from the org chart. In that case I will ask about it. I'm not saying I won't attend, but just that I don't know if I can. It's an honest answer. All this time adds up.
d1sxeyes 3y ago
Why? I often respond tentative to meetings, and don't want to come across as an asshole.
- user_named 3y ago
  It's a way of you telling them you're not going to tell them if you'll attend or not.
  - d1sxeyes 3y ago
    I see it a bit differently, I see it as 'I have seen this invitation and know this call is happening, but I have other priorities at that time. I will attend if I can, but I don't think my participation is important enough to reschedule', and it gives the organiser an opportunity to say 'actually, we will need you on this call, can you suggest a time when you could definitely make it?'
mdekkers 3y ago
> Putting tentative is the biggest asshole move you can do calendar-wise. First of all, thats not a very nice way of putting things. Secondly your answer has little conversational value, you are not adding to the debate. Thirdly - that’s just like, your opinion, man.