Slack Reminders: The Feature That Runs My Day
How I use /remind commands, message reminders, and scheduled messages to never drop the ball
Slack reminders are the single most underrated productivity feature in the app. This guide walks through the Capture-Sort-Fire loop I run every day using /remind, message-level reminders, and scheduled messages, and gives you a free 50-command Google Sheet library so you never have to remember the syntax again.
In November 2024, I lost a client because of a Slack message I forgot to answer. It sat in a channel for three days. Someone asked me a question, I thought 'I'll get to that after lunch,' and it vanished into the scroll. Three days later, I got a polite follow-up and felt terrible.
That was the week I decided to actually use the reminder tools already sitting inside Slack. Not just the 'Remind me about this' button, but the full stack: [/remind slash commands](https://slack.com/help/articles/208423427-Set-a-reminder), message-level reminders, scheduled messages, and recurring reminders that run on autopilot.
I built a system I call Capture-Sort-Fire. It's a three-step loop that turns Slack from a firehose into a command center. Below is the full walkthrough, and near the top you'll find a free Google Sheet with the 50 /remind commands I actually use so you can copy them in one click.
Copy the /remind Command Builder and 50-Command Library
A ready-to-copy sheet with every /remind syntax pattern, a builder that generates commands from dropdowns, and 50 real commands sorted by use case. Stop Googling the syntax and start pasting.
Why Slack Reminders Are Criminally Underused
Most people know Slack reminders exist. They've right-clicked a message and hit 'Remind me about this' once or twice. But that's like owning a Swiss Army knife and only using the toothpick.
The reminder system in Slack is a full scheduling engine. You can set reminders for yourself, for channels, for specific times, and for recurring intervals, and manage them all from one command. Slack's own [reminder documentation](https://slack.com/help/articles/208423427-Set-a-reminder) covers the surface, but most people never get past the right-click menu.
Here's the thing: if you're already living in Slack for eight hours a day, why open a separate app to remind yourself about something that originated in Slack? That context switch is a productivity killer. Slack reminders let you keep the context right where it started.
I've been using this system daily for over a year, and it handles about 80% of what I used to need a task manager for. The other 20% is where dedicated tools come in, and I'll talk about that at the end.
The Capture-Sort-Fire Loop
Every reminder I set follows the same three-step loop. Naming it made me consistent, and consistency is what turns a feature into a system.
Step 1 - Capture. The moment a task appears in Slack (a message I can't answer now, a task mentioned in a huddle, an idea I want to revisit), I convert it to a reminder within 10 seconds. For messages, I use the right-click 'Remind me about this' menu. For everything else, I type /remind me to [action] [when]. The rule: capture the action, not the topic. 'Send Ravi the revised onboarding link' beats 'follow up with Ravi.'
Step 2 - Sort. Once a day, I run /remind list to see everything on the schedule. Anything vague, stale, or already handled gets deleted. Anything that has grown into a real project (needs files, priority, collaborators) gets promoted out of Slack and into Mursa. The sort step is what stops the list from becoming noise.
Step 3 - Fire. When a reminder pings me, I either do it in under two minutes or reschedule it once with a specific new time. No 'I'll get to it later' without a time attached. If a reminder gets rescheduled twice, that's a signal it belongs in a proper task manager, not in Slack.
Capture in 10 seconds -> Sort once a day with /remind list -> Fire in 2 minutes or reschedule once with a specific new time. Two reschedules means it isn't a reminder, it's a task.
How to Set a Reminder in Slack: The Basics
There are three main ways to set a reminder in Slack, and each one serves a different purpose in the loop above.
The first is the /remind slash command. Type /remind me to [task] at [time] and Slack sends you a Slackbot DM at that exact moment. Example: /remind me to review the Q2 budget at 3pm today. Fast, no mouse required, works from any channel. Slack's [official /remind reference](https://slack.com/help/articles/208423427-Set-a-reminder) lists the full grammar.
The second is message-level reminders. Hover over any message, click the three dots, and select 'Remind me about this.' Slack gives you preset options (20 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, tomorrow, next week, or a custom time). This is the fastest capture path when someone sends you something you can't handle right now.
The third is channel reminders. Type /remind #channel-name to [message] at [time] and Slack posts the reminder in that channel for everyone. I use this for standups, timesheets, and any recurring team ritual.
You don't need exact time formats. Slack parses phrases like 'next Tuesday at 2pm,' 'in 3 hours,' 'every Monday at 9am,' and 'tomorrow morning.' Experiment with phrasing until you find what sticks.
When any of these fire, you get a Slackbot DM with the original context. Message reminders link back to the source message. Slash-command reminders show the text you typed. Either way, you get buttons to mark complete or snooze.
Mastering the /remind Command Syntax
The /remind command is more flexible than most people realize. Once the syntax clicks, you can set complex reminders in under five seconds without touching your mouse.
The basic format is: /remind [who] [what] [when]. The 'who' can be 'me,' '@someone,' or '#channel.' The 'what' is your reminder text. The 'when' is the time, and this is where it gets powerful.
For one-time reminders: /remind me to call the client at 4:30pm, or /remind me to check deployment status in 45 minutes, or /remind me to prep for the board meeting on March 15 at 10am.
For recurring reminders: /remind me to check analytics every Monday at 9am. You can use 'every day,' 'every weekday,' 'every Monday,' or 'every other Friday.' This is one of the most powerful features because it turns a chore into a habit on autopilot.
The /remind command is the fastest way to capture a future task without leaving your current context. Five seconds of typing saves hours of forgotten follow-ups.
One lesson from a year of use: reserve /remind me for things you need to act on, not things you want to remember. 'Think about the marketing strategy' is too vague. 'Draft three headline options for the Q2 campaign' is actionable. Future-you should be able to start the work in under 30 seconds.
Using /remind list to Stay on Top of Everything
The command that changed everything for me: /remind list. Type it into any Slack conversation and you'll see every active reminder, organized by date. Upcoming one-time reminders, recurring ones, and a delete button next to each.
I check /remind list every Monday morning as part of my weekly review. It takes about two minutes and gives me a complete picture of what's on autopilot. I often find reminders I set weeks ago that are no longer relevant, and I clean them out.
A Monday morning check of your active Slack reminders makes sure nothing is stale and everything relevant is still scheduled. This is the Sort step in the Capture-Sort-Fire loop.
This habit alone saved me from the awkward moment where a reminder fires and I think 'what was this about?' Keeping the reminder list clean is like keeping your desk clean. It reduces cognitive load and it keeps the system trustworthy.
Stale reminders create noise that makes you ignore the important ones. Run /remind list weekly and delete anything no longer relevant. A clean reminder list is a trusted reminder list.
Scheduled Messages: The Silent Productivity Weapon
A scheduled message on Slack is a different tool from a reminder, but they work beautifully together. Reminders notify you. [Scheduled messages](https://slack.com/help/articles/201457107-Schedule-messages-to-send-at-a-later-time) send a message to someone else at a specific time.
To schedule a message, type it in any channel or DM, then click the dropdown arrow next to the send button and choose 'Schedule for later.' Pick your date and time, and Slack sends it exactly when you specify.
I use scheduled messages for three main things. First, respecting time zones. If I'm working late and need to message a teammate in a different zone, I schedule it for their morning so I'm not pinging them at midnight.
Second, strategic timing. If I need to share an announcement, I schedule it for when the channel is most active. Posting a policy update at 6am on a Saturday means nobody sees it. Scheduling it for Tuesday at 10am means maximum visibility.
Third, follow-ups. If I ask someone a question and want to follow up if they don't respond, I schedule a 'Hey, just circling back on this' for two days later. If they respond before the scheduled time, I cancel it.
Scheduled messages let you write when you're thinking about it but deliver when it matters. That separation of creation and delivery is a superpower for async teams.
You can view and manage all your scheduled messages from the Drafts and sent section in the Slack sidebar. Anything scheduled but not yet sent shows up with a clock icon. You can edit, reschedule, or delete before it sends.
One combo I love: pair a scheduled message with a reminder. I'll schedule a message to a client for 9am, then set a reminder for myself at 9:30am to check if they responded. A complete follow-up loop with zero mental overhead.
Slack Reminder Examples From My Weekly Rotation
The reminders that stuck for me were not clever. They were boring and specific. Every one of them is in the free Google Sheet at the top of this post, but here are a few I use every week.
For personal action: /remind me to review launch blockers tomorrow at 9 AM. /remind me to follow up with Ravi on invoice approval next Tuesday. /remind me to draft three headline options for the Q2 campaign in 2 hours.
For team rituals: /remind #product to post Friday demos every Friday at 4 PM. /remind #engineering to update the sprint board every Friday at 3 PM. /remind #general about the team retro every other Wednesday at 5 PM.
The key is naming the action, not the topic. A weak reminder says 'check client.' A useful reminder says 'send client the revised onboarding link.' Slack reminders work when future-you can act without reopening the whole conversation.
Building a Complete Reminder Workflow
Here's how the Capture-Sort-Fire loop plays out across a real day. It handles about 40 reminders per week for me without stress.
Morning routine: recurring /remind commands fire every weekday at 8:30am. One reminds me to check my calendar for the day. Another reminds me to review my task list. A third points me at the #urgent channel for anything that came in overnight.
During the day (Capture step): whenever a message arrives that I can't handle immediately, I use the message-level reminder. Hover, click 'Remind me about this,' pick a time. Same-day items get '3 hours.' Anything else gets 'Tomorrow at 9am.'
For tasks that come from conversations rather than a specific message, I use /remind me to [action] [when]. Someone mentions we need to update the docs? /remind me to update onboarding docs by Friday at 2pm. Out of my head, into the system.
More than 10 reminders a day and Slackbot becomes noise. Be selective about what truly needs a reminder versus what you can batch into one daily review. Quality over quantity keeps the system trustworthy.
End of day (Fire step follow-up): I scan /remind list one more time. Anything I didn't act on gets handled now or rescheduled with a specific new time. Goal: end the day with no ambiguous items on the list.
Weekly review (Sort step): every Monday, I audit recurring reminders. Still relevant? New ones needed? Routine changed? This keeps the system fresh and prevents reminder fatigue.
Channel reminders for the team: every Friday at 3pm, #engineering gets a nudge to update the sprint board. Every other Wednesday, #general gets a heads-up about the retro. Small automations that save me from being the person who always has to nag everyone.
When Slack Reminders Aren't Enough
Slack reminders are fantastic for quick captures and simple follow-ups, but they have real limitations. Recognizing when to escalate to a proper task manager is part of the loop.
Slack reminders don't give you priority levels. Every reminder looks the same when it fires. You can't categorize them, add subtasks, or attach files. There's no Kanban view and no way to share them as collaborative tasks.
They also don't handle dependencies. If Task B can't start until Task A is done, reminders can't model that. You'd have to manually set the second reminder after finishing the first, which defeats the point of automation.
My rule: if it's a quick action I need to remember, it's a Slack reminder. If it's a project with multiple steps, collaborators, and a deadline, it belongs in a real task tool. I use Slack reminders to catch the impulse, and when the reminder fires I decide whether to act on it or promote it to a proper task.
This is actually why I built task capture into Mursa. I was spending too much time manually moving items from Slack into my task manager, and the gap between 'reminded about it' and 'actually tracking it' was where things fell through the cracks.
Reminders are the capture net. A task manager is the sorting facility. You need both, but the capture has to be frictionless or nothing gets caught.
If you find yourself building complex multi-part reminders, that's the signal you've outgrown the tool for that workflow. Don't fight it. Let reminders do what they're great at (quick time-based nudges) and let a task manager do the heavy lifting.
I'm currently logging every /remind command my team runs for 90 days so I can publish the actual completion rates, snooze counts, and 'promoted to task' numbers by category. That data will land in the v2 update of this post. I'd rather ship it late than fabricate a stat now.
Advanced Tips for Slack Reminder Power Users
After a year of daily use, I've picked up a handful of tricks that aren't obvious from the documentation.
First, use reminders as a reading list. When someone shares a long article in Slack, I set a reminder for Saturday morning. This creates a weekend reading queue without any extra apps. When the reminders fire, I have a curated list of things to read.
Second, use channel reminders for accountability. Instead of nagging teammates directly, post a channel reminder. '/remind #design to share mockup feedback by 5pm Thursday' keeps things transparent and doesn't single anyone out.
Third, stack reminders for multi-milestone projects. If I know a project has three checkpoints, I set three reminders on day one. /remind me to check phase 1 progress on Monday. /remind me to review phase 2 draft on Wednesday. /remind me to do final review on Friday. All planning done in one moment.
Fourth, use reminders for self-care. I have a daily 12:30pm recurring reminder that says 'Step away from the screen and eat lunch.' Sounds silly, but on intense coding days I genuinely forget. The Slackbot nudge has become non-negotiable.
Fifth, combine reminders with Slack's 'Save for Later' feature. If a message is important enough to save but also needs action, do both. Save preserves context, reminder ensures timing.
These techniques seem small individually, but they compound. After a few weeks of consistent Capture-Sort-Fire, you'll notice fewer things falling through the cracks. Fewer 'oh no, I forgot' moments. Fewer panicked searches through old messages.
That's what a good system does. It removes the anxiety of remembering so you can focus on the work. Slack reminders won't replace a full project management suite, but for the daily flow of tasks, follow-ups, and habits, they're remarkably effective.
If you've been struggling with the Monday morning Slack avalanche or losing tasks in message threads, building this workflow is the fastest, lowest-friction improvement you can make. Copy the free /remind sheet at the top of this post, set three reminders today, and build from there.
I built Mursa because I was tired of duct-taping five apps together. Tasks, timer, habits, goals, and a journal in one place. It is the workspace I wished existed when I was drowning in tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set a reminder in Slack for a specific date and time?
Use the /remind command with natural language. Type '/remind me to submit the report on March 15 at 2pm' and Slack schedules it automatically. You can also right-click any message, select 'Remind me about this,' and pick a custom date and time. Slack's official /remind syntax is documented here: https://slack.com/help/articles/208423427-Set-a-reminder.
Can I set recurring reminders in Slack?
Yes. Use the /remind command with recurring syntax like '/remind me to check analytics every Monday at 9am' or '/remind me to update the board every weekday at 4pm.' Slack supports daily, weekly, weekday, and 'every other' intervals. Use /remind list to manage or delete recurring reminders when they're no longer needed.
How do I see all my active Slack reminders?
Type /remind list in any Slack channel or DM. This shows all upcoming and recurring reminders in one view, with a delete button next to each. Run it weekly as the 'Sort' step in the Capture-Sort-Fire loop to keep the list clean.
What's the difference between Slack reminders and scheduled messages?
Slack reminders notify you (or a channel) via Slackbot at a specific time. Scheduled messages actually send a message from you to a channel or person at a specific time. Reminders are for self-nudges; scheduled messages are for communicating with others at the right moment.
Is there a limit to how many Slack reminders I can set?
Slack doesn't publish a hard cap, but practically, more than 10-15 per day creates noise you'll start ignoring. Focus on actionable, specific reminders and use /remind list weekly to prune stale ones. For complex multi-step tasks, escalate to a dedicated task manager.
What are good Slack reminder examples?
Good examples: /remind me to review launch blockers tomorrow at 9 AM, /remind #team to post weekly updates every Friday at 4 PM, /remind me to follow up with Sarah next Tuesday. The free 50-command sheet linked at the top of this post has 50 more, organized by use case. Always include the action, not just the topic.
When should I use Slack reminders instead of a task manager?
Use Slack reminders for small actions that live inside Slack, like replying to a thread or checking an answer. Use a task manager when the work needs priority, files, multiple steps, or tracking outside Slack. The Capture-Sort-Fire loop's Sort step is where you decide which is which.