Set a custom status

I’m stepping into back-to-back meetings and need my team to see I’m heads-down coding. Set my custom status to ‘Deep focus — heads-down coding until 3:30pm’ with the laptop emoji, visible to everyone, and set it to clear at 3:30pm today.

Before I set this for an all-hands week, make the status informative and scannable — put the end time up front, include the reason (coding, interview prep, PTO), and choose an emoji that won’t be mistaken for availability. Flag any wording that might make managers expect an immediate reply.

I put ‘Busy’ as my status this morning and kept getting interruptions. I need something that stops non-urgent pings but doesn’t alarm my manager. What short status text, emoji, and clear end time would be most likely to reduce DMs without triggering worry?

We habitually set unhelpful statuses like 'Busy' and still get interrupted, costing flow time. Where should we change behavior — standardize status formats, set channel-wise expectations, or educate managers — and recommend one team rule that will actually reduce interruptions during focused work blocks.