Message Yourself in Slack and Teams: A Scratchpad, Not a Reminder

You can send messages to yourself in Slack and Microsoft Teams. Use that space for a working note, a link with your own explanation or a rough message you are not ready to share. Before typing, check that the recipient is your own account. For something due at a particular time, set an actual reminder or task rather than relying on finding the note later.

Miles Crawford

5 min read

This image was generated with AI

Open your own conversation in Slack

Open DMs and search for your own name. If your own conversation is already listed, select it. Otherwise, start a new message and choose your own account as the recipient. Look for the entry identified as you, and check the workspace before sending. Type a harmless note first if you are unsure which conversation you opened.

Slack's current DM help documents the DMs view, conversation search and new-message control; its vacation guide explicitly recommends sending notes to yourself. How-To Geek's older walkthrough shows the self-DM entry marked with your name and “You.” Treat that older screenshot as orientation, not a promise that today's sidebar has the same layout.

Once the right conversation is open, write and send your note like another message. On desktop, Enter sends; on mobile, use the paper-plane send icon. If you leave text unsent, it is a draft, which is different from a note you have posted to yourself. Our drafts guide covers finding unfinished messages.

Start a chat with yourself in Teams

Select New message at the top of your list of chats and channels.
Enter your own name and choose your own account.
Confirm the chat header, compose a note, then select Send.

Microsoft documents self-chat for drafts, messages, files and trying chat features. You can drag your self-chat to the top of Favorites for easier access. Do not send a test to a similarly named coworker or a different account just because it is the first suggestion.

Teams Free has its own documented route: New Chat, then your name, phone number or email in the To field, select yourself and send. Work and personal accounts are different contexts. A note in one is not evidence that you saved it in the other.

Choose the right place before you add another note

This is our decision guide, not a list of identical features in both apps.

What you need	Better starting point	Check
Your own explanation beside a link	A self-chat note	Correct account and enough context
Return to someone else's original message	Saved	Original context, not a permanent archive
An alert at a specific time	A timed reminder or approved task tool	Actual date, time and notification route
A decision or task other people depend on	The shared conversation or team task system	Owner, due date and audience

Slack documents date-and-time reminder notifications through To-dos and message reminders. Teams Saved and unread markers do not pick a notification time. Configured workflows and approved task tools are separate choices. See the reminder guide rather than assuming a self-chat message is an alarm.

Write a note that will still make sense later

A bare link makes you reconstruct why you kept it. Add a label, the next action and the source. These are fictional examples you can adapt, not messages from a real workspace.

📝 Draft for the supplier thread: ask whether the revised sample includes the new label. Source: the sample-review message. Next step: check the photo before posting the question.

Question to investigate: the handoff checklist names two owners for the same step. Compare the current checklist with the handoff thread. Do not change ownership until the team confirms it.

The first note is a scratchpad, not a sent request. The second preserves uncertainty instead of turning a suspicion into a decision. An emoji such as 📝 can help you scan your own notes, but keep the words: a symbol alone will not explain what needs doing.

When you are ready to share, recheck the audience, links and facts. Copy only what the recipients need into the right conversation. A private draft is not a team handoff until you actually share the outcome. Our handoff guide covers the shared version.

A self-chat is not a personal vault or a backup

A conversation with yourself is still inside the work service. Slack retention settings cover DMs, and retention applies even to pinned or saved items. Microsoft explicitly includes chat with yourself in the Teams chats retention location. Its retention guidance explains that edited or deleted messages can remain in a secured compliance location when a policy requires it.

That does not mean every coworker can open your notes. It means “sent only to me” is not a promise of permanent storage or exemption from workplace retention and compliance rules. Do not put passwords, recovery codes or other secrets in the chat. Use your approved password manager and follow your organization's rules for confidential material.

For an important record, use the approved document or records system. For a file, verify where the actual file lives and who can access it before treating a chat link as a backup. Do not change retention or sharing settings merely to preserve a scratchpad.

Finish the note, not just the conversation

Our suggested review is simple: after using a note, write the outcome or move the work into its proper shared place. If a note gains a real deadline, add a timed task. If it becomes a decision, put the confirmed answer where the team can find it. Clear obsolete scratch work according to your workplace's rules, without assuming deletion removes every retained copy.

Sources and test limits

Reviewed October 29, 2026. We checked documentation, not notification delivery or file access in a signed-in Slack or Teams workspace. The decision table, note formats and review routine are our suggestions. The hero is conceptual AI artwork, not a product screenshot.