Structuring Your Slack Channels for Maximum Efficiency

As a Slack user, it’s important that you prevent information overload and focus on the messages that are most relevant to you. Organizing your channels is a key way to keep track of your most important messages to be sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Group your channels

Group channels into categories that make sense to you. This can be based on roles/teams, departments, projects, etc. By clicking the "+" button, you can "Create new section" and drag & drop to move channels around.

Mute noisy channels

In large channels, not every message is relevant to you, and this can cause notification fatigue. Slack provides an option to only notify you when you’re directly mentioned in the channel. By clicking on the channel name in the Slack app, you can find the notification settings to “Mute” that channel.

Use descriptive channel names

A common pitfall is name a channel after a ticket (e.g. JIRA-123) or other code word, but these can be difficult to navigate through to find the most relevant information. Take the time to name the channel something useful, and feel free to use as many of the 80 characters they give you!

Use Slack apps to supercharge productivity

The Slack App Directory has over 2,400 apps available to better manage your notifications and channels. Unthread can help to track new messages as "tickets", and provide an inbox to help you close them out when you're done. This ensures new conversations don't get dropped over time.