How To Stop Slack From Going Idle

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Slack is a useful tool for enhancing productivity by promoting effective teamwork and communication. Nevertheless, there may be certain settings in Slack that do not align with our individual work preferences. One such setting is the automatic ‘idle’ status which appears when we are away from our computers for a period. This can falsely convey to our team or superiors that we are unavailable or not actively working, even if we are simply taking a brief break. This blog post will explore methods to prevent Slack from going idle and ensure that your online status remains uninterrupted.

Adjust Your Slack Settings

The easiest step to prevent Slack from switching your status to idle is by adjusting your settings within the application itself. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open Slack on your computer.
  2. Click on your workspace name in the top left corner of your screen.
  3. From the dropdown menu, select ‘Preferences’.
  4. In the left sidebar, click on ‘Notifications’.
  5. Under the ‘When I am not active on Desktop’ section, you will see a dropdown box. Click on it and change it to ‘Never’.
  6. Once done, slack will never set your status to away unless you manually change it.

This is the easiest and most straightforward way of ensuring that you are always shown as active on Slack, regardless of whether you have been inactive on your computer.

Use a Third-Party Application

Another way to stop Slack from going idle is by using a third-party application to keep your computer from going idle. These applications simulate mouse or keyboard activity to keep your computer from going idle. One such application is ‘MouseMove’.

MouseMove is a simple tool that simulates mouse movements at specified intervals. Here’s how you can use it:

  1. Download and install the MouseMove application on your computer.
  2. Once installed, open the application.
  3. In the ‘Time interval in minutes’ field, enter the number of minutes after which you want your mouse to move.
  4. Click on ‘Start’.

The application will now move your mouse cursor by a small amount at the specified interval, thereby preventing your computer and Slack from going idle.

Please note that using such tools should be done responsibly and in line with your company’s policies and guidelines.

Wrap Up

All in all, these are the two main ways to stop Slack from going idle. The method you choose depends on your work style, preferences, and corporate guidelines. Always remember, the aim of these methods is not about appearing busy when you are not, but more about accurately displaying your status to your team. Happy Slacking!