How to Answer Messages Faster: The Batching Method

You're halfway through writing a report when a message arrives. You answer it, it takes a minute. Back to the report. Where were you? Another message. Another minute.

By the end of the day you've answered sixty messages, written half a report, and feel like you've been busy for nine hours straight.

Answering everything the moment it arrives feels responsive. In practice, it's one of the slowest ways to handle messages. The faster way is to batch them.

Every switch from your work to a message and back has a cost: you lose your place, and it takes a while to get your focus back. One switch is nothing. Dozens a day add up to hours of half-attention.

Instant replies also tend to be worse replies: shorter, less thought through, and more likely to need a follow-up.

Instead of answering messages as they come, you answer them together, at a few set times.

1. Pick your batch times. For most people, three or four a day works: mid-morning, after lunch, mid-afternoon, end of day. If your job needs faster replies, go every hour, but still on a schedule.

2. Between batches, protect your focus. Silence messaging apps that don't need to interrupt you. Keep alerts only for the people who need you right away.

3. Work through everything in one pass. Start with the oldest or most important. For each message, do one of four things:

• Reply now if it takes under two minutes.
• Hand it off if someone else should answer.
• Schedule it if it needs real work, and send a holding reply.
• Archive or ignore if it needs nothing.

4. Finish with a clean slate. Every message has been touched once and has a next step. Then close the apps until the next batch.

Batching has one weak spot: if your messages live in eight apps, each batch is eight separate sweeps.

That's where a universal inbox helps. With YAFOY, your email, Slack, Teams, texts and, on Android, WhatsApp and other chat apps arrive in one list. Your batch becomes a single pass through one inbox, and you can reply from the same screen for email, Teams and Slack. Start each batch with Insight, which tells you what needs a reply first. See how the Universal Inbox works →

2:00 p.m.: you open YAFOY, read the Insight, and work through eighteen messages in twelve minutes. Then the phone goes face down, and you finish the report by 4:00. At 4:00, the next batch.

Try YAFOY free and turn eight sweeps into one.