Reply only twice a daydailyroutine

This is a daily routine for shaping your week. Use “Reply only twice a day” to realign the rhythm of everyday life.

Your habit of replying to every notification may seem like a 'fast person' to your colleagues, but your own concentration breaks every 10 minutes. If you say ‘wait a minute’ 30 times a day, deep work is impossible.

Replying twice a day is not non-response. Let your team and yourself know about your promise to 'gather and answer at 11 and 4 o'clock.' For most messages, a 2–3 hour wait is acceptable. If the green dot in Slack is always on, your colleagues assume you can answer now. Deployment habits are about changing those assumptions.

When a prompt answer seems like kindness

Urgent communications come via phone call or text message. The key is to change the assumption that ‘DM = immediate response’. The first week may feel 'slow', but from the second week you will notice a big change in the level of concentration block. Paired with 15 minutes in the morning to organize your inbox, you'll have 15 minutes shorter by separating 'reading' and 'replying'.

11:00 and 4:00, 30 minutes each

11:00 AM, 4:00 PM—or two slots spaced 30 minutes apart based on your team's time zone. Add a recurring event to your calendar using ‘Place Reply’. Each batch is done on a 30 minute timer. Handle email, Slack, and Messenger in that order—or in order of urgency.

If it isn't finished within 30 minutes, the remainder will be passed on to the next batch. The pressure to ‘answer everything today’ breaks down the arrangement. Place it so that it does not overlap with other concentration blocks, such as right after lunch or an hour before work.

Close the window between batches

I turn off email and Slack notifications between 11am and 4pm deployments. Or reduce it to a ‘mentions only’ notification. Open the window only at deployment time. If you minimize Slack, you will reduce the habit of fingers going to Slack with Cmd+Tab.

Some people leave their iPhone's 'Focus Mode' on between batches. Once the notification banner disappears, the urge to 'check it out' goes unnoticed.

Just tell the team

On the team channel, ‘I will gather replies at 11 and 4 o’clock. We only announce once, ‘If it’s urgent, please call us.’ You can also include the same phrase in your status message. You don't need to explain it every time. Even if your team is busy, you can protect your deployment slot. If you do the first batch right after organizing your inbox for 15 minutes in the morning, you will naturally set the rhythm of your day.

The immediate answer may not be kindness, but rather entrusting your time to others. Starting today, please reply only at 11:00, 4:00, and 30 minutes. If I stick to a 90-minute block of focus between batches, my day feels like it's split into two chunks. If you write ‘Reply at 11:00 and 4:00’ in your Slack status, your colleagues can also predict the waiting time.