Being an entrepreneur can induce a special kind of manic anxiety, right? There’s so much pressure when you’re the one running the show for your business. It’s a constant balance between having the big ideas, executing, learning things you’ve never had to know before, and working in your business and on your business. I’ll admit, the overwhelm has gotten the best of me before, but now I have a methodology for using my time that has completely turned things around for me and my business. It’s called batch working. I’m going to explain what that means, why it’s a game-changer, and how you can use it to make your business life run more smoothly.

Working Smarter, Not Harder.

Batching your work, in the simplest terms, is just grouping similar work together and completing those tasks in a dedicated and focused time allotment to leverage efficiencies of scale with your energy and creativity. Sure, you could create each of your social posts the day before you publish them (or even the day of if you really like wingin’ it!), but what if you banged out all your posts for the next month during the first half of a Monday? And instead of having to constantly pivot between head’s down, thoughtful work and client calls every day…what if you scheduled all your calls in two four-hour windows of time on two dedicated days a week? Do you see where I’m going with this? Batching your work gives you some guard rails to help you become more efficient and effective with the precious little time you have to do all things to keep your business running and clients happy.

A Game Changer For Your Business.

As an entrepreneur on whom EVERYTHING falls, batch working has saved my sanity and shown me a level of enjoyment in my work that likely would’ve gone unnoticed previously. I’m no longer overwhelmed by my ever-growing to-do list because it lets me compartmentalize my work. Today I’m working on “this” and I’m not going to worry about “that” because “that” is a Thursday task. And beyond saving my sanity from constantly switching from one task to another, batch working results in more work getting done and a better quality of output. I can think more deeply and thoughtfully about what I’m doing and get into a flow that pumps out an amazing amount and quality of work.

Finding your rhythm.

The real key to batch working, though, is finding the right cadence and schedule. It may take some trial and error to find what works best for you, but if you think this is something you want to give a shot, you should first put all your tasks into buckets to see what you’re working with. Then – and this is critical – think about your energy level and patience on the various days of the week. Personally, I hit a mid-week energy slump on Wednesdays – like hard – so I completely avoid creative design work and client calls on that day because, well, that would just be asking for trouble. Instead, I do my CEO tasks, like updating my financials, paying bills, and connecting and building relationships with other brands on social media. Here’s what a week usually looks like for me:

And don’t be afraid to change things up as your tasks or schedule changes. Even though the chart above shows how I’m working now, this may not be the case next quarter as priorities in my business and personal life shift. The important thing is to keep like tasks together for optimum efficiency.

I truly believe that batching my work and strategically blocking time each week has been the key to the quality of my work, the amount I’m able to accomplish, and quite frankly, my personal sanity as an entrepreneur. It’s so easy to get bogged down in all the things you must do and the desire to pursue all the ideas you have. I would literally give up in paralysis if it weren’t for this approach. I’m always down for learning new ways to be productive, so comment below to tell me the tricks you’ve learned to be more productive in your business. And if this article was helpful, feel free to share it with your friends, too!