Are you the person who typically has a million tabs open on your computer? If so, we’re about to give you some tough love today! We’re going to help you understand why and how batch working and focusing on ONE task at a time is going to CHANGE your life and business.
Let’s be honest, do you actually LIKE bouncing from task to task, tab to tab, and constantly feeling like a chicken with your head cut off? Do you genuinely feel like you get more work done that way? PROBABLY not. Batch working has completely CHANGED business for us. Batch working is simply taking certain chunks of time (or even days of the week) and dedicating them STRICTLY to ONE task, and one task only. While it might FEEL productive to multitask a bunch of things throughout your workday, we can PROMISE you, it’s SCREWING your productivity BIG TIME. Today we’re diving into HOW to get the MOST out of batch working. Don’t you want to work smarter, and NOT harder? We thought so!
Why is batch working important?
It saves you so much time, mental energy, and stress when you stop multitasking and just focus on one task at a time. Multitasking is killing your productivity.
1. Time blocking
Time blocking is when you schedule and set specific blocks of time in your months, weeks, or days dedicated to working on a SPECIFIC task. For example, we have Mondays as our batch podcast days. We don’t schedule or plan for anything on Mondays other than writing and recording for the podcast. We only accept podcast guest interviews on Mondays. We keep it as a full day dedicated to podcasting.
You can time block at a large scale such as every 3 months you batch work updating your website. Or, you can time block at a smaller scale such as having Monday for your blog posts, Wednesdays for your editing, and Fridays for your batch Instagram captions. This can change week to week and day to day.
When you allow your brain the ability to settle down and focus on ONE task for 60-90 minutes, you’re able to knock out 10x as much work vs when you try to bounce from task to task and your brain is trying to juggle 500 things at once.
It comes down to making sure you have the time set aside and you only focus on that one thing.
2. Remove distractions
Batch working will not work unless you remove distractions. We are impatient people with small attention spans. When batch working, eliminate ALL distractions humanly possible. This means phones, notifications, house tasks, and maybe even your kids.
If you have carved out batch working time, make your space as distraction-free as possible.
Put your phone on silent in the other room. Your phone will distract you, even if you aren’t touching it. If it is within eye sight or easy reach, your brain is going ot be split focusing on both.
If you’re able, turn your wifi off on your computer or at least shut off all notifications so your attention isn’t being interrupted by random dings and pings. Set blockers on your web browser to limit your websites!
Having a messy workspace can equal a messy concentration. Cleaning up your workspace is also a huge way to promote focused, intense work. Studies have shown that we don’t work anywhere near as well in messy spaces. CLEAN UP THOSE DISTRACTIONS!!!
Create and cultivate your environment in advance to be as successful as possible when you are batch working.
Studies show that every time you are distracted by a task or switch tasks, it takes your brain 20 minutes to click back in and engage with the task you just left. Think about all the distractions we encounter in day to day life. Each time you switch tasks it’s going to take you 20 minutes to refocus.
3. Take breaks
Studies show that the human brain can really only focus on one thing for a limited period of time. For the average human, that’s usually 60-90 minutes tops. When you’re batch working, work for that length of time and then take breaks.
The 90/20 rule is a great guide here. Work for 90 minutes. Take 20 minutes off.
Breaks can look like a walk around the block, grabbing lunch, stretching, laying down, or talking to a friend. Breaks should NOT look like scrolling on your phone, watching a show, or honestly ANYTHING to do with screens. Give your brain and eyes a break on your breaks.
Nature is a great way to recharge and energize your brain. Another way is to grab a healthy snack and move your body. Sitting in front of a screen is not going to recharge you.
Conclusion
Did this episode convert you from a multi-tab brain-running-a-mile-a-minute kinda person to a systemized intentional batch worker? We hope so. We promise if you utilize the tools and tips we gave today your productivity will increase. You will see results in your business and life. You won’t feel like you worked 15 hour days just to have virtually nothing crossed off your to-do list. Batch working is a GAME CHANGER and if you actually utilize it in your business workflow, it’s going to move the needle forward.
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