Has entrepreneurship stretched you a bit thin? Are you feeling like there’s too much to do and never enough time to do it?
Most entrepreneurs I know are working hard to get everything done and still feel like they’re falling behind. I want to help you catch up and manage your mental and emotional well-being.
Today I have a simple but crucial, time-saving short-cut that is guaranteed to help you get more done in your limited time, not matter what kind of business you’re in.
By making a few small changes to how you take care of the regular tasks in your business, you can reap huge time rewards.
Check out today’s video to learn exactly what changes you need to make and how to implement them right now.
Click here to tweet about this video!
In the comments below I want to hear from you. Tell me…
1. What is one insight you had from watching this video?
2. In what area of your business do you plan to implement this idea? Please share your ideas so others can benefit as well.
As always, thanks for watching!
Love this post — this reminds me of Zen Habits. Implementing your suggestions, for me — shutting down email and focusing on a group of specific tasks– REALLY makes a difference.
While I do batch certain activities have never thought about setting aside time to write MORE than one blog post. Wow – love that idea!!!
Yep, writing is one of those things that takes me awhile to get in a groove with. Batching a few blog posts together would be a time saver! Thanks for the idea.
Great recommendation, Jenny! I love this, and will try that right away.. You hit the nail on the head, and I’m taking action to batchin’ !!
Holli
It’s so odd that you would be talking about this today. I wrote a blog post this morning when I was inspired about something. After I was finished another idea came to me. Instead of writing the whole thing, I just jotted down some notes and filed it for later. It honestly never occurred to me to keep writing. Thanks for the time tip, Jenny! It makes so much sense.
This idea is a good reminder to stay focused and not hop from one task to the next.While in a “zone” keep going and get it Done:
Jenny – I am slogging through writing a blog post right now. This video was for me! Great post.
Thank you Jenny,
But one should also mind the very Optimum conditions for writing when the person’s
Brain Hemispheres are indeed conducive to use as in my BRAC!
I did send you that BRAC-MINDER some time ago, remember?!!!
Please make use of it too!!
John.
Ha! Perfect timing, Jenny. I just had my weekly mastermind group where I public ally said I needed to get down to brass tax and start batching the writing of my blog posts. But I said that 4 this week was unrealistic, so dropped it to 2. You’ve challenged me to ante up and raise it to 3….. A good challenge and compromise. Thanks for helping me raise the bar!
I’ve always written my blog in batches. I will take an article I have written for another site, and divide it up into smaller sections and use it as my post. I’ve gotten as many as 15 blog post out of one article. When I break my articles into smaller sections I will usually only have 575 – 650 words per post.
Love the idea of doing this with blog posts Jenny. I often hand-write a second or 3rd when shortly after the first, because ideas are tumbling out of me. But I haven’t been capturing them fully. I’m going to find a way to fully capitalize on that extra energy & truly start batching.
I batch my accounting tasks by keeping everything in one place, then psych myself into getting ‘into the groove’ and do a full month (or sometimes 3 months) all at once.
And I guess I do something similar for my ‘stats’. Every Sunday I set aside time to go through what’s working and what’s not, and track subscribers, web visitors, facebook fans, etc. I found I could putz around looking at it throughout the week as a way to avoid getting other things done (I find it fascinating). Now I save it all for an hour or so on Sunday as a way to wrap up the week.
I’m thrilled that this topic resonated with so many of you! Perfect timing seems to be my and your luck lately–love it!
Smart thinking, Angela, about the blog posts. I do the same thing for when I guest post, taking apart previous ones and/or combining others. I call it “juicing” my content and even wrote an ebook on it!
Great idea, Loralee – to use this for stat checks and accounting. Batching is great for those things. Thanks for sharing those suggestions here.
Right on, Aimee, shooting for 3 posts. For some people, writing four posts could be too many. I totally think that almost anyone could crank out 2 blog posts in one sitting, so even if that’s all you do, you’ll still be better off!
I think those are great tips I’d benefit from using…
I loved your facial expressions during the pauses; the videos are educational, and fun. 🙂
Love this Jenny!
I’ve done the batching tasks thing before but kinda fell off the wagon. Going to get back on.
Here are my three:
– blog posts
– social media updates (aside from in-real-time engagement)
– scheduling client calls in instant teleseminar and all those details
Thanks again for the great reminder.
Those are three gems of suggestions, Stephanie! Great ideas for batching that we all can benefit from.
Thanks for sharing them here!
Jenny,
Awesome tip that I’ve been thinking of implementing for awhile, but haven’t done — especially related to blog posts! Even though I actually enjoy writing them quite a bit, I’m always looking for ways to use my time more efficiently.
I’m going to use batching for these two additional tasks:
– looking at my email each day
– social media responding
Thanks!
Also, my business partner and I just started B-School! Great to know that a smart, creative cookie like you is also an alum!
Best,
Sara
Batching is great for social media and email–nice choices!
Congrats on starting B-School! It’s such an incredible program. Enjoy it!
Jenny – I’m totally loving your posts lately! Have been following from the periphery for awhile and just started to dive-in. LOVE!
This video was especially helpful as I’ve been struggling with regular blog posting on my new-ish blog.
I scheduled batching of the following ::
-Blog Posts (x4 at a time)
-Scheduling tweets for the whole month in Hootsuite (1x per month)
-Shooting videos to accompany my “personal” posts (x4 at a time)
Yay!!
Great stuff – thanks again! xo
So glad you’ve jumped in the comments, Stephanie!
I love the four ideas you chose. They are perfect for batching and I’m certain they’ll save you time over the course of the month.
Glad you’re here and hope to see you back again!
Great video Jenny! I’m intrigued by the idea of batching with blog posts, and can see how it would work really well for some people. It currently takes me 3-4 hours to write one blog post since I like to make them comprehensive + edit them with a fine-tooth comb (I am a copywriter after all). Theoretically, I could write 1 more and call it a day =)
But, the creative spirit in me is like — Sound the alarms! No thank you! As a compromise, I’m going to try outlining the second post when I’m done with the first. This way, I won’t be starting with a blank screen come next week!
Batching blog posts isn’t for everyone. I love that you found a middle ground to help you write your second post.
There are other areas batching can help, like social media scheduling, social media replying, emails, etc., if you want to squeeze some time out of your week elsewhere.
So glad to have you here, Ashley! I’ve seen some of your work–you’re one talented woman 🙂
Thanks Jenny! I’ll be sharing this with my business community in a couple of weeks.
I’ll be batching…
-blog posts
-Quickbooks work
-Facebook posts
Gracias!
Those look like perfect selections for batching. Thanks for sharing those ideas here, Elise!
Great tips Jenny,
I have definitely been happier when I’ve batched work in the past. I will schedule some batching time today for social media, article writing and some other website updates and edits I need to make.
Lori
Excellent, Lori! Glad to have you get back to what you know works well for you, and I’m happy that it will save you time, too!
Love this!! Totally makes sense. Thank you Jenny 🙂
Very nice, great Idea!
I do batching 🙂 It’s one of the skills you pick up when you have a chronic health problem. Since I have some problems getting going, I could use this in more areas than I do. Especially video seems to end up on the back burner.
Great idea. I never thought to take advantage of being in the groove of some of my tasks and keep going, I kept to a weekly schedule. This will make them so much easier. Starting today with 1. blog posts 2. social media and 3. newsletters.
I LOVE batching. When talking with my own clients or colleagues, I have generally referred to it as “blocking,” but I like the term batching, too.
I do my client’s work in batches rather than scattershot, it’s more efficient energy-wise for me, and more efficient use of their $$. I batch things like entering info into databases, responding to help desk tickets, scheduling teleseminars AND the email reminders about said teleseminars, stuff like that.
You have challenged me to look for more ways to batch/block things in my OWN business. Thanks, Jenny!
I always find it funny myself when I have to look at my biz as if I were looking at a client’s! We know what we know and often forget to apply it to ourselves. Always nice to know I’m not alone on that!
This is GREAT! Batching blogs, newsletters & Videos. FABULOUS!
Oh boy – I’ve been haphazardly batching for months, but you’ve reminded me of how effective it is when I get into the groove of it!
I have been using it for blog posts, social media updates and business/industry research, but now I’m going to spend some time working through my to-do list to see if there’s any other areas that could be batched.
My best insight from this video was the “groove”. I’ve felt it before and I know working with it makes things come along so much easier but I hadn’t really considered maximizing it for “everyday” tasks.
My three tasks…I had a tough time with this one. Really for the most part I enjoy every part of my business because I think from that end goal in mind. “In doing this I am contributing to making money.” (And anything that isn’t contributing to that directly or indirectly likely doesn’t really need to be done that importantly or by me.)
1. Blogging can be tough when I don’t know what to say or nothing is coming to mind. So I think writing more when I am feeling the groove will release the pressure to have the time set aside each week for when I’m having a creative writing lull.
2. Data entry – much of this gets done “as relevant” (like recording info during a sale, or supply entry receipts) but the evaluation of it isn’t my favorite part because I kinda hate numbers. I think doing 1 or 2 audit days where I don’t do anything but paperwork would be good and keep my on track.
3. Checking email. Most of the time it’s not anything particularly interesting – but I would say this is email across the board too not just business. Sometimes I get so much personal email that I just don’t even want to open my inbox because I know how swamped it is. This would be a great task for when I’m not feeling like doing something or am in between projects to just knock out some of the bulk I think.
Those are three absolutely perfect tasks for batching, Aradia!! I know you’re an implementer, so now go get to it! 🙂
So good. This could be used with anything. Well, almost. Blogging, writing emails for the list… Sometimes I actually do this, but then something happens and ends my nice flow. So now I’m thinking of your idea of dedicating a full day for a task instead of “doing it when there’s time”. The time is mine to choose what I do with it, right?