If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to be more intentional with your time. Learning how to use time batching (or task batch) as a mompreneur has upped my productivity by like 100%… seriously.
You love hanging out with your husband and kids and you want to do it more! Guilt free and without your business falling apart am I right!? You want more time to spend in the word and growing spiritually too. I’ve implemented many things over the years to help me do just that and one of the most groundbreaking systems was increasing productivity as a mompreneur using time batching!
What does time batching mean?
Time batching (also known as task batching) is basically taking many smaller similar tasks and grouping them together into one central “time block” so to speak.
I want you to think of this… every time you wash laundry or do dishes, do you wash, rinse, dry and put up EACH individual item one at a time? NO WAY!
These are just two ways we regularly “batch”. Another example is making cookies. Would you add together all of the ingredients for just one cookie and then do that over and over a dozen times? Not a chance.
“Time batching is a time management technique that includes grouping similar tasks together and setting aside a time to complete them all or work on them until a predetermined point of progress. The purpose of time batching is to minimize distractions for a workflow that enables concentration, attention to detail, and productivity.”
There are a couple of ways to time batch, one is what I mentioned above (batching “up” so to speak), the other is to take one large goal and break it down into smaller, more manageable tasks (or batching “down”). Then go from there deciding how to group like tasks to increase your productivity.
Either way, you have to have your to-dos broken down into manageable tasks.
Manageable to me means a task that can be done in 15-30 minutes. These are tasks that I like to take 3-4 of, group them together into a time block.
How Does Time batching increase mompreneur Productivity?
As mompreneurs, we’re already pulled in many directions. When or tasks are dividing our remaining brain power even further, it’s a miracle when we actually get things done efficiently!
Many think that multitasking is the answer to increased productivity, but that simply isn’t what scientific studies are showing us. You are more productive when you are focusing on getting ONE task completely done at a time.
Are you the queen of having 17 tabs all open at once in your browser? Checking email, Facebook, writing a post, booking the hotel for your trip etc…
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Only having 1 tab (task) open at a time and efficiently completing it!
Benefits of batching
- Relieves the mental exhaustion of trying to remember WHEN all the tasks need to be done.
- Helps you get more done in less time.
- Enables you to get into the groove and focus easier on the tasks at hand.
- Eliminates the “what am I supposed to be working on” issue.
- Saves time jumping from task to task.
- Can help you intentionally focus your energy levels throughout the day
Time batching minimizes multi tasking or “task jumping”.
Our brain uses more energy jumping from task to task than it does on the actual task itself… So choosing to multi task is choosing to use the little bit of energy you do have on SWITCHING instead of actually accomplishing things!
So as you can imagine, every time you switch to a completely different task (i.e. graphics creation to email writing) your brain is unnecessarily using up valuable energy.
As someone who has experienced burnout and is avoiding mompreneur burnout at all costs, this is something I need to be a little more serious about. I don’t know about you but I’m already tired… I don’t have a lot of energy to waste do you?
According to the American Psychological Association, shifting between tasks and the mental blocks that it causes “can cost as much as 40 percent of someone’s productive time.”
How to Use Time Batching In Your Mompreneur workflows
You’re reading this because you’re passionate about being intentional.
My people have a heart for being intentional with their kids, relationships and business. Your time is limited and you’d rather spend it with those you love making memories… let’s not limit it more by wasting it on switching tasks.
Time batching allows you to be intentional because you’re in a productive state of focus while batching. It takes our brains some time to actually get in the flow of being focused, and once you’re in that focused state, the productivity flows! Batching allows you to stay in that state undistracted.
Getting Started with Time Batching
Start time batching by identifying tasks that are perfect to group together. Everyone works differently and different business types can use this technique in different ways.
I recommend identifying just a handful of tasks that you can batch together and making batching those things a regular habit.
Don’t identify ALL the tasks you could possibly batch all at once and decide you’re going to batch all the things. That will just set you up to fail. Start small.
How to identify tasks for time batching
- Take out a sheet of paper and brain dump ALL of the tasks you do. Set a timer for 3-5 minutes. At this point it can be business, personal, whatever.
- Note the tasks that are repeated on a daily/weekly basis.
- Start noticing tasks that share a group. Group tasks together based on what you’re doing. (writing, creating graphics, scheduling, etc.)
Which tasks repeat daily, weekly? Writing newsletters, creating graphics, locating stock images?
Groups may be: content creation, graphics creation, admin work, customer contacts via email, social media scheduling… really whatever “title” makes the most sense to you.
Start figuring out which of those repeat tasks you can batch together easiest.
Batching can be grouped in many ways:
- Similar energy it takes to do the task. (creative energy, high energy, low energy)
- Area it takes place. (errands in the car, desk work like bills, writing, outdoor work, kitchen work etc)
- Mental energy it takes to do the thing. (finances take more of my mental energy so I’ll pair it with other mental tasks like meal planning)
Obviously the way you choose to group tasks to time batch depends on what works for you! It will be custom to your situation as well.
Ideas for using time batching to up mompreneur productivity
So I thought I’d share some examples that could work for any one!
Here are some time batching ideas to get your brain working in your mompreneur productivity journey. These are ways I personally use time batching in my business.
- Newsletter writing
- Captions writing
- Writing blog outlines
- Brainstorming email subject lines
- Creating Pinterest graphics
- Keyword research
One of the easiest first things to batch is content creation.
One of the ways I batch content creation is for my newsletter writing! Instead of writing one newsletter at a time every week, I sit down and write out 3-4 all at once.
Just batching that one thing has been life changing!
Unique ways to use time batching for productivity in your mompreneur day
So, you’re a mom and an entrepreneur… let’s talk about batching tasks in those two different areas of your life.
As a mom you’re likely tasked with the household management ins and outs like meals and cleaning so I’ll talk a bit about those things.
Time batching ideas with your home
Like I mentioned at the beginning, laundry and dishes are natural batching activities. But, another way to think about batching activities is by day.
- Finance Time. Creating and updating budgets, paying bills, scheduling bill pay, updating our debt payoff sheets etc. I often pair this with admin time tasks mentioned below. I have a dedicated time for biz finances (Fridays) and a separate one for personal (Thursday)
- Admin TIme. Phone calls, appointment setting, filling out of forms etc. that need to be done for our personal life to function. I also do meal planning, grocery list planning, and online ordering during admin time.
- Laundry Day. For example, some like to batch all of the laundry all on one day.
- Home Blessing Day. For example deep cleaning one day a week in a two hour block.
- Bathroom Day. Cleaning all bathrooms one day a week.
- Water Wednesday. This is how I remember to water all of my houseplants and trees.
- Zone Cleaning. Selecting one room or zone for each day of the week. Here, you’re batching by general area or location!
Time batching in your meals
I encourage you to consider when you have the most energy as a mom to do this. Choose one thing to start trying and just learn to be consistent with that. Don’t do it all at once. I don’t do all of this all the time!
- Batching meat for the week. I buy 2-3 rotisserie chickens at a time at Costco. That gives me already prepped protein for lunches and dinners all week. You could also cook 4-5 pounds of ground meat at a time to do the same.
- Veggie prep. Chopping a lot of veggies for the whole week and keeping them in containers ready to cook and eat in the fridge.
- I do this with onions, bell peppers and zucchini that I buy in bulk at Costco.
- This has been HUGE for us. It allows us to continue eating healthy and gives me no excuse to want to grab a burger while I’m out.
- Grain Prep. Batch cook pasta and/or rice for the week.
I choose to do most of my batch prepping early in the week (like Monday and Tuesday) because come Thursday (I’ve learned this about myself) I’m TIRED! This is also when I start to want to buy dinner out and having pre prepped ingredients makes it possible for me to avoid this!
Time batching in your online business tasks
With an online aspect to your business, you’re likely doing many of the same tasks day after day that you could easily batch together. I mentioned a few above, but I thought I’d share some other ways you can batch.
- Canva day. Doing all of your design work or Canva work on one day. Saving your design work up for that day.
- Brainstorming time. Dedicated time to set a timer and brainstorm things. Content ideas, podcast episodes, blog posts, caption ideas, images to take, etc. A time for creative brainstorming
- Batch Writing Time. Whatever you’re writing, do many of them all at once. Take into account how much time you have to dedicate to this before you decide what you will batch write. For example, I don’t batch write blog posts because i typically only have 1 hour blocks available. I do batch write newsletters and Instagram content and captions.
- Batch formatting. Set aside time to do all the formatting of your blog posts, social media posts, newsletters etc.
- Batch research. Research many categories of content all at once. Locate links, research people you want to collab with.
- Batch communication. Have a dedicated time to get back to all of your emails, DMs, Facebook community peeps and messages. Do them all at once instead of continually throughout the day. Or if you need to be available more than once per day, do it twice.
- Batch social media time. Have a set time for Instagram and Facebook. Take care of all of the tasks you need to do while you’re in the app. Avoid checking it throughout the day.
- Batch schedule. Schedule IG posts, FB posts, emails, newsletters.
- Batching meetings/calls. Grouping all of your meetings and calls together on certain days will save you a ton of brain power and will enable you to know which days you can do what. I group all of my client calls from 2-4 pm Tuesday-Thursday.
Okay, I threw a lot at you and like I said, don’t feel like you need to do all of this all at once.
Find a couple of things that you could implement, start doing it and just see where it goes! You have permission to modify it to work for YOU.
How do you use batching in your day?
Let me know in the comments!
