How to stop working all the time (not only for remote workers)
A recurring problem with being able to work anywhere is that you end up working anywhere, and all the time. Reacting to pings and messages can easily replace your hobbies, and suddenly you are close to burnout. Deciding to ignore those pings will not work. You need a system to not even realize that there has been a ping.
Trust me, if the house is on fire, your team will get hold of you in another way.
A case study: timezones can be your friend
You get a ping at 8 pm in UTC+2. A customer needs assistance ASAP. Dutiful you jump into debugging, coding, researching - even though your brain would rather relax.
At around 11 pm you figure out what happened and inform the customer. They are ecstatic. They express their gratitude. And then they go home! After all, it's 5 pm in their timezone.
You just sacrificed 3 hours of your free time for something that will only be useful 16 hours later. ASAP for you meant "now", while for the customer it was merely a request for some predictability.
Imagine telling the customer that you are investigating and that you will get back to them before they get into the office tomorrow. Suddenly you can continue with your evening plans and use your fresh morning to dig into the problem. Something that takes three long hours after dinner requires just half the time the next morning.
[Yes, there are extensions, e.g. if you manage a banking app. Even then, many customer requests can wait a couple of hours as long as you tell the customer what the next steps are and how long they might have to wait.]
But I get pings at horrible hours
Your colleagues won't stop pinging you, nor will customers. But a ping does not mean the house is on fire. It's simply a way to highlight something you should be looking into tomorrow. The problem isn't the ping. The problem is your reaction.
Now, as humans, we are hardwired to respond when someone calls out to us. That's why most social apps use those little red highlights to get you to log in yet again. If you can't ignore an unread message, you need to make sure you can't check for unread messages. Your system is always stronger than your willpower.
Work live balance from a Slack point of view
Both at Klaus, as well as in my previous position at Automattic, most pings originate in Slack. You can snooze notifications, but pings can still get through if the sender decides. I can't simply close the Slack app itself, because work is not the only community that uses the tool.
To give you a little insight, these are some of the communities where you can find me:
and more...
That means, closing Slack is not an option. I want to continue being part of those communities, specifically outside of my work hours. At the same time, I don't want to be dragged back into work, because of a notification I can't ignore.
Enter Social Messaging Apps.
Those apps allow you to access your Slack communities without opening the Slack app itself. This means you can set up your work place Slack in the official Slack app. Then set up all your other networks in one of the Social Messaging Apps. Personally, I use Rambox (because it's open-source), but there are many more out there.
By separating work Slack from everything else Slack, you can effectively close your office door (command + Q
on your Mac). No notificatiosn will get through to you - after you've logged out of your work Slack on your phone. Believe me, those notifications will be there tomorrow morning for you to work through.
Love your brain - to be productive
For your brain to be active, attentive and creative, you need to switch off regularly. You need to recharge, and Slack pings don't add any value to that. So rather than sluggishly doing ONE MORE THING - go to the gym, go to bed, snuggle up with a partner, do a puzzle, write a blogpost. That Slack ping will still be there tomorrow.
And if the world is on fire, we'll call your phone.