So, let’s talk about batching. Let’s say you wanted to bake some chocolate chip cookies. Would you mix up all the ingredients for say four cookies and bake those? Of course not. I mean how are you going to divide an egg that way anyhow? It just makes sense to mix up a whole batch of cookies – even if you’re going to freeze some of them and bake them later. Saves time, work, and a lot of mess!
How many hats do you wear as a business owner? Too many, am I right? Right now, I am the owner, the sales and marketing director, the content creator, the course and lesson builder, the technical editor, the zoom coworking host, the pattern writer, the knitter, the accountant, the website designer, the IT department, the video production team AND the star of the show. And y’all know I missed some hats in there!
How many hats do you wear as a business owner? Too many, am I right? Right now, I am the owner, the sales and marketing director, the content creator, the course and lesson builder, the technical editor, the zoom coworking host, the pattern writer, the knitter, the accountant, the website designer, the IT department, the video production team AND the star of the show. And y’all know I missed some hats in there!
But let’s go back to cookies. Let’s say the sales and marketing stuff is the oatmeal raisin cookie (yuck!) and the website designing is chocolate chip (yum!). I could make one oatmeal raisin cookie and then switch to chocolate chip and oh yeah I need a couple of snickerdoodles today… but it just doesn’t make sense.
So how does this really apply to our work? Obviously switching around from cookie to cookie ain’t gonna be very efficient. But also, our brains have this thing where they do not like context switching. Context switching is what happens when you are working on one thing and then you move onto the next. And when you do that your brain kind of goes clunk. And during the switchover you slow down, and it takes a good bit for your brain to get back up to speed and ready to do the next thing.
But we are going to fix that! How? With batching. We are going to group like kinds of work together and put them into our schedule so that we minimize the context switching and the cookie switching! So, let’s look at how I batch mine:
Media Monday
Mondays are all content, all day. I write blog posts, I create Instagram and Facebook posts, I write Pinterest captions and create all the spiffy graphics in Canva, I write out emails. Just all content. I work from a monthly plan, so I know exactly what I need to be doing.
Tech Editing Tuesday
On Tuesdays I knock out all my technical editing. This is where I review other knitting designer’s patterns and make sure that they are all correct and will help the knitter produce the pictured object or garment. This is heavy brain work with lots of spreadsheets and calculating so I make sure to have the good coffee on Tuesdays. Tech editing work is a huge part of my business, so that work does spill over into other days, but Tuesday is my focus day.
WIP Wednesday
WIP is a knitting term – work in progress. On Wednesdays I work on my own knitting designs. This could be writing patterns, creating charts in Illustrator, using spreadsheets to figure out all the sizes for knitted wearables, etc. I also spend time on Wednesdays reformatting older patterns to bring them up to date.
Business Building Thursdays
It makes me sad that I can find a “th” word for Thursdays. If you can think of one oh my goodness let me know! But on Thursdays I’m working on building this new arm of my business – the Corrina Ferguson bit. This includes the Clever Girl Coworking membership and the Better Week Blueprint and my other resources for creative business owners. So, these are often tasks with an eye to the future, like training or setting up new landing pages, or creating a new lead magnet.
Filming Fridays
As much as I don’t want to accept it, video is the way to go. I am *not* camera ready on a regular basis. But I am making Instagram reels anyhow. I am doing it. I usually spend all of Friday morning reviewing my ideas that I’ve chose for the week and crafting the captions and any scripts. And then I spend all of Friday afternoon filming. Wanna catch me on a good hair day? Friday is the day!
Ok, ok, enough about me. How do you make this batching thing work for you?
First off, I encourage you to do a brain dump. Write out all the things you do on a regular basis – I like to do this in a spreadsheet so I can easily move things around, but whatever works for you is the best way to do it.
Then we are going to look at how we might be able to group things. Like 90% of my work during the week is done at my desk on my computer, so it doesn’t really help to say computer work. I will frequently list the program I am using so I can group things into even smaller batches. For example, on Media Monday I have to create a ton of graphics in Canva, so I will do all those at the same time. And the I will switch over to Tailwind to write the captions and schedule the posts/pins. When I am writing blog posts, I will do that in word and just leave notes about what kind of graphics I need to create/source and work on those when I do all my other graphic work. Make sense
Also, you might find that you can’t do all of a certain type of work on one day. When I have a heavy tech editing week, I will schedule that in on other days as well. And move things around so I have balanced days – there are only so many hours in a day and working nonstop doesn’t do anyone any good. I like to have time estimates for how long I think things will take when scheduling – and I heavily pad those time estimates. I frequently double the amount of time I think something will take – that way if I finish early I am pleasantly surprised instead of frantically running out of time!
Another thing I like to consider when scheduling and batching my work is how my energy levels are. I have way more oomph in the morning, so I like to schedule things that require more concentration or creativity first thing. Let’s break this down into step by step for you!
STEP ONE
Brain Dump – list out all the tasks you do in your business. Put a star next to things that must get done to make sure the most important work gets prioritized.
STEP TWO
Time Estimates – assign a time estimate to each task, including how often it needs to be done – weekly, monthly, daily, etc.
STEP THREE
Categorize & Group – look at your list and see how can group things together. Your batches could be totally different than mine! Some of the ways I categorize work include by what program I use (like Canva or Tailwind), or what the goals of the work are (like Business Building Thursday), or things that require prep and setup (like filming where I have to do hair/makeup and be ready with the ring lights and any props to film).
STEP FOUR
Schedule Your Work – use the time estimates and categories to map out how you might fit all of this into your work week. Consider scheduling crucial items first in your day so you make sure to check them off the list.
And remember this batching thing is totally a work in progress (a WIP if you remember) and you will want to shift and adjust things to make it work for you and your unique business! The more you learn about yourself and how you work the better it will go!