Twist Academy

Threads 101

In this lesson, learn what a thread is. That’s it. That’s the lesson. This is how important threads are to your experience with Twist, and it’s what sets us apart from other tools you may have considered.

Channels 101

In this lesson, learn:

• What a channel is
• The difference between private and public channels
• How to use the general channel

Recipients 101

In this lesson, learn:

• Who is notified when
• How to notify specific teammates or groups

Notifications 101

In this lesson, learn:

• The types of notifications you can choose to receive (or not)
• When to enable Do Not Disturb mode to snooze notifications
• How to use the Time Off feature

Inbox 101

In this lesson, learn:

• How the inbox works
• Why Twist has replaced internal email at hundreds of companies and counting (and how your company can be next!)

Messages 101

In this lesson, learn:

• What messages are
• When to use messages vs. threads
• How to add or remove someone from a group message

Async 101

You may have noticed that we like to use the word “asynchronous” (or "async" for short). You may also be wondering, “WTF does asynchronous mean?” If so, you’re not alone.

At Doist, asynchronous communication is essential to our success (and our sanity!). In fact, our Founder and CEO Amir wrote all about it.

The disorganized way people tend to work — constantly interrupted by emails, chat pings, and back-to-back meetings — isn’t working. If your team is burned out by a barrage of real-time, all-the-time communication, it’s time to try async. 

Here’s our top-ranked, step-by-step guide on how to move your team towards asynchronous communication. 🚂

Working async, together

Working async does NOT mean working alone. 

Contrary to the naysayers, a healthy, thriving team culture is possible in an async work environment. And with the right amount of intentionality and effort, you can craft a culture that thrives way more than any in-office team.

Here’s a simple thing that we do at Doist:

Every Monday, a thread is automatically posted in our general channel asking people to share what they did that weekend (and photos if they have them).

By automating its posting, we don’t have to rely on any one person or group of people to remember to start the conversation. We can consistently replicate those “watercooler” moments and keep folks engaged with each other – beyond their day-to-day work.

Try it for yourself. Set up an automated weekend check-in thread for your team and begin building a thriving (but still async!) workplace culture.

Swap meetings with snippets

Here’s a simple thing we do at Doist to reduce the number of hours wasted in meetings: it’s called snippets.

Each week, every team posts updates in a snippets thread — even our CXOs.

The snippets are structured around company values and are where we post our top-level priorities for the month, what we did last week, and what we’re focusing on for the week ahead.

Since the thread is automatically posted each week, we don’t have to rely on any one person or group of people to hold us accountable. The whole team can see – you’ve either posted your snippets or you haven’t.

Curious to test out the snippets method for your own team? Start small! See if there’s one recurring check-in meeting that you can trial as an async check-in thread instead.

It might not feel like a lot, but before you know it you’ll be saving hours that you previously wasted in meetings.

Think most meetings suck? We do, too. Read more about the flipped meeting model and learn how to have fewer, higher quality meetings.

Connect with your teammates

Here’s one simple tip that we use at Doist to keep people engaged with each other asynchronously — beyond our day to day work:

Every month, a thread is automatically posted in our general channel asking people to share what they’re reading (or going to read). You could call it an async book club of sorts.

Sometimes Doisters share actual books they’ve read, but other times they may just share a short article. The important part isn’t actually what they’re reading, although the knowledge exchange and learning is an added bonus.

The most important part is the simple act of engaging with each other asynchronously. All these little efforts — including recurring “What are you reading?” threads — add up.

A healthy, thriving async workplace doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen on its own. So start building yours today and set up a recurring "book club" thread for your own team.