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Anyone who’s had anything printed commercially, brochures, t-shirts, business cards etc., will know that it cost just as much to print a small quantity as it does to print bulk. Why is this the case? It takes the printer the same ‘set up time’ for a small print run as a large run, so their pricing is set up accordingly. For this reason, as the customer, it’s more cost effective to batch (wait until you have a larger quantity to get printed) a print order than do smaller runs.

This scenario highlights a very useful productivity tip that you can apply to your business and life.

No matter

what the task in your day to day life, there is always a ‘set up’ time involved. Whether it is checking emails, paying a bill, putting on a load of washing or returning a DVD, there is a physical and mental set up time involved. This is where batching tasks saves time, improves mental clarity and therefore increases productivity.

When we don’t batch tasks, we are chasing our tails, doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Starting one task only to jump to something else unrelated often leaving things unfinished. Each time we begin a new task, we have to switch gears mentally, or maybe even change locations or boot up a different program on the computer. Tick, tick, tick…We burn up time and energy on repetitive ‘set up’ time. STOP!

So how do you batch tasks?

1. Brainstorm a list of all the things you do on any given day – e.g. check emails, process orders, follow up sales enquiries etc.
2. Group them into categories – e.g. administration, business development, personal chores, chargeable client work etc.
3. Dedicate an appropriate amount of time to each category aligned with what you want to achieve.
4. Schedule it in and stick to it.

How I use this in my life
Currently for example I batch administration to a Friday morning and house work to a Friday afternoon each week. That way I don’t end up fiddling with admin tasks during the week to distract me, and I get the housework squared away so I can enjoy my weekend ‘task free’. Monday morning is the time I use to follow up on loose ends on projects and generate new business leads and confirm my appointments for the week. There are no hard and fast rules to what you should when, as long as you batch your task together and stick to the plan until the tasks are complete.

How much time and the time of the week that I allocate to a category changes regularly depending on my current work load and priorities, so review your batching weekly as a part of your prioritorising and planning.

Try it for a week…Notice the time savings and mental clarity it brings.
Tip - Batching tasks that have paperwork associated with them requires that you have a temporary filing solution for the paperwork until you are ready to process it. Otherwise you can end up with paperwork lying around. I recommend a wire step file with manila folders. Label the folders based on your categories for example bills to pay, filing, admin tasks, current projects, project ABC etc. That way you can just drop the paperwork into the relevant file until you are ready to deal with it.

Recommended Reading - The concept of batching can be explored in more detail in The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris