Set hours for approvals instead of instant replies

Approval hours are a fixed window each day when you review and sign off on the things waiting for your yes, instead of approving things the instant they land in front of you. It turns approvals into a batch instead of a constant drip.

Instant approvals feel fast, but they train your team to send things to you the second they are ready, which fragments your day into tiny interruptions. A fixed window teaches people to save up requests, and most of them turn out not to be urgent at all. I keep one window for approvals now, and I have noticed most requests that used to feel urgent can easily wait until it opens.

Try this today: pick one window each day for approvals, tell your team when it is, and hold off on approving anything outside of it unless it is genuinely urgent. Watch the drip turn into a manageable batch.