How to Control those WhatsApp Messages
I am a big user of WhatsApp. I use it constantly to message various clients, friends and family members. I also belong to over 20 WhatsApp groups. A few are important such as the family one and a few with friends, here in Dubai and overseas. With all these contacts and groups, I can receive close to 200 messages a day. Sometimes it can be more. If I’m working with a client all day or driving, I won’t get a chance to look at my phone for a few hours. This means that the number of messages in my WhatsApp inbox is highly likely to be in double digits!I am not a fan of the notification bubble telling me I have X number of unread messages. If I’m being honest, it freaks me out if there is a high number in that bubble.Recently, I started to feel overwhelmed by the huge number of messages I was receiving. I was missing (important) messages due to the volume coming in.I had to change how I used WhatsApp and to stop it taking over my mind, my life and overwhelming me.Over a few hours, this is what I did to reduce the WhatsApp clutter in my life. Clear the Inbox
I went through each conversation and deleted the ones that were no longer relevant.
Removed myself from Groups I did not need to be in and deleted the conversation.
If I needed to retain any of the conversations whether, with an individual or a group, I archived the conversation.
After completing this exercise, I had a clear inbox. Moving forward, when messages do come through, I can respond to them and if the conversation has ended, either delete or archive the conversation.As great as this declutter exercise was for my WhatsApp inbox, I still had a huge number of archived conversations. Unarchive the archived messagesThe next exercise was to start dealing with the conversations in the archive folder. I separated these conversations into three situations:
Delete – these were conversations with information within them which I no longer needed to retain.
Transfer data – conversations from potential or actual clients that contain important information were moved to my CRM record for the client. Once the information was transferred the conversation was deleted.
Keep the message in archive – these were messages which contained sentimental information or information I couldn't transfer to another app.
Move to inbox - this was a very rare occurrence, but occasionally there were conversations that needed to be resurrected for me to deal with a matter.
This exercise did take time to complete; I spent 30 minutes a day going through the archive list until I had cleared the messages I no longer needed.To speed the process, especially for data transfer, I used the WhatsApp app on my computer. I could easily copy and paste onto my CRM and then delete the conversation.What tricks have you used to deal with the SMS messages coming to you and to help stop you feeling overwhelmed? I would love to hear your ideas.
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