Discussion on question by thatgirldm: How to gently enforce "nohello" to a coworker?

@AdamNaylor But just saying "hello" doesnt give them any information about what to context switch to. So you are still just making them wait for you to type the question.

"I've tried ignoring her until she asks an actual question, but she'll just wait" - I don't really see the problem here (except for the fact that some will consider it rude). Why do you care whether or not her question gets answered? She hasn't asked you the question yet, it's not your responsibility to answer what you don't know.

@SaggingRufus Yes, it's several minutes. She messages me, I pause what I'm doing and go look at her message, respond, wait anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes while she responds (during which time I might try to return to my original task or do something else, or simply be interrupted by someone else who sees me waiting on her message), then rinse/repeat until she's finally ready to ask her question.