Aaron Sumnerhttps://www.aaronsumner.com/posts2023-06-02T01:26:00+00:00Aaron SumnerHow I (try to) keep Slack in checkhttps://www.aaronsumner.com/posts/2023/06/slack-productivity-tips.html2023-06-02T01:26:00+00:002024-03-16T20:23:21+00:00Aaron Sumner<p>Remember how Slack was going to save us from the drudge of overflowing email inboxes? Yeah, right, Slack. Good one.</p>
<p>If you’re anything like me, though, you've struggled to find the messages that matter in Slack–the good stuff gets mired in a steady stream of</p>
<ul>
<li>urgent requests that really aren't that urgent</li>
<li>announcements that could've been emails</li>
<li>snarky memes</li>
<li>horrible dad jokes</li>
</ul>
<p>from well-meaning coworkers.</p>
<p>Sure, in pre-pandemic days, I was on distributed teams and appreciated Slack as a way to connect more with my (then) office-bound teammates. But when everyone switched to work-from-home, and I was no longer the remote outlier, Slack quickly ran out of control. Unleash the firehose. It's still that way, even as others return to the office, and/or aren't as dependent on Slack as a social outlet.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be that way! I mean, your employer probably wouldn’t be too happy if you stopped checking Slack (or your work's real-time messaging service of choice). You can't rage-delete your account like you can Twitter or Facebook. But you can take steps to tame it.</p>
<p>Here’s a brief list of tips I’ve discovered in my time using Slack to make it less of a distraction, both as an individual contributor and now as a people manager who also writes code and words and does other things, too. I'd rather spend more time doing and less time monitoring dozens of channels, <em>just in case</em> I can be smart or clever or funny.</p>
<p>I've tailored this list to Slack, but it may apply to other team messaging systems.</p>
<h2 id="reading-what-others-have-to-say">Reading what others have to say</h2>
<p>Do you need a desktop notification for every message sent to every single one of your subscribed channels? Or can most (or all) of them wait? <strong>Knock out those noisy alerts in your preferences—only allow those that matter to be distractions.</strong> Head to Preferences, then Notifications, and under Notify me about, make sure Nothing is selected. While you're there, ensure you've unchecked Use different settings for my mobile devices.</p>
<p>Now you can override the sweet, sweet silence on a channel-by-channel basis. Slack sort of buries the setting. Maybe that's a good thing–now that you've instituted quiet as your default, bringing (back) the noise should have a little friction! Navigate to the channel you want to change, and click its name in the heading. Then navigate to Notifications, and finally More options. That's a lot of steps, so here's a visual aid.</p>
<p><img alt="Slack channel notification preferences" src="/images/content/slack-productivity/slack-channel-notification-prefs.gif" /></p>
<p><strong>Use keywords for systems you need to keep tabs on.</strong> At my work, for example, I see mentions of <em>trim</em> and <em>atlas</em> in my channels, because those words mean something important to me at my work. You'll find this in your Slack team's general preferences, under the <em>Notifications</em> section.</p>
<p>By the way, you'll only receive these notifications in channels you're in. If people are talking about your favorite keywords behind your back, you won't know about it.</p>
<p><strong>Leave channels you don’t need to be in that don’t bring value.</strong> You can always re-join.</p>
<p><strong>Mute channels that you <em>do</em> need to be in that don’t bring value.</strong> Like, I’m still in a few channels that would be politically or socially awkward to bail on, so I basically lurk without ever actually checking. In fact, I can forget I'm even <em>in</em> these channels unless I explicitly go there, I'm referenced by my handle, or someone uses one of my keywords. You'll find this configuration under the channel's settings, then in the <em>Notifications</em> menu.</p>
<p>I admit this approach can be a touch dicey or controversial. Tiptoe into it if you need to, but do give it a chance.</p>
<p><strong>Use the Unreads and Threads interfaces to get caught up on conversations quickly.</strong> As a west coaster who starts my day three hours later than many of my colleagues, this has been the only way for me to get caught up without Slack taking over my whole morning. If you don't see <em>Unreads</em> and <em>Threads</em> near the top of your sidebar, go to your Slack team's <em>Preferences</em>, then <em>Sidebar</em>, and make sure they're checked.</p>
<p><strong>Star and organize important channels in your sidebar.</strong> Then collapse them down so your sidebar isn't a vertical sea of bold. I like to keep it simple: I keep my most important channels starred and at the top, toss the rest into a single folder, and collapse said folder in an attempt to keep my sidebar tidy.</p>
<p><strong>Use Slack’s keybord-driven command palette</strong> for quicker navigation though all your channels and DMs. Command-K (Mac) or Control-K (not-Mac) is your friend!</p>
<p>If you’re easily distracted by animations, videos, and screen movement in general, like I am, <strong>turn off animations in Slack’s desktop app.</strong> Trust me, you've probably seen that meme GIF before. Head back to your Slack team's preferences, and under <em>Accessibility</em>, uncheck <em>Automatically play animations in Slack</em>.</p>
<p>And yes, I fully appreciate the double standard of me suggesting you turn off animations, in a post where I use an animation as a learning aid. I am at peace with this. Let's move on.</p>
<h2 id="sharing-what-you-have-to-say">Sharing what you have to say</h2>
<p>You know what? I bet you’ve got colleagues who find Slack just as obtrusive as you do. Let’s help them join you in disconnecting from the deluge. Next time you're about to put words into the ether, pause, remember the Golden Rule, and reflect on the best way to present yourself.</p>
<p>Since writing these suggestions down, I've read through them a few times and worry they come off as cranky, even curmudgeonly. To be fair, I usually <em>am</em> cranky, and on occasion, even curmudgeonly. But I'm also pretty likely to crack wise–yes, even on Slack! That's to say, <strong>read the room</strong> and adjust as needed.</p>
<p>Help your team get the whole message by resisting the urge to create lots of channels willy-nilly. <strong>Make sure an appropriate channel doesn’t already exist before spinning up another.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Schedule posts and messages to be considerate of people’s schedules</strong>, using the down arrow on the send button in the UI. If a post or DM can wait until tomorrow morning, schedule it to send then instead of sending it late in the day or in the evening. Keep time zones in mind, while you’re at it!</p>
<p>Here's how: See the little down-facing-arrow to the right of your super-important message that could perhaps wait? Click it to find scheduling options.</p>
<p><strong>Be considerate when using @-handles</strong>, especially <code>@here</code>. And the only time I’ve ever seen <code>@channel</code> used appropriately was when a literal fire was at the literal door of my workplace in 2019!</p>
<p><strong>Consolidate your posts.</strong> Slack isn’t a group text with your college buddies. Be <em>somewhat</em> professional, anyway, and try to put together a semi-cohesive thought before smashing that send button. Especially in high-traffic channels.</p>
<p>If you <em>do</em> need to go stream of conscience to move a conversation forward, use a thread. <strong>Don’t hijack the channel.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Be judicious with reminders, bots, and other integrations you add to shared channels.</strong> Maybe even check with the rest of the channel before adding them?</p>
<p><strong>Never, ever call someone before asking if they have time to huddle in real-time.</strong> Slack isn't a phone. (Hell, are phones even phones in the traditional sense? I digress.) And never force others to turn on their cameras. Respect others’ rights to bad hair days, personal space, or tendency to pace during calls (cough cough, it's me).</p>
<p>Bonus: <strong>brush up on your spelling and grammar</strong>. We’re talking your/you’re, there/their/they’re, and general <a href="https://developers.google.com/tech-writing/one/just-enough-grammar">good grammar</a>. It goes a long way. (I'm barely monolingual, by the way, so I won't even try to suggest how to write well in non-English languages. But the sentiment is the same.)</p>
<h2 id="next-steps">Next steps</h2>
<p>Reading my list of Slack gripes is one thing–now it's your turn to try out a few of these suggestions, see what works, and pass along what you've found useful to others. Together we'll make Slack less stressful. We can do it!</p>
March 2023 updatehttps://www.aaronsumner.com/posts/2023/03/march-2023.html2023-03-05T17:50:00+00:002024-03-16T20:23:21+00:00Aaron Sumner<p>Hello.</p>
<p>It's been some time since I've written here. After a long (too long, maybe?)
break from extracurricular activities and responsibilities, I feel rusty. Words
don't come as easily as they used to. But I'm trying to write again, here and/or
on <a href="https://everydayrails.com">Everyday Rails</a>. I'll get there. In an attempt to
loosen the creaky cogs and hamster wheel that make up my brain, here's a little
update for anyone interested.</p>
<ul>
<li>I'm going on a year in my managerial role at O'Reilly. It's been ok. I still
write a ton of code, do a lot of technical planning, split my time and
attention across multiple systems, and mentor. I just manage humans now, too.
I do miss the ability I used to have to dictate what I was going to work on
and when, and to go heads down and knock shit out. But I go to where I'm
needed, and this is where I'm told I'm needed. I think I'm making a difference
(for the better).</li>
<li>The three cats are still here, though Amber is not looking great. She's still
spry, though, and my goal is to keep her happy and comfortable as long as she
feels like sticking around.</li>
<li>And I have a dog again. He came with a human. I love them both, very much. The
dog seems to love me, and I think the human finds me generally ok.</li>
<li>We are all still in Astoria, but looking for an escape strategy. It's been
nearly five years for me. I don't like the direction the town has gone during
and post-pandemic. Too big to have some of the small town problems it has, and
too small to have some of the big town problems it has, you know?</li>
</ul>
<p>Hey, 300 words! That seems like a good place to stop for now. I'll try to show
up here a little more often. See you later.</p>
Super-simple DIY drawer organizershttps://www.aaronsumner.com/posts/2022/01/simple-diy-drawer-organizers.html2022-01-02T23:27:00+00:002024-03-16T20:23:21+00:00Aaron Sumner<p><img alt="organized drawer inspector" src="/images/content/drawers.jpg" /></p>
<p>After a few months away from my tiny wood shop, I spent some time on the first
day of my annual winter break, also known as my fake retirement, working to
address a small need that’s bugged me for years: Better kitchen drawer
management!</p>
<p>Maybe I should have taken some before photos, but is there really a point? You
know what a cluttered drawer looks like. We all have them and learn to live with
them. But I got tired of fishing for measuring spoons multiple times each day,
and decided it was time for a change.</p>
<p>I picked up this approach from <a href="https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/maximize-your-drawer-space/">an article in Family
Handyman</a>
(which also has ideas for other drawer organizers). By using spacers to separate
each compartment instead of grooves, I figure I knocked a few hours off the
overall process, and gave myself a little room for error and/or changing my mind
as I went along. In the end, I spruced up three drawers in just over an hour.</p>
<p><img alt="organized drawers!" src="/images/content/drawers2.jpg" /></p>
<p>If you do any sort of woodworking yourself, you know the price of lumber is
pretty bonkers right now. Aside from some screws, I was able to organize all
three drawers from scrap material I already had around. Depending on how many
drawers you’re looking to tame, you could probably get pretty far with a
half-inch and a quarter-inch plywood handy panel.</p>
<p>I did most of the work on a table saw, but a circular saw would work, too. If
power saws make you nervous, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAb2vevBUdM">Brad Rodriguez’s take on DIY drawer
organizers</a>, which shows how to
accomplish something similar with a simple hand saw and miter box.</p>
<p>Yeah, this is a simple project, maybe not even worth writing up. But after a
pretty long layoff from shop work, it was good to get down there, away from
computers, working with my hands, and working my brain in ways I don’t for my
day job. I hope you have hobbies and projects that let you do that sort of
thing, too.</p>
Hiatushttps://www.aaronsumner.com/posts/2021/11/hiatus.html2021-11-14T18:55:00+00:002024-03-16T20:23:21+00:00Aaron Sumner<p>It’s been awhile since I’ve written much; so long that I’ve decided to make it a
formal hiatus.</p>
<p>For the indefinite future, I am taking a break from side projects, including
Everyday Rails, public speaking, and my testing book. I think about software
enough at my day job already, and need to spend some time to focus on health and
personal matters. I am ok, I just have a lot on my plate that’s more important
than software right now.</p>
<p>I’m best reachable via <a href="/pages/contact.html">my contact form</a>. (Friends who have my number, please
text!) I don’t pay much attention to Twitter or Facebook, so no guarantees
there. I’m still on Instagram, but feel kind of gross about it and need to take
breaks from it, too, from time to time.</p>
<p>Anyway, thank you for your understanding. Be well, and see you on the other side
of this.</p>
How I get things out of my head (with Things)https://www.aaronsumner.com/posts/2021/01/get-things-out-of-my-head.html2021-01-10T05:46:00+00:002024-03-16T20:23:21+00:00Aaron Sumner<p>More than once in my life, I’ve been accused of being <em>productive.</em> I’ll admit, I get stuff done, usually on time, and with enough quality that I get paid to get more stuff done. And recently, I’ve been talking more out loud about <em>how</em> I go about my business, and thought it might be useful to share some of it with a potentially wider audience. I’ll call it a <em>system</em>, for lack of a better term, and because <em>methodology</em> sounds way too fancy for anything I’d come up with for myself. It’s based on things I’ve picked up over the years, from <a href="https://amzn.to/35qaxgx"><em>Getting Things Done</em> (GTD)</a> (hey, affiliate link) by David Allen, to Kanban, to Scrum and other Agile methodologies. But Allen’s work on GTD remains the most influential to me, nearly 20 years after I first learned it and began adapting it to my own needs.</p>
<p>In this article, I want to focus on something I struggled with for a long time, but finally came to terms with last year: How to declutter my brain of all the little ideas, todos, information tidbits, and other annoyances that can easily sap me of my focus and mental energy if left unchecked. Mr. Allen calls these “loose threads,” and advocates getting them out of your head for future processing. That’s what I’ll share here. I will <em>not</em> tell you how <em>you</em> should do the same. That’s for you to figure out, friend. But maybe you’ll pick up something useful from my setup.</p>
<p>My to-do app of choice is <a href="https://culturedcode.com/things/">Things</a> by Cultured Code. I know, it’s (a) not free, and (b) Apple-specific. I’ve dallied with a few alternatives for these reasons, myself, but Things clicks well with the way my mind works, and I always wind up coming back to it. And I’m lucky enough to be able to afford to buy into the ecosystem, and use it across multiple devices.</p>
<p>That said, there are dozens of to-do apps out there, and many of them have the most important features necessary for the workflow I’m about to describe. And, really, there’s nothing keeping you from doing this with paper, if that’s your jam. Come up with a system that works for you, refine it as needed, and stick with the process.</p>
<h2 id="capture-quickly">Capture quickly</h2>
<p>Memory is fleeting, and if I don’t record a thought within the first few moments it comes to me, there’s a decent chance it won’t come back (or <em>will</em> come back, but at a most inopportune time, or way past its relevancy expiration date). That’s why it’s so important to have in place a capture method to grab the idea, the question, the <em>whatever</em> that popped in my head, so I can process it a little later, and move on with my life for the moment. Live in the now.</p>
<p>On my Mac, I use Things’s global keyboard shortcut to quickly fire open an input window, type in just enough information so I’ll remember what I was thinking about later, and hit return to save it to my Things inbox. I don’t even have to take my fingers off the keyboard, and I don’t have to leave whatever application I happened to be using when whatever notion popped into my head.</p>
<p>I’ve also enabled <em>Add to Things</em> in the macOS sharing feature, which is particularly great for adding reminders out of Safari (yes, I use Safari, as a web developer, but that’s a story for another time) and other apps that support system-wide sharing.</p>
<p>I use the sharing feature on my phone, too—but often, I ask Siri to remind me about something. This adds the item to the Apple Reminders app, but that’s no problem; Things can use Reminders as an input source. And I use the heck out of this when I’m driving, via CarPlay. I think I could do something similar with Alexa, but I haven’t had the energy to fuss with it yet.</p>
<h2 id="maintain-a-single-inbox">Maintain a single inbox</h2>
<p>In GTD, David Allen stresses the importance of establishing a single place to collect all the loose threads pulling on your attention, so they may be given the attention and processing they deserve. In the first edition of the Getting Things Done book, that meant a physical inbox on or near your physical desk. But the concept translates well to a computer-based system.</p>
<p>The trick, then, is to not necessarily think of items in the Things inbox as <em>to-dos</em>, but <em>bits of information</em> that need to be processed in some way. These bits of information may or may not ultimately be best stored in a to-do app, but they’re in a single bucket when it comes time to think about them in more detail.</p>
<h2 id="review-and-refine">Review and refine</h2>
<p>An overflowing inbox is a sure-fire productivity killer. And the longer an item remains in my inbox, the less meaningful it becomes. It’s important to move things to where I’ll actually need them, in a reasonably prompt fashion—that is, while I still remember enough about them to appropriately file them away for the future.</p>
<p>Now, if there’s one thing I do that lets my future self down, it’s forgetting to add any context to my hastily-typed missives. That’s one reason it’s so important to review and refine my inbox regularly, before my busy day has turned my brain to total mush, and provide whatever context and prompts will help future me actually do something with the item.</p>
<p>Like, take <em>Check backups.</em> In my world, that could mean a number of applications or servers or computers—but, most likely, I meant to check backups on <em>one</em> of them specifically. So while it’s still fresh in my head, I can fill in details (“check laptop backups”), add some context (“backup software reported an error”), and link to relevant documentation on how to actually do the thing.</p>
<p>Next, if it’s something that’s time-sensitive, either due to a specific deadline or because there’s a certain time when it makes sense to think about the item again, I attach a date to it. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the date I have to actually <em>do</em> the thing; just that I need to be aware of it then. For example, if I think of something late in my work day on Friday that requires collaboration with people who’ve already headed out due to time zones and my distributed team, I set a date on it for the following Monday. That way it’s not taking up screen space (and more critically, mental space) over the weekend. If it’s not time-sensitive, I don’t clutter it up with a date. It’ll come up again when I review my entire collection of todos (that’s another post for another time).</p>
<p>This is also a great opportunity to apply the <a href="https://gettingthingsdone.com/2020/05/the-two-minute-rule-2/">two-minute rule</a>: If I can complete a task in two minutes or less, I’ll just do it now!</p>
<p>Finally, it’s time to remove the item from my inbox! Like most task management systems, Things supports gathering items into projects, or areas of projects. Perhaps I’ll talk about my overall organization in another post someday, but the key thing here is to <em>get that thing out of the inbox</em>, with appropriate context and time-based prompts attached, not too long after it first arrives <em>in</em> the inbox.</p>
<h2 id="next-steps">Next steps</h2>
<p>I hope you’ve found this peek into my personal productivity system interesting! As with any productivity-focused tool or system, I don’t expect anyone to try adopting it as-is and get a big boost from it—rather, I hope it helps you build and refine your own system.</p>
<p>If there’s sufficient interest, someday I’ll write more about how I actually tackle my tasks and projects, take notes, and so on. My metric will be web traffic—so if you like this, please share it with your colleagues and social networks. Or, if you’ve got specific questions or things you’d like me to talk about with more depth, send me an email or a tweet, and I’ll do what I can. I appreciate your help spreading the word, and your time reading this!</p>
I built a writing desk!https://www.aaronsumner.com/posts/2020/12/writing-desk.html2020-12-20T19:18:00+00:002024-03-16T20:23:21+00:00Aaron Sumner<p><img alt="Finished writing desk" src="/images/content/writing-desk-finished.jpg" /></p>
<p>My girlfriend's a teacher who finds herself teaching from home these days, as many teachers do, but without a proper desk. She asked if I could build her one, using some rescued 1x10 boards she had at her house. Absolutely, I could. She found some plans for a writing desk she liked; it reminded me of <a href="https://youtu.be/TGe4GCVGV94">a really similar desk I watched Steve Ramsey build</a> on his YouTube channel a few years ago. So with rescued lumber (and by <em>rescued</em> lumber, I mean, I think the desk is this wood's third post-tree life?) and Steve's plans in hand, I got busy. (Heads up, affiliate links ahead.)</p>
<p><img alt="Writing desk construction" src="/images/content/writing-desk-construction.jpg" /></p>
<p>This project had a lot of firsts for me. I'd normally use a lot more plywood on furniture projects like this, but I really wanted to limit myself to the rescued lumber as much as possible. The 1x10s were easy enough to rip down to the right widths on a table saw, though, meaning I could use them almost exclusively.</p>
<p>In the end, I was able to make the legs, the sides and back, the drawer fronts, and the trim entirely from that lumber. I had just enough scrap half-inch plywood in my shop for the drawer boxes. The only new wood I bought was a three-quarter inch baltic burch handy panel for the top. I <em>might</em> have been able to make a panel from the rescued lumber instead, but I was tight on materials and time at that point.</p>
<p>Working with this constraint meant carefully picking and choosing which boards went to which parts of the desk. I'm particularly happy with how the drawer fronts turned out, with the two-tone wood grain action going there.</p>
<p><img alt="Tapered legs" src="/images/content/writing-desk-tapered-legs.jpg" /></p>
<p>I'd also never done any taper cuts before. I wound up buying a <a href="https://amzn.to/3p2C5zY">tapering jig from MicroJig</a> for these, rather than building my own jig. It's not a cheap jig, but I justified it by accounting for the time savings and cost of clamps I would've had to buy to build my own. I was also sold by a promotional video showing how to use the jig to cut mid-century-style legs on a router table.</p>
<p>I found the MicroJig to be kind of fussy, though, and ended up having to buy extra parts for the <a href="https://amzn.to/3aupEJ2">GRR-RIPPER</a> I already had in order to use the jig safely. And even then, it was a little unwieldy on my little table saw. I don't want to write it off–I know lots of people swear by MicroJig products in general–but I was relieved when I had the tapers cut and could put the jig away. The results were nice, though.</p>
<p><img alt="Drawer runners" src="/images/content/writing-desk-drawer-runners.jpg" /></p>
<p>I've built projects with drawers before, but this was the first time I put them on runners. I just went with some <a href="https://amzn.to/2KFDs8M">simple drawer runners from AmazonBasics</a>, and followed <a href="https://youtu.be/AlvlrPxXGUw">Ana White's method for installing them</a>. I anticipated a lot of fiddling with them, but they actually worked out well! I'll be using runners on all my future projects with drawers.</p>
<p>Given the wear and tear already present in the repurposed wood, and little flaws here and there that are obvious to me but maybe not anyone else, I was really tempted to just paint the desk and call it good. But my girlfriend really wanted to keep it natural, so I decided to go with <a href="https://amzn.to/3nDOZ74">spray lacquer</a> for protection, another first for me. After lots (and lots) of sanding, I sprayed four coats of lacquer onto the desk, and, wow. The desk feels more professional than any other piece of furniture I've ever built, and I credit the extra time spent on sanding and proper finishing.</p>
<p><img alt="Vintage drawer pulls" src="/images/content/writing-desk-drawer-pulls.jpg" /></p>
<p>I picked up the vintage drawer pulls awhile back during a visit to <a href="https://www.hippohardware.com">Hippo Hardware</a> in Portland. My last time lining up drawer pulls with two screws just right was kind of a drag, so I picked up a <a href="https://amzn.to/3nG2tiL">Kreg cabinet hardware jig</a> for a few bucks and, like almost everything I've ever bought from Kreg, it worked out well.</p>
<p>So, yeah. I'm pretty pleased with how the writing desk turned out, and was glad to see it in use this past week. Definitely my most ambitious woodworking project to date, with lots of firsts and lessons learned for future projects. Big thanks to Steve Ramsey for all the work he's done over the years on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/stevinmarin">Woodworking for Mere Mortals</a> and <a href="https://theweekendwoodworker.com">the Weekend Woodworker</a>, for giving me the confidence to think I could build something like this, and to K. for inspiring me to actually do it.</p>