Recurring reminders in Slack: the phrasing that works and how to stop them

A recurring reminder is the simplest automation in Slack: one command, and a prompt arrives on the same schedule until you stop it. This page covers the phrasing that works, the schedules people get wrong, and how to delete a reminder that keeps firing. For everything else about reminders, including the new To-dos tab, see our full guide to Slack reminders.

How to make a reminder repeat

Add a repeat phrase to an ordinary /remind command. Slack's own guide to using reminders shows phrases like "every day," "every Monday," "every weekday" and "every two weeks." Monthly reminders use a date, as in "on the 1st of every month."

Two rules shape everything else, and both are in Slack's help article on setting reminders. Reminders repeat by the day, never by the hour, so "every hour" or "every 15 minutes" will not work. And if you give a day without a time, the reminder arrives at 9 a.m. in your time zone, so always add the time you mean.

Commands that work

These follow the patterns Slack documents. Swap in your own channel names and wording.

Daily/remind me to clear my To-dos every weekday at 5pm/remind #team-support to post the overnight handover every weekday at 8:30amWeekly/remind #team-growth to share last week's signups every Monday at 9am/remind me to plan next week every Friday at 3pmEvery two weeks/remind #finance to run payroll checks every two weeks at 2pmMonthly/remind me to file expenses on the 1st of every month at 10am/remind #it-ops to review admin access on the 1st of every month at 11am

After you send each one, read the confirmation Slack sends back. It shows the schedule Slack understood, and that is the moment to catch a reminder set for the wrong day.

Schedules that trip people up

Fortnightly reminders are the most common problem. "Every two weeks" works, but which week it lands on depends on when and how you set it. Check the next date in Slack's confirmation, and if it is the off week, delete the reminder and set it again.

The end of the month is the next trap. Reminders handle dated schedules such as the 1st of every month well. A rule like "the last working day" is harder to express. Set it for the first of the following month instead, and word the reminder as a look back, such as "close last month's books."

Time zones catch distributed teams. A channel reminder fires at one moment for everyone, so a nine o'clock prompt from London lands in the middle of the night in California. Choose the time for the readers, not the person setting it.

Finally, guests cannot create channel reminders, so a contractor who wants a recurring prompt in a shared channel will need a full member to set it up.

How to stop a recurring reminder

For your own reminders, open To-dos in the sidebar, find the reminder, and either clear its due date or remove the to-do. Clearing the date keeps the item on your list without the prompt.

Channel reminders work differently. They cannot be edited, so to change the wording or the schedule you delete the reminder and create a new one. To delete one, type /remind list in the channel where it posts and send it, as Slack's instructions for managing channel reminders describe. Slack shows you a list, visible only to you, with a Delete button next to each reminder you are allowed to remove.

If the reminder is not in your list, someone else set it and you do not have permission to delete it. Ask that person, or a workspace admin, in the channel itself, so everyone knows it is going away. A reminder that keeps posting after its owner has left the company is a sign to check /remind list in your busier channels now and then.

When to use a scheduled workflow instead

Slack itself suggests channel reminders for simple team prompts, and a workflow built from the scheduled message template for anything more complex. A scheduled workflow can post a formatted message on the schedule you choose, and it can be edited later instead of deleted and recreated.

Use a workflow when the recurring post needs formatting, links or a button, or when someone else may need to change it while you are away. Keep /remind for the one-line prompts it handles well. For more prompt ideas, see our Slack reminder examples, and for bots that go further than Slack's own reminders, our guide to Slack bot reminders.

Questions people ask