Self-messaging on Slack sounds lonely, but it’s my best productivity hack

Humans on common have greater than 6,000 ideas per day, with a number of the most necessary ones taking place throughout work hours. That’s the place note-taking apps and notepads turn out to be useful. Or, for those who’re like me, Slack.

For my Slack customers on the market, enable me to share with you one primary but underutilized trick to remain on high of your ideas. (But, additionally, for those who use a distinct collaboration service, learn on nonetheless. This is simply as relevant to you.)

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Self-messaging appears self-explanatory, proper? You begin a brand new dialog, but as a substitute of typing in a co-worker’s identify, you kind your personal and hit enter. Welcome to the protected haven of your most genius work concepts, the place every part is timestamped, searchable, formatted excellent, and should or might not result in enterprise success.

As a journalist, I take advantage of my private inbox to jot down story concepts, keyboard shortcuts, footage and movies, article hyperlinks, and extra. I additionally use the house to draft messages that I ship to the broader group. (There’s nothing extra pleasant than hitting enter on an incomplete message. This will repair that.) 

The best half is how I format hyperlinks and embed pictures will keep the identical after I switch the copy to a different group chat or channel as a result of, effectively, every part is on Slack. In truth, ship your self that paragraph-long blast to catch a preview of the way it will look to others. You can all the time delete it out of your inbox afterward.

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There’s additionally the good thing about your private inbox all the time showing on the high of your direct messages record, supplying you with fast entry to your previous ideas. And no, you will not get any pointless notifications each time you message your self. This is way more intuitive than self-emailing or self-texting.

Lastly, I emphasize this apply for work-related concepts solely. Integrating Slack into your private life is something but work-life steadiness. Google Keep remains to be my go-to for note-taking exterior of the 9-to-5, but when I’m clocked in, there isn’t any beating the effectivity of self-messaging on the platform I’m already working from.