Stop the Slack: How Chat Tools and Meetings Created a Distraction Epidemic


The solution isn't to communicate more.
It's to make every conversation count.

They promised productivity—but created chaos

When Slack launched in 2014, it was hailed as a revolutionary tool that would transform work. Real-time messaging promised seamless collaboration, faster decision-making, and effortless communication.

But a decade later, what was meant to connect teams has done the opposite.

Missed deadlines and scheduling chaos have joined the ever-growing list of frustrations:

  • Slack threads that go nowhere
  • Meetings that generate endless follow-ups
  • Calendars that live outside your core workflows, or
  • Emails lost in inboxes

No wonder teams spend more time managing communication than actually working.

The real problem?

Conversations—whether in chat or meetings—are completely isolated from actual work.

Tool chaos tweet

Conversations are disconnected from work

Every day, teams bounce between chat, email, and project management tools, desperately trying to piece together scattered threads.

You’re bombarded with notifications
Teams are forced to fragment attention across disconnected tools and notifications with the constant fear of missing something.

Everything feels urgent—but nothing gets done
Instead of simplifying work, chat tools have created more complexity, making it harder to track progress and execute with clarity.

This isn’t just frustrating—it’s costing companies millions in wasted time, lost productivity, and burnout.

It’s time to ask: Are your tools actually helping you work—or just keeping you busy?

Work is broken

The toggle tax: where productivity goes to die

Studies reveal that the average worker toggles between apps 1,200 times a day.

And it’s not just messaging apps. Teams often juggle multiple calendars and scheduling tools, adding more context switching to the mix.

What's more, our survey revealed just how unproductive our meetings have become:

  • 51% of employees report going to the restroom during their meetings
  • 34% of executives admit that they have shopped online during meetings

That's multi-tasking at its finest.

We’re wasting billions of dollars in unproductive meetings and work-about-work: searching, recapping, and untangling the mess left behind by disconnected tools.

64% of employees

say most meetings require follow-up because next steps weren’t clear
(ClickUp Survey)

45% of executives

spend 30+ minutes writing post-meeting action items—expensive use of leadership
(ClickUp Survey)

40% of executives

spend 4-6+ hours per week in meetings—and multitask half of them
(ClickUp Survey)

The financial cost: miscommunication is a budget killer

Bad communication isn’t just inconvenient—it’s financially devastating.

Companies with 100 employees lose an average of $420,000 every year due to communication breakdowns (SHRM).

When meeting times, deadlines, and schedules live in standalone calendars, it’s easy to miss updates or fail to track next steps.

It’s not just the money lost—it’s also talent, momentum, and innovation that walk out the door.

46% of employees

have quit a job because of a company’s broken collaboration culture
(ClickUp Survey)

54% of employees

said an organization's software influenced their decision to quit
(ClickUp Survey)

The psychological cost: why your teams experience burnout

An “always-on” culture isn’t just stressful—it’s unsustainable.

Constantly switching between chat, email, and multiple calendars for each project leads to an ‘always-on’ culture that overwhelms teams.

Burnout leads to disengagement, lower productivity, and higher turnover. Disconnected work isn’t just annoying—it’s breaking people.

76% of employees

report experiencing burnout—with poor communication being a major cause
(Gallup)

70% of employees

said they’d send a proxy to meetings if they could just to reclaim focus time
(ClickUp Survey)

The solution: converge communication and work

The problem isn’t just chat, meeting, or calendar tools—it’s the way teams handle communication as a whole.

The future of work isn’t just about talking more—it’s about making sure every conversation drives real action in a connected workspace, with:

Centralized Communication

Conversations, work, and knowledge in one place, eliminating context switching and improving focus.

Context-Driven Collaboration

Discussions link to actionable tasks and projects, reducing redundancy and providing instant context.

AI-Connected Workflows

AI connects conversation context to tasks and workflows, providing real-time updates and eliminating busywork.

Introducing ClickUp Chat, AI Notetaker, and Calendar

At ClickUp, we believe conversations and work shouldn’t live in separate silos. They belong together—in one place, where teams can turn ideas and discussions into action instantly.

That’s why we built ClickUp Chat, AI Notetaker, and Calendar—a connected way to collaborate where discussions instantly become tasks, actions, and results.

Generate trackable tasks from any converation and work directly from chat without needing to switch between tools.

The future of work starts here

Organizations that connect conversations to work execution unlock compounding gains in efficiency, focus, and measurable business impact.

ClickUp Chat, AI Notetaker, and Calendar converge to help teams cut through the noise, eliminate wasted time, and execute seamlessly.

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