NDER OFSLACK
DERSON IS SO
TIVEHE’S SAID
KJUST SEVEN
ADAY. DREAMY.Benjamin Franklin famously
kept a diary of his every waking
hour, blocking out time for tasks
meaningful and menial, like
putting loose objects away.
But as admirable as the minute-by-minute schedule might seem, we can
only imagine what Franklin’s to-do
list would have looked like if he also
had to contend with distractions as
potent as Instagram DMs, LinkedIn
requests and paperless bills.
Yes, we’re living in inbox-dependenttimes. An era dominated by noise,
ineficiency and, more than anything
else, the bastard contagion that is
information overload. But one company
says we don’t need to be: Slack.
Five years after its launch, eightmillion daily users seem to agree –
as does Amazon, which was reportedly
eyeing the company with a $12bn
offer. Slack is an ofice chat app that
promises to wean us all off time-
wasting, productivity-sucking habits,
and get teams back to what they do
best: collaborating. And the proof
seems to be in the pudding. Cal
Henderson, the company’s co-founder
and chief technology oficer, is still yet
to email a single one of his co-workers.
Henderson and his ilk represent anew, determined wave of productivity
maximalists, whose philosophies
favour life balance over midnight
emails and meaningful collaboration
over jealously guarded projects.
The question is, what does ive years
without intra-ofice email teach you
about getting things done? Plenty.`
STAY FOCUSED
It’s a familiar phenomenon: you’re in a deep
state of flow, your to-do list evaporating before
your eyes, as your heart swells with pride at
just how well you’re killing it today. And then,
you have to dig through your files to find an old
version of a document. And then, you have to
log onto a clunky third-party system that asks
you to reset your password and then forces you
to download an app update. Suddenly, that vibe
is gone. And you’re back to square one.
“It’s the moment of remembering where
something is: how was this shared with me?
Do I have to go onto Google Drive? Is it in
Dropbox? Attached to some email? Do I have
the latest version?” says Henderson. “It’s that
nightmare scenario.”Slack’s solution is simple: building
communications into channels, rather than
threads. This always-on communication style- looping teams together, or those working on
a particular project – cuts off the need to add
emailsintothemix.Slack’ssecondarysolution?
Plug-ins. Popular apps from providers like
Google and Dropbox work seamlessly within
team channels, saving the need to pass along
links.
Yourtakeaway:littlemomentsofdistraction
cansnowballintoextraemailrequestsand
hours of productivity lost. According to a 2008
University of California study, once distracted,
it takes the average person around 25 minutes
toregainatrainofthought–andmomentum.
“Killingthatoffisanoblegoalinandofitself,”
Productivity has long
been an obsession for
both great men and those
seeking greatness.
“Email is the cockroach
of the internet... there’s
all this formality that
comes with it.”
STEWART BUTTERFIELD,
SLACK CO-FOUNDERShould you
walk out of
bad meetings?
Elon Musk might well be
the world’s busiest genius.
Beyond supposedly solving
South Australia’s energy
woes, he’s the CEO of both
Tesla and SpaceX and founded
neurotechnology company
Neuralink as well as mysterious
tunnelling project, The Boring
Company, back in in 2016.
That’s on top of what seems to
be a fairly hectic love life.
So perhaps it’s little surprise
he doled out some productivity
advice some hailed as visionary.
“Walk out of a meeting or drop
off a call as soon as it is obvious
you aren’t adding value,” he saidELON MUSK LISTENS
IN AS POTUS DISCUSSES
REGULATIONS. OR MAYBE
CROWD SIZES.PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES.