In this week’s issue of Profit & Joy Simplified, let's talk about my not-so-secret productivity hack for getting tons done in business: BATCHING.
I love to cross things off my list. It makes me feel accomplished.
Trouble is, like all entrepreneurs, I have too many things on my "to-do" list.
So we often try to do it all.
How’s that working for ya? Not. Shhhhh. I won't tell.
The world tells us to multitask. But you know what? It DOESN’T work! In fact, in a study I read this week, multitasking actually only works for 2.5%!
So here I am sharing my not-so-secret, but highly effective productivity hack - BATCHING!
Unfortunately, most of us entrepreneurs are running all over doing a little bit of all the things. Ending every day exhausted and wondering why we haven’t gotten more done.
Are you nodding your head yet? Thought so.
If you adopt this simple practice of batching, you’ll be on your way to less stress and more checked off your to-do list.
And did I mention it’s simple?
Let’s dive in.
What is Batching anyway?
According to the Cambridge Business English Dictionary:
So yeah, basically it’s tackling all your tasks in bulk.
On a personal level, you may already do this in some way:
Doing all the laundry in one day instead of a load a day
Meal planning for a week at a time instead of while standing in the grocery store every day (I used to do a whole month!)
Christmas shopping by taking a day to get it done
And yep, even binge watching your fave Netflix show :)
So we actually already know about batching, but where could we apply it in business? How about these ideas?
Client work - focused time on clients only
Potential client calls
Meetings - only certain days?
Writing and editing - not just sporadically but a week’s worth at once?
Research/Thinking/Strategy
Finance & working ON (not in) your business
Marketing
Podcast & video recording
Emails - what if we answered them only at certain times of day instead of as they come inSocial media engagement
Just a few ideas to get your wheel turning.
What else would you add to this list?
What can be done at one time?
But WHY would I want to Batch? (what are the Benefits?)
Many….
More checked off your to-do list
Eliminate that warm-up time you need every time you start
Feel more confident as you take charge of your schedule
Time will be efficiently planned to accomplish your goals
More efficient work as you get in the groove of doing one task at a time
You’ll get back hours back in your day
Free up time to work on new projects
You can get ahead - complete work BEFORE IT NEEDS TO BE DONE
PEACE OF MIND!
Okay, again, I bet your mind is now thinking of even more benefits. I’d love to hear those too. This is NOT meant to be your entire list (and some of those may not apply), but what it IS meant to do is get you SOLD on doing this
4 Simple Steps to Batching in Business
1. List
List all the one-time projects & repetitive work you have to do
Cross off any that you can automate, eliminate or delegate to others
Remaining list should be projects & tasks that YOU need to complete and that support your vision of success
Now turn each of those tasks into 1 step actions to accomplish
Example - on my list would be Newsletter.
Action steps: come up with an idea, research, write, edit, decide on graphics, make graphics, upload to email, add graphics & links, add to blog, schedule, write posts promoting, and interact with comments.
Wowza, That’s an exhausting list. But can you see how each of them is simply one task?
2. Organize Like Tasks
Go thorough all the one-step tasks you found and put like kinds together (kind of like finding all the towels in the house and putting them together for a load of laundry)
Don’t worry about perfection - expect to tweak it later.
For example, you can see in the above example that I have a lot of writing to do. All those tasks could go together.
3. Calendar It
To calendar this, you have to understand both your own internal nature for work as well as your professional and personal schedule.
There are so many methods to batching you can try, including:
Theme days (client work on Mondays, meetings on Tuesdays, etc)
Pomodoro (25-minute increments)
Batching by project for as long as it takes (Marie Forleo does a season of Marie Forleo TV over several weeks, but only once a year!)
Time blocking your day (focused hours for certain activities)
And many more...
For my current schedule, time blocking works really well:
I separately research my newsletters a couple at a time, then write my newsletters, separately edit (thanks to Dickie Bush for helping me separate writing & editing!), and then do graphics and uploading completely separately.
All these tasks take different levels of concentration & different areas of my brain to be more effective. So while it seems to make sense to “write a newsletter & post it” I actually do this over several different days.
And it’s way more efficient. And I get that done check mark.✅ Woohoo! Not just for the check mark, but because writing newsletters to help you, my fellow entrepreneur, is something that supports my vision of success. So it made it through the list in step 1 as important enough to get down to calendaring it and doing it.
4. Just Do It
It should go without saying but without DOING this, you won't get it DONE. :)
Do not get stuck on the steps. Just start. I have said this a million times & I’m saying it again:
Imperfectly done is better than perfectly pending.
It is far easier to analyze & adjust based on results than based on pondering.
TL;DR:
1. Multitasking doesn’t work for almost anyone
2. Batching is a great alternative
3. List your projects & work
4. Group together like tasks
5. Calendar the work
6. Do it! ✅
That it’s. Told ya it was simple.
I’m off to batch the laundry (yep, I do it all in one day because I hated doing a load a day - but you do you!).
What could you batch in your business?
Hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for reading.
See ya again next week, my friend!
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