How I batch tasks

 

I am super passionate about productivity hacks. And one of those hacks that I’ve found most useful is batching. 

It seems I’m not the only one 🙂

Recently, I bumped into an article about Tim Dorsey (Founder of Twitter) about how he manages his business and life: 

  • Mondays – High-level management meetings
  • Tuesdays – Product development
  • Wednesdays – Marketing and communication
  • Thursdays – Partnerships
  • Friday – Culture and recruitment

Interesting, huh?

I’ve read Elon Musk does the same. 

He spends Mondays and Fridays at SpaceX. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, he’s at Tesla.

If you’re not as productive as you want, here’s the thing to know… 

If you don’t get in charge of your schedule and focus, everybody else will.

That is for sure!

Which is why, if there’s one thing I do almost religiously, is I plan stuff out in advance. 

Nature abhors a vacuum!

So if you don’t work in batches, you may want to consider doing so. Here are some of the things I batch:

  1. Media buyer meeting Tue 9 am
  2. Team meetings on Tue 11am
  3. Management meetings Tue 11.30am
  4. Head of Content One on One Meeting (straight after management meeting)
  5. Tech meeting (straight after Head of Content Meeting)

You see the picture? 

Tuesdays are my internal meetings day. 

What’s handy about this is my team knows to prepare their questions/comments for Tuesday. 

I do the same. And that means minimising pings over Slack. 

That’s also why we deploy a second quicker management meeting on Thursdays for 10-15 minutes. 

Sometimes – often times – there are action steps from the Tuesday meeting that need a decision. Or there’s a talking point from the Tuesday meeting that requires consistent focus… and it can’t wait an extra week to talk about it. 

So we’ll have a quicker touch base meeting on Thursday to check in on that item. 

MEETINGS AREN’T ALL I BATCH

I also batch time to check my email. 

I batch time to check Fubbi content. 

I batch time to do The Content Hacking Podcast. 

I batch time for the gym. 

I batch time to see my nieces and nephews. 

And so on. 

If it’s scheduled in advance, it’s important! 

I know – in advance before my day begins – when I am doing these activities.