No time to market your business online?

Can Batch Working Really Boost Your Biz?

We all have the same 24 hours in a day so how come some entrepreneurs (usually the competition!) seem to churn out heaps of high quality content while you regularly have to abandon your online marketing at times when you’re extra busy?  Or why do some business owners (you know the ones I mean) seem to swan around on Facebook while still appearing to run a thriving, successful business?

Now, whilst we don’t technically know how busy these people really are, or how many they have on their tag team, or indeed, if they are actually swanning about on Facebook (or they have a doppelganger taking care of it for them), they do probably know a few tricks of the trade to staying visible online without having to work nightshift.

One such secret to keeping your content stockroom filled with high quality stuff that converts, and your to-do list on the lean side, is to work in batches.

By working in batches you’re giving your attention to one task, instead of jumping from one completely different task to another.  For example, let’s just see what you’ve been doing for the last hour.

• Have you been writing a blog post or researching one?
• Whilst at the same time checking Facebook?
• And answering a couple of urgent emails?
• And retweeting that tweet?
• And staring out of the window trying to overcome your writer’s block?
• And answering your phone (to find out it was a pesky PPI claim call and not a new client)?

It’s no wonder your mind is constantly racing and you feel like you never get anything finished properly.

When I’m batch working, I know that my productivity doubles (at the very least).   This isn’t just because I’ve switched off my emails or my social media alerts or my RSS feeds.  It’s because I’m concentrating on one task for a set time (or until my creativity dries up). If I’m creating content, I can write lots more if I stick with it solidly for half a day and really dig deep into my creative flow. But if I stop a task to, say, write a blog, or some social media posts, it takes me twice as long and it’s more forced than flow.

Here are three simple ways you could start batch working if you’ve never tried it before…

1. Content writing time

As business owners we have to create all kinds of written stuff; from blogs posts and social media posts to newsletters and emails. We have to respond to comments on our blogs, and schmooze online to stay visible in different networking groups.  We have to interact with people who comment on our social media posts and join in on other pages to show that we’re an expert, or generally just to show that we’re watching and contributing.  So by either deciding to work on your content on perhaps a Monday morning (or going with your creative flow and writing for a few hours when you’re inspired) you’ll be in the right mindset and creating from a place of ease.

2. Emails

Setting aside a specific time(s) to answer emails is a great use of your valuable time. Dipping in and out of them as they come through isn’t best use of your time or your mind space.  How many emails have you sent that have had a mistake in or you’ve responded too (in a hurry) but taken the question/message out of context? The world won’t stop if you don’t answer an email instantly.

3. Appointments

There’s nothing worse than being right in that creative zone or in the middle of a piece of work for a client, when you have to stop for a Skype session, is there? It’s so much easier if you can schedule your face-to-face meetings to a specific morning/afternoon/day of the week, rather than having to interrupt your flow.

There are heaps more tasks that can be done in batches (image sourcing, accounts, blog research, book-keeping, for example) so why not start with the simple (but important) stuff first and see how addictive it becomes?

And make sure you come back and let me know how you’ve got on.  I’d love to know!