How Batching Tasks will increase your Productivity
What is Batching?
Batching consists of grouping similar tasks in the same period of the day and getting them all done at once. The key is getting into a specific mindset that allows you to complete similar tasks without wasting time and energy switching from a task to a very different one.
You don’t go to the supermarket ten times per day to buy ten additional items, right? Maybe you should not answer emails every time a new one arrives in your inbox, either.
How to Incorporate Batching in your daily life?
Take a look at your daily tasks and split them into categories. You have tasks that fit different categories, such as:
Communication/administration, like email and phone calls;
Deep work, perhaps writing the report or coding;
Maintenance tasks, like cleaning, shopping or organising.
All of these tasks require very different mental states and levels of concentration. Although you can clean the dishes while listening to a podcast, you should not attempt that when writing a critical report.
It is crucial to manage both your levels of attention and energy and match them with specific tasks. When your energy and concentration are high, you are more likely to succeed in challenging tasks. And the opposite is true. The key is to find your concentration peaks during the day and batching deep work in those hours.
Taking this into perspective, I challenge you to reflect and categorize the different batches of tasks you must perform: administrative, deep work and maintenance. Then, define which batches you want to perform during the different times of the day, taking your energy levels into account.
Examples of Batching Tasks
Chris Bailey, the author of The Productivity Project, batches grocery shopping, cleaning the house and other maintenance tasks weekly. During the week, the author keeps track of tasks that must be done, like buying butter, washing the car, or filling the gas, and deals with all of those tasks on the same day. This approach seeks to eliminate the inefficiencies that going to the store every time an item is missing would represent.
I batch deep working hours in the mornings, like writing, when I am the most creative and focused. I leave communication duties to the afternoon and schedule maintenance tasks for Saturday mornings.
Every week, I also schedule one day to record courses and video content. This is much more efficient than setting up the camera, microphone, lighting and so on every time I have a two-minute video idea. This is one of the best ways to manage time, attention, and energy smartly, which are not constant throughout the day.
You can also use the batching mindset with a long-term perspective by scheduling all medical appointments for the same month of the year or batching your holidays in a monthly period to recharge completely.
Why Batching Tasks will increase your productivity?
In the book When, by Daniel Pink, several studies are mentioned in which, in a two-hour window, doctors are more likely to give a fatal dose of anaesthesia to patients, students score lower on exams, and CEOs are more likely to say something stupid on an earnings call. That two-hour window is from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m... not very surprising, right? We must avoid scheduling our most important work to those hours. And, instead, use those hours to batch less essential tasks.
Batching is one of the most fundamental concepts of productivity, and once you understand the mindset, you can apply it on many levels and scales.
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