[0:06] Hey there, and welcome to episode 31 of Your Fun and Profitable Online Business. This is the podcast that helps you grow your business with intention, celebration, and way less stress. I’m Wendy Muzzy, a certified money coach and online business strategist, and I help women entrepreneurs simplify their systems, streamline their offers, and find more joy and create more profit in their business. Today, we’re digging into batching, one of the simplest and most effective tools you can use to reclaim your time. If you’re tired of feeling like you’re constantly starting and stopping, not getting ahead with your content or your business task, this episode’s for you.

Why Multitasking Is Hurting Your Productivity

[0:46] Okay, here’s what I know to be true. Multitasking is a myth. I like to pretend I can do it too, like I wanna have 20 things going on at once, but it’s just not workable. What actually happens when you’re multitasking is your brain is switching back and forth between tasks, and that switching burns energy and time. I learned this the hard way. Early in my career, I used to treat every single task like its own event. I felt busy all the time and I was busy, but I wasn’t getting traction on the things that really mattered. 

What Is Task Batching and Why Does It Work?

Then I discovered batching and it changed everything. When you batch tasks, you group similar tasks together and get them done in one setting. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you start riding a wave of momentum to get things to happen. And suddenly, you’re not only saving time, you’re creating more ease and less stress. Now, this matters as entrepreneurs because time is our most valuable resource. When we protect our time, we create more energy and space for the things that actually move our business forward and for living the life that we want outside of our business.

How to Use Task Batching in Your Business

[1:56] All right, let’s talk about how you can actually put batching into action. First, I want you to think of batching like doing laundry. Like you don’t wash a pair of socks every time you wear them. At least I hope you don’t. If you do, no judgment. Let’s talk about making your life a little bit simpler. But let’s say you don’t and you wait till you have a full load and then you run them all at once. That’s way more efficient. And in my opinion, way less annoying.

Identify Repeatable Tasks You Can Batch

[2:23] Business batching is the same. And here’s how to do it step by step. Step one, identify what’s repeatable. Here, you look at your week and you find the tasks that happen over and over. It could be writing emails or creating content or invoicing or even meal prepping. Anything that’s repeatable can be batched. 

Create Effective Batching Buckets for Content and Business Tasks

Step two, choose your batching bucket. Here, you’re gonna pick one category of tasks to start with. For example, if you’re batching social media content, you’re only gonna write the captions and then you’re only gonna create the graphics and then you’re only going to schedule the post. You’re not going to try to do all three at once. Here, you want to keep your batch focused and intentional.

How to Schedule Dedicated Time Blocks for Deep Work

[3:05] Step three, block your time with intention. Here, you set aside a dedicated chunk of time and you protect it fiercely. An hour and a half is the sweet spot for me, but you need to test and find out what works for you. In this space, there’s no client calls, there’s no email checking, there’s just batching. Now, some people have found using a timer is a helpful visual to help them stay on track. I don’t personally use that anymore, but maybe you need that to start with, no problem. 

Prepare Your Tools Before a Batching Session

Step four, prep your tools before you begin. Here you wanna have your templates, your brand colors, your outlines, your logins, whatever you need to get your stuff done, you wanna have it there in front of you. Maybe other tools like a camera or microphone or water or notes, whatever it is, have it close by so you don’t break your flow while you’re chasing down these little details. Step five, work in cycles.

Work in Cycles to Get More Done in Less Time

[3:58] Inside each batching block, you want to work in many cycles. For example, draft everything first. You don’t want to edit as you go. And then you write like four rough emails in 30 minutes. Then you can edit everything together. And this helps because your brain gets into editing mode and moves faster this way. It’s not going back and forth. Draft, edit, draft, edit. Then you can schedule and format everything together. Whatever it looks like for you, try to keep those similar tasks together for these multiple items you’re doing. 

Use Themed Days for Better Productivity and Consistency

Step six, add themes for consistency. Now, some entrepreneurs batch by days of the week, like maybe Monday is content, Tuesday’s client work, Friday’s finances, whatever it may look like. Others may batch monthly. Week one is all the emails. Week two is all the podcast episodes. There’s no right way to do this. I just suggest to people to pick one that feels realistic and repeatable for them and go with it. I also will tell people consistently, try things, try it out, see how it feels. Test your energy, see how you feel. Don’t just automatically assume that because it works for me, it’s going to work for you. You really need to find your own personal rhythm here.

Track Your Productivity Wins and Build Momentum

[5:06] Step seven, track your wins. Now here, you want to notice how much time you’re saving, how much energy you’re saving, how you feel at the end of a batching episode or the end of a week that perhaps you would have done 30 things in one week, now you’ve batched them together. And I want you to celebrate whatever the win is there. Throw that confetti, feel that excitement. This is important because momentum builds when we start to see the proof. So make your brain naturally see the success that you’re experiencing. 

Common Task Batching Mistakes to Avoid

Now, before you go run off and batch everything, I want to talk about a few pitfalls. Because I know this is powerful, but it’s not perfect for every situation. 

How to Batch Content Without Losing Connection With Your Audience

Pitfall number one, losing connection with your audience. Here, I’m going to give a personal example. I used to batch my podcast episodes months at a time. And that was really efficient. It was great, actually. But it started to feel like I was too removed from what I was actually talking about week to week. So I decided I’m going to record one podcast episode a week ahead. This way, I keep the freshness of what’s happening right now in my podcast episodes and my conversations, but I still have enough breathing room not to feel stressed or worried. 

Why Bigger Batches Aren’t Always Better

Pitfall number two, making the batch too big. Now, if you sit down and tell yourself you’re going to write 30 Instagram posts in one sitting, great, but I think you’re setting yourself up for failure. I suggest to start small, maybe just batch three posts or one week of content and build from there.

Protect Your Time Blocks With Better Boundaries

[6:35] Pitfall number three, not setting boundaries. If you don’t protect your batching block, it will get eaten alive by all those urgent tasks out there. I want you to treat your batching session like a client meeting. It’s a non-negotiable. It’s going to happen. 

How to Stay Flexible While Using Productivity Systems

Pitfall number four, forgetting flexibility. Look, batching should support your creativity, not strangle it. If you’re inspired in a moment, it’s okay to break your cycle. That’s a choice that you’re making for the way you’re feeling, not because of other things that just keep getting added to your plate. And the system works best when it serves you, not the other way around. I want you to imagine this for a second. Instead of scrambling to post something on Instagram today, you’ve got two weeks of posts already ready, scheduled even. Or instead of staring at your computer, wondering what you’re going to say in your weekly email, you’ve got three newsletters written and ready. Suddenly your business feels spacious. You’re ahead. You can even take a day off without guilt because the work is already done. And this is when your business starts to feel fun again. All right, let’s get to your action step. I want you to pick one repeatable task in your business and batch it this week. If you’re already batching, pick a new task to try out. Just one. Keep it simple, and you’ll start seeing the payoff immediately.

How Task Batching Creates More Time and Less Stress

[7:59] If you’re stumped here, go to wendymuzzy.com/batching to find a list of ideas that can work well for batching. And here’s something fun. Next week, we’re talking about how to prepare for a co-working session. If you’ve ever joined one and thought, well, that was nice, but I didn’t actually get anything finished. This episode will be for you. I’ll share exactly how to set up those sessions so they become your most productive of the week. And I have some funny, but not so funny experiences to share. All right, that’s all for today. As always, I invite you to leave a quick review for this podcast. It helps women find simple, joyful strategies. And please share this episode with a friend who’s always too busy, because trust me, they’ll thank you. Until next time, happy batching!