TIME MANAGEMENT PREP #2: Batching Your Time...

As you can tell by the name, batching is when you take like-tasks and batch them together, completing them all at one. With my other business I batch a month's worth of videos all together. I choose one day to get all my videos produced, usually the first day of the month. I focus on getting a video per day, 5 days a week, 4-5 weeks of that month complete. This way I don't have to worry about it the whole next month. If I can batch 3-4 of my larger assignments in 3-4 days then I usually don't need help getting the work done, it cuts my stress, and I use my time more efficiently.

Take my social media tasks for example. One day I will plan out all my social media for the month, create all the posts, and make all the videos neded and then hand those files to my helper and they do the rest, with editing or posting, and I don't have to worry about the tasks again that entire month.

In these cases, I spend two days to complete all these tasks for the next month and that frees up my mind, worries, and concerns into one day so I can simply relax and move forward on other non-routine tasks.

Batching allows you to dedicate that time and free up the rest, especially in your personal life. Think of daily errands you have to run. When you live your life with intention, you don't need to run errands, come home, then go back out to run more errands. If you batch your tasks to occur all at the same time, you make one run and you don't waste gas, time, or money by finding one more place to spend it.

For example: I work from home and while my kids are at school, I will go out one time and get everything I have need to get done all in one trip. I will hit the bank, grocery store, gas station, drop off to the school, and the post office all in one trip. Because I visited each location with intention I made sure I only had to make one trip, driving in a lage circle and didn't have to backtrack to get a task completed that I may have forgotted, because I wrote the tasks down by their location.

One last example: I like to exercise every morning and I know I need to get my videos out for this company. Instead of batching these videos, I will go downstairs to my gym and videotape my daily exercise routine, while I am exercising. This way I get two birds with one stone. So for a daily batching routine, you can run errands all together or exercise while completing a task for your company. All are worthwhile tasks to complete in a timely and intentional manner.

Now things always come up, emergencies happen, and tasks are remembered after your batch is complete, but when you batch with intention, you free your mind of tasks that are routine and when that one task that is out of place or an emergency comes up, you can accomplish that one task without having to look at the larger picture of all the other tasks that need to be done following. All of a sudden that list of tasks that normally follows an emergency, have already been taken care of and your stress level drops dramatically.

ACTION ITEMS:

1) Find those tasks you can batch together in your life that you can batch for one day a month. Plan them out so you can accomplish them one time a month and not worry about them. Write them down on a calendar so you know when to return to that task.

2) Find those tasks that you need to do each week and you can accomplish on Monday. Find this task, accomplish it on Monday so you free up the rest of your week.

3) Find those tasks you need to do each day. Create a system so you can acomplish them during that one part of the day and not feel a need to constantly be running errands all day. If an emergency comes up, think hard, do you really need to accomplish it today or could it wait for tomorrow when you run your next set of errands. Try to limit yourself to one set of errands a day.

"Live with intention to free your mind or relieve stress, and you will find health and freedom in every other aspect of your life." - Zack Edwards