Batching to Save You Time and Stress

Batching is a way of being super productive and is simply doing similar tasks together. It will save you a serious amount of time and stress.

Anything that frees up time is worth doing in my book, and batching is one of the best ways I’ve found to do this. I’m still work in progress and it’s something I’ve gotten really good at in some areas but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Time is our most precious resource and we don’t get to spend it twice. Life is busy and it’s too easy to get bogged down with stuff. Before you know it, it’s the end of the day and you’re no further forward than when you started the day.

Advantages of batching

When you stop and start different tasks there is a time delay between them. Whether it’s getting your brain in gear or logging into different websites, there is a time cost. If you reduce the number of times you move between one thing to another, it will add up during the day.

It is easier to get into the flow of jobs when you are focusing on them. You won’t have to work out where you got to or try to remember what to do next because you are in the right zone for the task in hand.

Batching will help you to clear the tasks that can often take days or weeks to get around to. It’s a great way to give you space to work on your projects or take downtime with family and friends without having the unfinished to-do list hanging over you.

Batch at work and home

Don’t limit batching to just work, by batching some of your home activities and chores, you can save even more time. It’s a way of working efficiently in every area to free you up for the things you’d love to do.

10 batching ideas

Emails – only check your emails once (or twice) a day, don’t dip in and out of them as soon as you see the little notification. If you don’t trust yourself to not look, turn off your notifications or close the programme down.
Clients – book your client appointments or calls together so you can get into the ‘client zone’ fully. I zone my weekdays, so I know which are clinical and keep the other days for marketing and projects.
Marketing – whether you produce blogs, podcasts, videos – the more you can do these together, the better. Especially if you have the equipment to set up or want to do your hair and makeup before appearing on video, batching will be a huge time saver. Imagine how relieved you will feel if you have a month’s content ready and scheduled to go out.
Social media – create your posts for the week (or month) in one go and use a scheduling tool to automate their delivery. You will still need to check them and respond to any comments etc. but you can do this a couple of times a day.
Administration – do all your accounts and other similar administrative tasks together. This way they won’t interfere in your day to day work.
Planning – whether you’re planning a trip of a lifetime or next year in your practice, if you want to move ahead, it’s much easier to work on them in chunks of time.
Chores – rather than doing jobs as you go, batch similar chores together so you do them in one go.
Errands – how can you batch together trips so you only go out once? I’ve learnt to be a lot better at this since moving to a rural area. It’s 5 miles to our local town so each trip takes time. I make the most of them by shopping, getting my hair cut, filling the car up, etc. in one trip.
Dinners – if you’re cooking a meal, make extra portions and freeze them so you have your own healthy ready meals. Create a meal plan at the start of the week so you’re not thinking about what you eat each day. It will save you decision time and you’ll have a shopping list ready.
Friends and family – making a couple of visits in one afternoon or making a few phone calls in an evening is a great way to catch up with people and be efficient with your time. When I work in London, I have limited time available to catch up with everyone. I have to make my trips efficient, so I get to spend time with loved ones whilst protecting my energy.

How to batch

Batching requires some organising. Here are my suggestions on getting started:

Work out which tasks you are going to batch and roughly how much time you will need for each.
Create blocks of time and put them on your calendar so you have time specifically allocated for each batch.
Remove all other distractions when you are working on these tasks. Make sure you are able to use your time productively and don’t get side-tracked.
Plan out your batching in advance in the way that works best for you. Whether you do weekly or monthly, you already know where to start.

Batching is a huge time saver and it allows me to be away from the office regularly. Nothing comes to a halt and I don’t have the stress of the weekly tasks hanging over me.