Comment by smileybarry | Hacker News Reader

Comment by smileybarry | Hacker News Reader

I tweak my Slack pretty heavily to suit my ADHD but 90% of it is: turn off (desktop) notifications entirely. Not "sometimes", all of it. (I just set Windows to DND so I still get Slack's red dot) I notice the red dot as soon as it appears anyway, but the lack of bigger visuals & audio means if I'm actually focused (and don't notice the red dot) I don't get yanked out of it.

The other 10% is:

* Mute unnecessary channels

* Turn off mentions entirely for channels where they don't mean much other than "@XYZ is looking at it"

* Set mobile notifications to "only if away" (+ a work hours schedule; if it's important they can click the "notify anyway" link)

* If you're on Android: change the notification sound to something custom that's a lot more "calm" and quieter, because you notice it anyway and it won't give off the "important! DM! check now!" feeling that all of Slack's do. (I miss this on iOS)

* On really bad days (focus-wise): don't be afraid to hide or close Slack entirely to just focus. I usually just put it away in Windows' extended notification tray, so I can occasionally check it without relaunching (or appearing offline/away).

I don't have ADHD and yet I still do all of this. Removing all notification dots/numbers, no previews, muting channels, suppressing mentions in some channels, separating channels into "infrequent"/"team"/"org" sections and keeping some collapsed (looking at them once a day). On mobile removing notification sound, preview and also removing notification from lock screen (only allowing in notification center).

You can also set your status to permanent "responses will be delayed". No one has the right to my attention within a few seconds (except when oncall). I use slack the way it makes me productive.

How do you manage to not click on the slack icon despite having seen the red dot ? When I see the notification icon, I won't be able to focus on something else until I cleared the notification.

Turn off icon badging as well. No notifications really means _no_ notifications. This is the way.

But then there's the anxiety of waiting like 4 hours, opening it, and seeing a bunch of critical messages you weren't around for. I need either a robot that will gently tap me on the shoulder and quietly tell me to check my notifications, or somehow relay the badge to a collar on my dog so he can bark at me. The badge is the worst. The sounds are the worst. At this point I rather just have a landline people can call me on with a voice machine.

I've completely forgotten about the era when anyone could screen their own calls with the equipment they already had, they just needed to figure out "oh I should let _every_ call go to voicemail after one ring and wait to hear who it actually is first"

How did we go backwards? rhetorical question, but can we bring it back with what we currently have?

It feels like we're getting back to that with focus states in iOS and Android, but half my apps still don't tell the API who sent the message and just set the notification title... (and some do but they don't link it to the contact, so the anti-DND rule never goes off)

I have that on my Pixel phone, if it detects a number that isn't in my contacts, it'll auto-screen the call and provide me with a text transcript of their response. I can see what the person says and choose to answer or let them just continue on to leave a message.

And if it thinks it's actually a spam call, I don't even get it ringing, it just quietly "handles" it (but obviously takes a message so I can call back if it was wrong).

ah, that's neat! on my iphone the only option is to send all calls that aren't in my contacts to voicemail, which is just me saying "please send me a text message"

>How did we go backwards?

By incentivizing smart people to tinker with silly crap instead of work on meaningful problems.

You can hide the app (no badge, no dot visible) and snooze notifications, but leave them on system-wide, and then if someone mentions you with something important, they can click the "yes this is important" confirmation link. (And if someone abuses that then you can mute them personally)

set profile description telling people to call or text you if urgent

> there's the anxiety of waiting like 4 hours, opening it, and seeing a bunch of critical messages you weren't around for.

Tell people to call your phone if it is urgent. Everything else can wait 4 hours, right?

I still click it, but I disabled mentions on some more public channels so it doesn't happen as often. If it appears a lot and I need to get stuff done, I just drag Slack into the expanded tray so I don't even see the dot. (the numberless dot, not the [1] badge)

Use the 'mark as unread' as a todo list, so you often have a dot and become desensitized.

i personally use the hide feature for the dock.

Make sure to subscribe to a channel that is super busy that you don’t care the slightest bit about. That way it will always be red dot and it will mean nothing to you.

I have ADHD, and this is how I use Slack too. Works wonders and makes it manageable.

Another thing I've found useful is just leaving channels where I find little to no value. If there's something important you need to be involved in, 99% of the time you'll get added back and can catch-up to contribute. In my experience with Slack, you end up in channels for "visibility" on things that have no impact on you and you have no impact on.

Exactly this! Mute channels, adjust your notifications, and if it's still annoying, just turn it off. You can always turn it back on and check it when you're ready and it's time to talk with people.

I think I have mine set so I only get pinged if there's a direct @ mention of my name. Sometimes I miss some stuff, but also, I get to miss stuff. If it's important, someone will ping me directly.

Yeah, I have notifications off for all software on all devices I use. I absolutely cannot stand nag crap showing up on my screen. You can imagine how much I love the modern web :)

My mobile slack can make notifications but can't make any sounds. Feels like a good level of 'can get in touch' without disrupting me when I'm not looking at my phone for a while.

You can have a custom sound that's silence, and set it to that!

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