How Time Batching Will Improve Your Productivity as a Business Owner
I’ve written about the importance of goal setting as a business owner before & it definitely bears repeating again that when you are focused on a goal and have a set plan mapped out, you are going to be more productive with your time & energy.
The same goes for time-batching. Time batching is something that I practice as a business owner and it’s has helped me out in so many ways.
I recommend all creative business owners to time-batch their work as this helps you focus on accomplishing as many tasks as you can in your workday without the added stress & overwhelm of working on the weekend and missing out on time spent with your family.
Each time I am to sit down and get to work on my business, I look through my project management tool - Asana - and group together with my tasks that are of the same. For example, if I have emails to send out to any prospects or clients, instead of just responding to those set of emails, I will group all my emails for the entire week together and start writing them. If the emails are not needing to be sent right away, I schedule the emails to be sent out at a particular time & date ahead of time so I stay consistent & professional.
The same thing goes for your Pinterest marketing strategy. Once a month, set aside 2-3 hours and batch create your pins & schedule them to Tailwind. When you batch your content, you are opening up more space and time in your schedule to focus on other things such as any social media posts, your weekly newsletter, or focusing any creative projects you may have.
Time batching & productivity has been a theme for many this year. It is so important to create systems and processes that will enable you to get a lot more done in your days so you’re not always catching up on any loose ends.
As I still currently have a full-time career, I know how much I need to time-batch & work productively.
Now since I’m not an expert in productivity in any way, I’ve enlisted the help of Zuba, the creator behind Clear Grow Shine to provide us with the information to get us started. I hope you enjoy it!
Multitasking kills productivity.
Whether you’re a business owner or not, multitasking is bad for your productivity. Our brains are not made to handle multiple complex tasks at the same time.
Multi-tasking is not really doing several things at the same time. But rather switching between tasks. And that can lead to projects taking 50% longer to complete.
Also, on average it takes 23 minutes to regain focus after switching tasks or a distraction.
So, what is a more productive way of working? It is more efficient to work on a single task or project at once – which is the core of time batching.
With time batching you’ll stop wasting time, finish tasks quicker and improve your productivity.
In this post we’re going to dive into what time batching is, who should use time batching and all of the benefits that batching your work offers. But you’ll also learn how to start time batching so you can get started right away.
What is time batching?
Some call it time batching or task batching, others batch working or simply batching. It all comes down to the same. But what does it mean?
Batching is a productivity system where you work on one task or a group of similar tasks during a dedicated time block.
It is basically the opposite of multi-tasking and switching from one task or project to another. When you’re time batching you only focus on one (type of) task at a time.
A simple example is checking your email. Instead of opening each email as soon as you receive the notification – and leading you away from the task you were working on – you have a dedicated time block where you check all new emails.
Batching your work has many benefits which you can read further on.
You can batch smaller as well as bigger tasks. And your time block can range from say 30 minutes to a couple of days. Let’s have a look at what type of tasks can be batched and who should use time batching.
Who should use time batching?
Time batching is great for anyone who does repeated tasks.
It could be students; with time blocks for reading textbooks, writing essays, summarizing notes, etc.
You could even use it for your household tasks; Cleaning the bathroom on Monday, dusting on Wednesday, laundry on Saturday.
It’s especially great for (creative) business owners who juggle many tasks. As a business owner you’re busy every day – but are you really productive?
Are you jumping from this task to that project? Are you never really finishing things? Or not even able to start new things? Then batching could be your lifesaver.
As a blogger and business owner myself, I time batch per week. That way I write 4 posts for next month and do all the tasks around each post. My weekly themes are:
Week 1: Keyword research + writing blog posts
Week 2: Finishing the blog posts + writing newsletters
Week 3: Pinterest marketing and social media
Week 4: Creating digital products
With time batching you can do a month’s worth of work in 1 week. For example, do you think you have no time for Pinterest marketing? Let’s see how that looks in my batching schedule.
I do Pinterest keyword research for 4 posts in one go. As well as creating several pins for each post, writing their descriptions, scheduling the pins, etc.
Because batch working brings you in a focused and deep flow of work, you’ll work faster and more streamlined.
There are more benefits to batching your work tasks and why it makes you more productive.
The benefits of batching work
With time batching you are working on one task at a time, for a certain period. During these periods of concentrated work, you have less mental clutter. That means there are more mental resources available for you to use. Heavy multitasking can temporarily lower your IQ up to 15 points, so being focused during your work is very valuable for its quality.
Improve your focus
Speaking of focus, because you dedicate yourself to one task only you’ll be better able to focus. In the beginning. it might be hard because you’re expecting to be distracted. But over time you will find that your focus will improve when you’re time batching.
RELATED POST: IMPROVE YOUR FOCUS WITH THESE 6 EXERCISES
Get better at what you do
If you work on tasks in batches, you’ll get better at that task. Let me take Pinterest marketing as an example again. You might be creating 3 pins for a post every now and then or weekly. But when you’re creating pins for multiple posts you get “in the zone” and are working more focused and dedicated on that task.
Similar to other tasks say keyword research. As you’re spending more time in one go at a task you can go deeper on the matter and become better at it.
More mental clarity and freedom
The idea with time batching is that you want to work on a certain task in a certain time period. Once it’s done, the task can leave your mind. You don’t need the nagging thoughts in the back of your mind like “I need to finish XYZ”. This is mentally very freeing and gives you space and clarity in your mind for other things – such as fine-tuning your business’ vision or being completely present during quality time with family or friends.
Be ahead of your schedule
As a business owner, but also other professionals and as a stay-at-home parent too, you may often feel that you’re behind on your work. With time batching you can change it to being ahead. Not only because you can do work in advance but also because of the structure of batching. Your work is planned out, you know what to do and when to do it, so you’ll feel more in control.
Okay, you’re convinced of time batching and want to start boosting your productivity and efficiency! How to get started with your own batching system?
How to start time batching
The basics of setting up your own batching system are not hard, but you need to carve out some time to work on it.
Step 1. List your most important tasks, the tasks that bring you ahead in your business or work. This could be content creation, marketing, creating products.
Step 2. List all the sub-tasks for each main task. Basically, write out your process for the main task. If someone else had to do your tasks, what would you tell them to do?
Now, a quick break here: your batch tasks don’t need all to be large tasks. You could group smaller tasks together too. For example, replying to comments on your social media, updating plugins, tidying paperwork, etc. Batch smaller tasks into one time block to go through at one time.
Step 3. Schedule out your tasks. Grab a calendar and organize your batching tasks. You can give each day of the week a certain focus or have themed weeks.
Step 4. Actually, follow through! Now that you have set your schedule, you need to stick to it if you want it to work. At first, it can be hard to switch up your workflow. But start small and commit to one week. And then scale it up to one month. Soon you’d wish you had started time batching earlier!
RELATED POST: HOW TO ACTUALLY STICK TO ROUTINES
About Zuba
Zuba helps young professionals with organizing, productivity and self-care. On her blog, Clear Grow Shine, you’ll find posts and (free!) resources on these topics. ClearGrowShine.com is the roadmap to become your best self and live your dream life.
Connect with Zuba!
