It’s easy to think of productivity as working longer hours with more effort.
But when we boil it down, productivity is all about avoiding distractions while maintaining focus. Time batching is a technique we can use to focus on our most important tasks while avoiding unnecessary distractions.
In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of task batching and actionable steps to start batching.
What Is Batching?
Task batching involves dedicating time to focus on a single task or group of similar tasks during a specific period of time without interruptions. Batching tasks helps minimise distractions so we can concentrate better on our work with more attention to detail.
Batching tasks forces us to designate a block of time to work with a single project or related tasks, which tend to be similar in their execution.
In Getting Things Done, David Allen gives the example of making phone calls. If your job involves making 30 phone calls a week, you can batch these into an afternoon to complete your calls more efficiently.
With batching, making 30 calls might take three hours (averaging six minutes per call). On the other hand, making calls in spare moments might take the better part of three days.
Now you might be wondering why batching matters. From the sound of it, we’re still doing the same amount of work.
So why does it matter how I plan and do each individual task?
What Are the Benefits of Time Batching?
Before we dive into the benefits of time batching, we need to touch on the idea of of attention residue, a concept from Cal Newport’s Deep Work.
The idea is that we work most productively when we dedicate blocks of time to tasks that require similar levels of concentration and focus. And we should only start new tasks once we’ve completed on-going tasks. That’s because it takes 25 minutes, on average, to return to the same headspace where we’re fully engaged with the task.
For each distraction, we lose more than the active time we spend engaging with it. We also lose the 25 minutes it takes to get back into the flow of the task.
Consider the potential destructiveness of distractions. If we get distracted throughout the day within these 25 minute periods after starting a task, we would never get to the flow state of deep work. This would unnecessarily prolong the time needed to complete them.
Spending time in deep work with time batching helps us get tasks done quicker while also making better decisions.
The effort is reduced and the output increased. Now, that’s a clear benefit!
How Can I Batch Tasks Into My Calendar?
We can break the batch planning process down into three steps from identifying individual tasks to organising our schedule.
Step 1. Break Down Projects into Individual Tasks
The first step to batching tasks is to make sure we have a clear list of tasks. Tasks, in the GTD sense, are single actions. In this way, you would need to break up larger projects into their individual tasks.
Tasks should be specific, so the action and desired outcome are clear.
Step 2. Group Your Tasks Into Batches
With a clear list of specific tasks, we can group similar tasks together. We should aim to group tasks together that serve similar functions.
For example, we might have several projects that follow similar stages. Many projects have brainstorming, research and planning stages before any execution even starts.
In addition to project tasks, we can group all our meetings for the week together. We can also liaise with co-workers about the tasks they’re managing within our projects, with the help of our Waiting For list.
Step 3. Organise Your Schedule
Finally, we plan our tasks into the day. How much time would we need for each task? And what time would be best?
We can schedule our various brainstorming sessions for the week into a single creative afternoon. And schedule all our research into a productive morning.
I find planning is often easiest on Mondays and Fridays. For me, I’m not fully in the swing of things on these days. On Mondays the week hasn’t fully started, and on Fridays work tends to already be winding down for the weekend.
Organising these batches into our schedule requires a touch of self-awareness. Understanding our own personal rhythm and preferences makes it easier to understand how best to organise our schedule.
What Is a Batching Schedule?
We can use the concept of the ideal week to plan our regular weekly activities into time blocks. The ideal week is a way of optimising our batching over time, depending on our priority tasks and circadian rhythm.
The goal is to reduce attention residue by focusing on similar tasks each day.
That’s how Jack Dorsey manages two Fortune 500 companies. He batches his tasks at the macro level by theming days. For Dorsey, each day has a purpose, where mornings are often spent in one company and afternoons in the other.
The way I found that works for me is I theme my days. On Monday, at both companies, I focus on management and running the company…Tuesday is focused on product. Wednesday is focused on marketing and communications and growth. Thursday is focused on developers and partnerships. Friday is focused on the company and the culture and recruiting. Saturday I take off, I hike. Sunday is reflection, feedback, strategy, and getting ready for the week. — Jack Dorsey
We can take this day-theming approach to find our optimal weekly rhythm. In addition to optimising for our natural energy levels, batching schedules help us make time for our most important responsibilities each week.
How Does Calendar Blocking Work?
Calendar blocking is a time management technique where we schedule how we’ll spend all our time during the day. Each activity or batch gets a specific time scheduled on the calendar. That way we have a dedicated time for each item on our to do lists.
Having dedicated times for each task means we’re more likely to start every task we planned for the day. Taking it a step further, we can leverage Parkinson’s law to make sure we complete every task in the allotted time.
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. — Parkinson’s Law
Put another way: if you wait until the last minute, the task only takes a minute to complete.
At the start of each week, look at all the tasks you plan to accomplish. Schedule these into the free spaces of your calendar. You should realistically have enough time to complete each task in the allotted time.
Also, you shouldn’t feel like you’re jumping from task to task to meeting without any time for regular mindfulness and reflection.
We can even use the concept of megabatching to divide our workflow into entire days dedicated to a single topic.
What Is Megabatching?
Megabatching is a more extreme version of batching, where we dedicate entire days, often several in a row, to a specific task. Depending on how regularly we decide to run megabatches, this might not fit into the ideal week.
For example, let’s say we have a podcast, and we typically plan out two episodes a week. Now, we could record each of the episodes once we’ve outlined or scripted them. But in megabatching terms, we would spend one day a month recording all the episodes.
With this method, we save time setting up the studio each time. We also get into the flow more easily with these prolonged periods of focus.
My Experience Megabatching with the ClearSpace Podcast
We used this method for ClearSpace, the podcast I co-host. Due to our busy schedules, my podcast co-founder and I don’t often have time to meet and record an episode. But when we do, we’ve noticed productivity gains in knocking out several at once.
If we meet to record one 20 minute episode, we usually end up catching up for another 40 minutes anyway. We might as well book out the whole morning to record a few episodes, since we already have this time to meet up.
Planning the episode is a task that we can do individually without major coordination throughout the month.
But recording our episodes is where we discovered our efficiencies.
Final Tips on Batching & Distractions
Before rounding off this post, below are three tips to help with your batching success.
Tip 1: Eliminate Distractions
It helps to close email, instant messaging apps and any notifications while you’re working on a batch. The idea is to get through the work quickly and efficiently without distractions. Eliminating distractions is the easiest way to maintain focus.
Any messages will still be there waiting for you after you’ve completed your batch. And answering IMs or emails make great batches in themselves.
Tip 2: Reschedule Batches If Necessary
The point of batching is to work more intentionally and leverage Parkinson’s Law. But of course, it’s fine to reschedule batches when you feel the need. After all, sometimes urgent tasks come up.
Ad-hoc work is still a very real part of modern work. The trick is to leverage as much time as possible from distractions with task batching.
Tip 3: Consider Your Energy Rhythm
Everyone is unique. Some people are morning larks, others night owls.
Extraverts tend to increase their energy after sociable meetings, while introverts might gain more energy from solitude and an interesting project.
Most people experience energy dips after meals.
Because everyone is different, we all have our own unique energy rhythms. It’s a good idea to schedule more complex tasks for when we tend to have high energy. That leaves low-energy tasks for low-energy moments.
Task Batching in a Nutshell
Time batching is a productivity technique that helps us focus on our most important tasks and avoid distractions. We effectively plan our work to avoid attention residue and improve our concentration on the things that matter most.
This is done simply by batching our most important tasks together and blocking time in our calendar for their completion.
We can even take it a step further with megabatching, where we dedicate entire days to a specific purpose to substantially increase our productivity.
We can also make batching flexible by avoiding distractions, optimising to our natural rhythm and rescheduling when necessary.
Increase your productive focus with batching and Mind & Practice today.