Slack Lists are a handy feature used by teams to manage projects and gain better transparency. You can keep everything organized without having to add integrations. Here’s how Slack Lists can transform your productivity.
Content
- 1. Keep Everything Within One App
- 2. Focus Easily on the Most Important Tasks
- 3. View Overall Team Project Progress
- 4. Start With Templates to Save Time
- 5. Slack Lists Are Fully Customizable for Your Needs
1. Keep Everything Within One App
Despite using numerous Slack integrations for productivity, many of these still require you to leave the app for a full overview. This, however, is not the case with Lists.
Keeping everything within a single app is my favorite thing about Slack Lists. I notice my productivity drops significantly when I context-switch, and this is much less of a problem when I don’t continuously need to change apps.
To access a List, I simply need to go to its dedicated tab in the channel for which it was posted.
2. Focus Easily on the Most Important Tasks
I’ve learned over the years that productivity isn’t about trying to move mountains each day. Instead, you’ll do much better if you prioritize tasks and delegate or limit everything else that isn’t important. For example, as a writer, my main tasks are to write, edit, and pitch. I still do other things, but these don’t get as much attention.
Whether using Slack Lists for short-term or long-term projects, I find it very easy to prioritize tasks. I use a star system to determine what needs working on the most. You can also use this to delegate appropriately in your team, based on skill set.
I recommend picking five stars for your prioritization, as it’s much easier to segment tasks appropriately. In my opinion, three is too limiting.
3. View Overall Team Project Progress
Working together as a team requires trust and transparency, especially when you’re collaborating on big projects. For example, when I worked as a full-time Content Manager, I had to work closely with the other team members to get design assets, keyword research, and other elements.
Knowing how each task is progressing makes organization much easier and allows you to set reasonable deadlines. Slack Lists facilitates this by showing you a status for each assignment (plus who has been assigned).
For particularly large projects, you can use Lists alongside Slack Canvases. The latter is ideal for storing important related documents.
4. Start With Templates to Save Time
Slack is a pretty easy app to use in general, with plenty of useful Slack commands and an intuitive interface for better navigation. The Slack Lists feature is no exception, I build my own templates in the app.
Despite the initial upfront time required, creating templates has saved me significant time over the long run. Moreover, you can choose from multiple pre-defined list options in Slack.
I start creating templates by going to the three-dot icon and selecting Templates.
In the top right-hand corner is a Build a template button, which I then click on.
Next, I’ll expand Add a template and select List.
From here, you can select your list type (e.g. deal-tracking, quarterly plans, and backlog trackers). Pick one and choose Add to template.
On the next page, name your template and give it a description. Then, select Save template.
You can then make a new channel and customize visibility; do both of these before selecting Create.
Select the dedicated tab at the top of your newly created channel to view and customize it.
5. Slack Lists Are Fully Customizable for Your Needs
I typically customize multiple elements of my Slack lists, such as the status tags and number of stars I use for prioritization. I also, of course, adjust the different tasks so that they’re relevant to my projects.
Slack Lists lets you create custom fields, meaning that you can outline your projects precisely how you would like. If you don’t want to install and manage Slack apps, this is a viable alternative.
I also like how you can customize which channel you add each task to. On top of that, you can choose from table and board layouts. So, overviewing information is very straightforward.
Learning how to use Slack Lists is very simple, and once you have, you’ll be able to keep all of your projects within a single app. Collaborating with other team members is simple, and you can customize everything precisely how you want. This feature may help sway your decision when comparing Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Image credit: Canva. All screenshots by Danny Maiorca.
Danny Maiorca –
Contributor
Danny has written for online audiences for 10+ years. He specializes in Apple products and loves writing on his MacBook, keeping in touch on his iPhone, and measuring his workouts on his Apple Watch. Danny’s work has featured in multiple places online, including MUO, Lifewire, and Guiding Tech. Away from the keyboard, he’s passionate about photography and leading an active lifestyle outdoors.
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