--- title: My philosophy for productive instant messaging | daily.dev description: Drew DeVault shares his philosophy for using IRC and instant messaging productively. The core principles are: treat IM as ephemeral (don't catch up on missed... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/my-philosophy-for-productive-instant-messaging-0kyvxgh5j twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: My philosophy for productive instant messaging | daily.dev og:description: Drew DeVault shares his philosophy for using IRC and instant messaging productively. The core principles are: treat IM as ephemeral (don't catch up on missed... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/my-philosophy-for-productive-instant-messaging-0kyvxgh5j og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/0KYvxGH5J.png og:image:alt: My philosophy for productive instant messaging og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # My philosophy for productive instant messaging **[Drew DeVault](https://daily.dev/sources/drewdevault)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Drew DeVault shares his philosophy for using IRC and instant messaging productively. The core principles are: treat IM as ephemeral (don't catch up on missed messages), move important information to permanent mediums like email or bug trackers, treat IM as asynchronous (don't expect immediate replies), include full context in mentions, and pull notifications rather than letting them push to you. These habits prevent workflow interruptions and reduce stress while keeping communication effective. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. 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