#38: Don't Blame Slack

I've heard people blame Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other messaging apps for their distracted minds and lack of focus.

They complain about the red dot signaling there's a new unread chat, the notification bell that calls them away from their most important work, and the pressure to respond immediately to every message.

But if you think about it, these aren't the real issues.

After all, one can easily turn off notifications, let their team know what they're up to through their Slack status, press snooze and be reminded of a message they don't know how to respond to yet and set up their messaging apps according to their preferences and working style.

Maybe, just maybe, we struggle to focus because we fear missing out and want to be updated all the time. Or we don't want to be perceived a certain way so we want to always be available for everyone. Or we're procrastinating and we turn our unread messages into convenient excuses to delay the work we actually need to do.

So before we go blaming our tools, let's first examine the way we think about our work.

More often than not, we don't have to change the tools we're using—we just have to change our mindset.

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Hi, and thanks for reading! I'm Kishly, a cheerleader of creatives and copywriter turned marketing strategist. Bookmark this blog to read my daily atomic essays on marketing, compassionate productivity, creative living, and lifelong learning. Or subscribe to Process, my weekly-ish newsletter for young adults (and the young at heart) in pursuit of wisdom and wonder. ✨