The Beauty of Batchwork: A Guide for Entrepreneurs

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Ever feel like there's never enough time to conquer your to-do list? Customer service, posting content, creating content, writing emails, balancing the budget, editing the website…. It’s all gotta get done and it kinda all needs to get done NOW. But wait, we haven’t even talked about strategic planning, meetings with the team, talking to vendors or networking… not to mention you’ve got an ENTIRE LIFE outside of the business too!

Ok, let’s all take a breath, here. First, let’s go ahead and recognize that it can’t all get done and honestly, not everything has the same level of importance. Second, let’s seriously swallow that we will always want more hours in a day. With that said, let’s thirdly STOP PACKING SO MUCH INTO A DAY. Let’s be intentionally honest with ourselves on what can get accomplished in a day, week, month, quarter and year and give ourselves some grace here. We’re not saying don’t dream big, (seriously, we’ve got a whole blog about dreaming big) we’re just saying don’t be completely unrealistic.

Get ready for some relief. There’s this productivity gem called batchworking that has 100000% transformed our chaos into clarity. By organizing similar tasks into batches, we multiply our efficiency and free up time for our passion projects, time with our families, or (gasp!) time for hobbies that have nothing to do with work! 

Picture this: no more busyness for the sake of “productivity”, no more multi-tasking and no more working yourself to death for a million hours per week.

Don’t think it’s possible for you? Get ready for us to blow your mind.

Batchworking #101: Identify your tasks.

First, list out the tasks you handle regularly. Maybe it's emailing clients, scheduling posts, or drafting proposals. Seriously take a look at your calendar, think through your day or week and jot everything down to even the minutiae of checking emails. This first step could be a rough draft, if you will. Taking it a step deeper, we suggest doing a full on time study. This means you would write down each task you do after you do it and how long you spent on that task. This time study exercise is going to reveal a few things to you. You’re going to see what is actually important to you, because that is what you are spending your time doing.

Batchworking #102: Evaluate where you’re spending your time.

After you’ve gotten a few days or even a week under your belt from the time study exercise, it’s time to evaluate where you’re spending your time. Have you completed tasks or spent time on projects that only YOU can do as the business owner? Do you have your email open the entire day and allow it to interrupt you everytime a ding goes off? How about the phone? Do you have notifications on and answer any and all texts coming through at any and all hours during your work day? Do you have a revolving office door of team members constantly asking you questions? How much time did you get to spend on the things that only YOU can do? How much time did you get to spend on the things that set your soul on fire? Or move the business’s needle?

Batchworking #103: Edit your tasks.

Now it’s time to take anything that someone else can do off of your task list. Even if you’re a solopreneur, it’s time to really think about where those tasks could go. Do you have the funds to outsource? Once you think about it, you may realize that task really isn’t important at all. If it’s still gotta get done, maybe it moves down your priority list because it’s not terribly important in moving the needle forward in your business. Is there anything that didn’t make the list that really should have? Like strategic planning and other things that involve working on the business? It’s time to add those to the list so we can create space for them.

Batchworking #104: Identify similar tasks.

Time to see what tasks go together. What tasks could form a group that has a category? Maybe there’s several things on your list that involve sitting down in front of the computer. That could be your “Digital” category. Maybe there’s a lot of extroverted time like meetings, talking on the phone, visiting prospects, etc. That could be your “People” category. Just like in the step above, if you don’t have any “Deep Work” type tasks on your task list, it’s time to create that category. As a business owner, you need uninterrupted time to think, plan and work on the business instead of in it. Let’s go ahead and bash the myth that it’s selfish. It’s not! This time is essential to the lifeblood of your business and your team’s livelihood. It would be selfish not to set aside time for this.

Batchworking #105: Schedule blocks of time.

Now here comes the fun part (finally)! It’s time to be in charge of your time. Take those categories you created in the last step that identifies similar tasks and schedule blocks of time for them. Seriously put them on your calendar so everyone important in your life knows the deal. Maybe you’re super lucky and you can have the same blocks of time for the same categories week after week. That’s amazing! If that’s not true for you, don’t fret. We’ve found more times than not that this is something that has to be figured out week to week. Which brings us to…

Batchworking #106: Stay committed.

During these time blocks, focus solely on the batched tasks. Resist the urge to multitask. It might feel kinda weird at first, but find peace in the work you’ve done up to this point that has shown you why this is important. You’ve seen what you were spending your time on, assigned value to those tasks, and now we’re really leaning into what the most valuable tasks are for you to complete. The people around you might think it’s strange too to not have total and complete access to you at all times. Know that you are not only doing what’s best for you, but you’re doing what’s best for the company. Make communicating this point constantly to your team a top priority. You’re also multitasking in a way that we approve of: leading by example. Need more guided help on setting these boundaries? Check this out.

Batchworking #107: Review & adjust.

Not only are we firm believers in committing to something and seeing it through to completion, but we’re also firm believers in reviewing and adjusting as necessary. No two people and no two businesses are alike. It is crucial to understand and have an awareness of how you and your team work and communicate. This final step doesn’t mean throw batchworking out the window. It means really evaluate what worked, what didn’t and what will work once the details are ironed out. Maybe instead of a full day of “Deep Work” you block off an hour in the middle of the week and increase from there. Maybe instead of a full day of “People” work you block off an afternoon for that and pair it with “Computer” work in the morning. Work with your team on this and find that sweet spot!

Being busy doesn’t mean you’re being productive, multitasking is not a superpower and working longer hours doesn’t equal more success. Productivity for entrepreneurs is about getting more done with less stress, so you’re not burning the candle at both ends. It’s about doing the right things that push your business forward.

Batchworking and time blocking are truly the secret weapons of business growth and well-being. Individually, this core productivity technique increases focus, saves time and reduces stress (just ask our girl Christy Wright). Working in the beauty of batchwork builds massive momentum and the quality of work naturally improves. Task batching increases efficiency so that you’ll have more time to focus on strategic moves and innovative ideas. The more efficient you are, the easier it is to grow and scale your business. It’s about building a foundation that can handle more weight as you expand.

Incorporating the batchwork technique into your routine can transform your business. And so can these reads. We're all about working smarter, not harder and we want to shout it from the rooftops about how you can too!

Ready to put this practice into action? Check this guide to help!

So, now what? The biggest factor in achieving your big, lofty biz goals is creating a foundation from which you can jump to the heights of your version of success. We’ve got a few FREE tools for you to help make that happen!

Money makes the world go ‘round, right? We’ve got you covered on making an organized plan, sticking to it and giving each dollar a name in your business. We’re talking FLOW OF MONEY so you know where each dollar should go and how to pay yourself, figuring out your MONTHLY FIXED INCOME + EXPENSES and how to track them, combing through your year to discover your NON FIXED EXPENSES so they aren’t a surprise, plus an ANNUAL BUDGET WORKSHEET to map out all the aforementioned pieces to finish off your Biz Budget Template puzzle.

The great work you’re doing doesn’t matter if no one knows about it, right? LET’S TELL THE WORLD! But let’s be strategic about it, ok? (After all, “strategies” is in our name!) Enter stage right, the Content Calendar Template. This is where all that hard work of yours gets to put on a show for your audience and open the doors to new audience members. In this free download, we have the entire year built out for you. Whether your creation starts from a blog, a social media post, a podcast episode, a pin on Pinterest, or an email to your community, we’ve got you covered on organizing all of your content. Each week across all of your marketing channels is going to be strategically scheduled to save you time and create a beautiful cohesiveness that your audience will love, no matter what platform they find you on. We know you and we know that there’s always a method to the madness; so put that madness to work and get organized around putting your content out in the world!

Ahhhhh, your cozy spot on the internet…. Where the colors are your favorite, the pictures make you smile and the words on the pages are your voice speaking to your kinda people. We’re talking about your website, of course! Whether it’s intricately designed, a single landing page or somewhere in between, we’ve got you covered on allllllll the things you should pay special attention to. This free downloadable checklist includes reminders & reviews like link checking; UX design; category, page title and image alt text optimization; brand cohesion; and lead generation & SEO integrations. Whether you’re wearing the website designer hat in your business, or want to make sure your web developer is doing everything they’re supposed to, the Website Audit Checklist is for you!