Batch It Up - I'll Take It
On a recent road trip, I listened to “The Four-Hour Work Week” to make the most of my time. Now, I’m no productivity junkie (I’ve seen those people – it’s hilarious to watch how unproductive they are), but Ferriss had some ideas I found easy to put into action immediately. His concept of batching in particular has been useful for solving a problem I’ve been having lately with focus.
Ferriss uses the analogy of how T-shirts are batched, or produced in quantity at once, at screen printers. He recommends applying this concept to regular tasks you face at work; such as checking e-mail and voicemail only twice a day at specified times. By batching you save time because you are not stopping in the middle of one task to read and answer e-mail or the phone, throwing your focus off of the task you were working on.
Here’s what my new auto-response is on my e-mail: “Due to the volume of projects I currently have, I will only be answering e-mails at 11 am and 4 pm daily. If you have a time-sensitive, urgent matter, please call me at 555-5555. Thank you and have a great day.”
I don’t pick up the phone when it rings as a rule. My voicemail goes: “You’ve reached Holly, blah blah manager at XYZ. Due to the volume of projects I currently have, I am checking voicemail at 11 am and 4 pm daily. If you have an urgent, time-sensitive matter, please call my cell phone at 444-4444.”
This has actually been working. As a matter of fact, some of my coworkers actually apologize when they do get ahold of me saying, “We all know you’re busy, but I’m having problems with X.” This method forces them to be specific with their requests, using less of your precious time.
I have been able to apply this to other areas, as well. I started batching things for this blog, for example. On Sundays, I set time aside to write all of my posts for the upcoming week. This has been particularly effective. It can take me a while to get into the creative mindset I need to write, and it’s not very efficient to take 15 or 20 minutes to get there and quit after just one post. So, I write three or four on Sunday and don’t write any more during the rest of the week.
I have also batched responding to comments and e-mails regarding the site. I do that on Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays. Scheduling it has allowed me to keep up with it on a regular basis and to be consistent with readers. On Wednesdays, I respond to other blogs I have read and e-mail or network with other bloggers. Again, this has helped with regularity and consistency. It also ensures that I’m not up at midnight reading and responding to blogs every night when I ought to be sleeping.
What can you batch?
Ferriss uses the analogy of how T-shirts are batched, or produced in quantity at once, at screen printers. He recommends applying this concept to regular tasks you face at work; such as checking e-mail and voicemail only twice a day at specified times. By batching you save time because you are not stopping in the middle of one task to read and answer e-mail or the phone, throwing your focus off of the task you were working on.
Here’s what my new auto-response is on my e-mail: “Due to the volume of projects I currently have, I will only be answering e-mails at 11 am and 4 pm daily. If you have a time-sensitive, urgent matter, please call me at 555-5555. Thank you and have a great day.”
I don’t pick up the phone when it rings as a rule. My voicemail goes: “You’ve reached Holly, blah blah manager at XYZ. Due to the volume of projects I currently have, I am checking voicemail at 11 am and 4 pm daily. If you have an urgent, time-sensitive matter, please call my cell phone at 444-4444.”
This has actually been working. As a matter of fact, some of my coworkers actually apologize when they do get ahold of me saying, “We all know you’re busy, but I’m having problems with X.” This method forces them to be specific with their requests, using less of your precious time.
I have been able to apply this to other areas, as well. I started batching things for this blog, for example. On Sundays, I set time aside to write all of my posts for the upcoming week. This has been particularly effective. It can take me a while to get into the creative mindset I need to write, and it’s not very efficient to take 15 or 20 minutes to get there and quit after just one post. So, I write three or four on Sunday and don’t write any more during the rest of the week.
I have also batched responding to comments and e-mails regarding the site. I do that on Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays. Scheduling it has allowed me to keep up with it on a regular basis and to be consistent with readers. On Wednesdays, I respond to other blogs I have read and e-mail or network with other bloggers. Again, this has helped with regularity and consistency. It also ensures that I’m not up at midnight reading and responding to blogs every night when I ought to be sleeping.
What can you batch?
Labels: entrepreneurship, productivity, work
posted by Holly Hoffman at
8:46 PM
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4 Comments:
Maybe I'm a bit off the wall - but it would be difficult for me to focus my creative energy for four hours at a time. When I'm writing I need things to provide distractions. So I will write and be doing the laundry or cooking dinner. I think this is a great idea regarding email and other messages. I just don't think it would work as well when scheduling creative time - at least for me.
On behalf of everyone who sends email to you, PLEASE turn off the auto reply on your email account!
That is the one part of the 4 Hour Workweek that I really disagreed with. People have to deal with an autoreply message in their inbox every time they email you, so you are essentially saving your time by wasting other people's.
It is especially absurd if you are actually still checking your email account several times a day. People understand that others have busy days full of meetings and projects, and don't expect an immediate reply to every single email.
Great post. I've been sick for a couple of days and have used the time to read The 4-Hour Workweek. I have used some of the tips in the past and one I find useful is batching. I write for a living and often found myself writing and then giving in to distractions. A couple of weeks ago, I finally started to really apply discipline to my writing. I set aside time to write and I do it. Surprisingly, I am more creative and get more done in a shorter period of time. Thanks for the great post!
I'm happy for anyone that can employ batching phone calls/voicemails because I wish it could work for me. Unfortunately, it has a snowballs chance in hell for most of us. I think it would be particularly troublesome for consultants. Work in the consulting business is based on personal relationships that you have with people (specifically repeat clients). How impersonal is that method of taking incoming calls, especially when there are other consultants out there looking for work that are going the extra mile any way they can. We don't have to be servants to your clients, but lest we forget the personal side of doing business and forget what matters.
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