Amanda is a freelance writer and podcaster with a busy schedule this week.
She will be interviewing three guests for her new podcast.
She has a webinar about content writing on Friday and needs to prepare slides and notes for her presentation.
She also has two lengthy articles to write for clients.
Amanda decides that the best way to handle her week is to spread things out a little at a time, so she can whittle away at the tasks and end her week with all tasks completed.
She sets aside time each day for each project: schedules the podcast interviews for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and plans to work on the articles for clients each morning until they are done on Friday.
She thinks she can get her webinar presentation slides done if she works on four per day, and she will write out her notes each night before bed, taking them one topic at a time.
Amanda sounds like she is great at spreading out her tasks and making the most out of her day…
Or is she?
Amanda is making some fundamental errors when it comes to time management, efficiency, and quality.
By spreading out her tasks over the course of time, she may be keeping herself from working too hard on one task for too long, but she really isn’t doing herself any favors.
What Amanda needs to do is batch her work into meaningful chunks and complete similar tasks at one time.
Batching brings tasks together into single episode events that streamline and organize each task so it can be finished quickly.
Batching allows for pre-planning and diminishes interruptions and procrastination.
Batching reduces the likelihood that a task won’t be completed on time and increases the quality of the finished task.
Let’s revamp Amanda’s week and see how batching can make her life better.
Podcast interviews
Instead of doing interviews on three different days, Amanda should host all of her interviews on one day.
This way she would be only setting up her equipment once, and she could stay focused and on point when she does her work.
Article Writing
Amanda could consider taking one or two days to write both articles.
This would allow her to stay focused on the articles for longer time periods and it would free up time for other things on other days.
Webinar Prep
Amanda should designate one day to prepare for her webinar.
Ideally, she would prep on Tuesday to give her enough time to create the slide content and keep the information fresh in her mind for Friday.
If she works on her presentation notes on Tuesday, she can increase the likelihood that she will be rested, prepared, and ready for her webinar on Friday.
Here’s What Her Work Week Would Look Like If She Batched Her Tasks:
Monday – Podcast Interviews
Tuesday – Webinar Prep
Wednesday – Article Writing
Thursday – Article Writing
Friday – Webinar
Batching work means working smart, not hard.
Whether you batch your week monthly, or you take the week’s work load and batch it up that week, you will streamline your tasks and increase your personal stamina and satisfaction.
Try it!
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