For Slack users who work in international teams, notifications popping up into the night can be a normal occurrence. After all, it’s not unfair for someone to message you during their work hours, even if it’s past midnight in your time zone.
While many remote workers can be understanding of this, it doesn’t change the fact that it can be annoying. Furthermore, the wrong time zone setting means that Slack’s notifications won’t always work as intended.
Thankfully, Slack has made it possible to change your time zone on its app. Here’s why that matters.
Why Adding Your Time Zone on Slack Matters
When you’re working in remote teams, one of the most challenging aspects is managing different time zones. In fact, it can be particularly challenging if you work in large teams or have incompatible time differences.
By adding your time zone on Slack, your teammates can easily see what time you’re at and manage their expectations about when to expect your response.
For example, if they send you a message at around 11 pm for your local time, they should expect your feedback to arrive the next day.
In addition, putting your time zone also helps when you’re trying to set notification limits on Slack, such as the following:
- Summary emails
- Notification emails
- Times in your activity feed.
- Reminders
By setting the right time zone on Slack, it can help you and your teammates improve your overall boundaries at work. If you want to adjust your time zone on Slack today, there are two ways to do it—a mobile app or a desktop app. Here’s how you do it.
How to Adjust Your Slack Time Zone on Desktop App
There are two ways to adjust your Slack Time zone on the desktop app: automatic time zone setting or manual time zone setting. Here’s how to do both.
1. How to Automatically Adjust Your Slack Time Zone on Desktop
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, click your profile picture.
- Select Preferences.
- Click Language & Region.
- Check the box next to “Set time zone automatically”.
2. How to Manually Adjust Your Slack Time Zone on Desktop
Alternatively, you can also make some modifications to your time zone in the Slack mobile app.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, click your profile picture.
- Select Preferences.
- Click Language & Region.
- Under Time zone, click the dropdown arrow and select your preferred time zone.
How to Enable Automatic Time Zone Selection on the Slack Mobile App
Unlike the desktop version, there is only one way to adjust the time zone on your Slack mobile app, which is to automatically follow the time zone on your phone.
To automatically set the time zone on your Slack for your device, follow these instructions:
- In the lower-right corner of the screen, tap You.
- Select Preferences.
- Tap Advanced.
- Next to “Set Time Zone Automatically”, toggle on the button.
How to Check Someone’s Local Time on Slack
If you want to know what time it is for someone on your team, all you have to do is click their name on any shared Slack channel. Afterward, a pop-up will appear, wherein you can check their current local time.
With this, you can also be respectful and patient when dealing with people who are working from vastly different time zones than you. On the other hand, it can also be a good indicator of when it is reasonable for you to follow up or even give people a call.
Align With Everyone on Slack
No matter what time zone you’re working in, Slack makes it possible to engage with your team respectfully.
By taking the time to update your time zone and regularly checking the local times of other people, you can establish better work relationships and boundaries with your teammates.
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