SEATTLE, June 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RescueTime, the award-winning time management app, today introduced a new integration with Slack. RescueTime for Slack will help workers know when co-workers are busy on focused work, so they can avoid disrupting each other’s moments of peak flow and productivity during the workday.
RescueTime interviewed team leads from organizations with greater than 200 employees and organization consultants who work with companies of greater than 200 employees. Team leads cited the ease of people being able to interrupt each other as the main challenge of workplace productivity. Consultants cited collaboration overload, the overuse of systems to communicate and share information as a top challenge.
Slack can help make work more fun and give remote teams a stronger sense of togetherness. But one downside of Slack and other instant messaging and collaboration technologies is that they sometimes make people feel like they have to be “always on.” The notifications from Slack can be addictive and distracting, taking people out of their moments of focus and productive flow.
“Communication is good but sometimes we can have too much of a good thing – especially if it results in workers not having uninterrupted time to actually get work done,” said Robby Macdonell, CEO of RescueTime. “We love Slack and use it at our company every day, but knew we had to find a better way to manage our interactions to help people be more productive. RescueTime for Slack feels like stepping out of an open plan workspace and into a quiet and private office.”
Employees at large companies each send an average of more than 200 Slack messages per week. RescueTime research indicates that knowledge workers “check in” on communication tools every six minutes, and the total cost of workers’ time spent on email and communications apps like Slack adds up to $28,209 per employee, per year.
RescueTime for Slack gives workers a way to temporarily turn off the flood of notifications, while still maintaining visibility to their colleagues to show that they are being productive.
The new RescueTime integration for Slack has a few key benefits for workers and their teams:
- Stay visible to teammates on Slack: The integration automatically updates the user’s status on Slack based on what you’re currently working on, so that teammates can be aware of what you’re doing and see that you need some focused time away.
- Customizable Slack status updates:. The integration lets people choose custom Slack statuses and emojis based on common activities, such as Writing or Meetings, with personal and humorous touches.
- Encouraging efficient communications: When Slack users see that their teammate using RescueTime is busy, this is an opportunity to use more effective communications in case of an urgent matter, such as a phone call or a personal office visit. RescueTime doesn’t make its Slack users un-reachable for emergencies and urgent situations; it just helps reduce the flow of chatter and lower-value communications.
- Avoid unnecessary interruptions: The new feature gives users the option to block notifications from Slack during a FocusTime session, set up to a Do Not Disturb mode.
RescueTime for Slack requires a RescueTime Premium account. To sign up for RescueTime Premium, visit https://www.rescuetime.com/integrations/slack. To learn how to manage unnecessary noise and distractions, see RescueTime’s Slack for Focus Guide.
About RescueTime
RescueTime helps people understand their relationship with technology so they can do more of their most important work. By tracking digital activities, RescueTime gives individuals a complete picture of their attention–as well as tools to take action towards a more balanced, meaningful work day. Learn more at www.RescueTime.com
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BlueRun Public Relations
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