So, I’ve been there when it comes to feeling wildly overwhelmed by my to-do list. When I was in the early days of figuring out entrepreneurship, I felt like I was in a constant race to get it all done by the end of the day. I bounced between trying to multitask and feeling guilty when I couldn’t do it all in an eight-hour period — and it wasn’t working for my biz or for me. 

It wasn’t until I found out about batchworking and then decided to implement the practice that my business, and my general mindset, changed. Instead of struggling to focus or telling myself that multitasking was the only way to get things done, I found a way to work with efficiency, optimization, and freedom.

Basically? Three of my favorite things.

What exactly is batchworking?

Batchworking means that you’re focusing on one thing at a time. If you’re like I was, the idea of switching your focus to just one task when you have a zillion freaks you out… but hear me out still. With batchworking, you get hyper-specific with a certain task or area in your business for a certain amount of time (days, hours, even months) and hone in on THAT topic. 

Think about it: you put cookies in the oven in batches, right? You roll out the dough, pop 12 cookies in there, and let them cook by themselves until they’re done. Then, while your first batch is cooling, you bake the rest. Each cookie batch gets its own time in the oven, and they all come out perfectly chocolatey, gooey, and done. 

If you put 36 cookies in the oven, do you think they’ll all cook perfectly in the same amount of time? Nope.

So… why should you be batchworking?

Batchworking is the prime way to work ahead, strategize with intention, and carve out time to REST instead of hustle constantly. You know the feeling of writing some Instagram captions, typing out a couple of emails, and then spending time editing a podcast or a blog post. The end of your day rolls around and, while you technically marked everything off of your to-do list, you kinda just spent that whole day getting tiny things done.

When you change over to batchworking, you’re wildly productive in one area for a certain amount of time. 

For example, batching is how we build out the Goal Digger episodes over here at Team JK. Instead of spending each and every week finding guests, interviewing, writing show notes, and editing the show, we spend a couple of crazy-focused days every couple of months to do EVERY interview, write ALL of the show notes, and edit EACH episode. For those Goal Digger-focused days, we’re all in on the next batch of Goal Digger episodes. Then, we don’t even have to think about the podcast for months.

It’s wildly freeing and efficient, and it’s how I know that we’ve put the best of ourselves into the task at hand before we start the next. If you’re starting to think that batchworking is for you (spoiler alert: it is!), here are my 3 secrets to batch-working like the pro you are:

01. I batch in a way that works for me.

I have friends that swear by batchworking too, and we all do it differently. Some people prefer to batch their work by days — like keeping every Monday for content creation and dealing with finances every Wednesday — while some people like batching their time by hours so that their days are scheduled out way in advance.

There’s no wrong way to batchwork, but my favorite way to do it? By project. I choose to batch in big chunks based on the projects I have going on at the moment, whether that’s the podcast or course-building or prepping a new launch. Those are the pieces of my business that consistently create income and make a big difference, so they’re what I focus on heavily when I’m batchworking.

Those super-focused days help me ensure that I’m giving my all to the really important things ahead of time, which clears up SO much space in this brain of mine and really helps me when it comes to thinking BIG PICTURE about my biz while knowing that I’m caught up on #allthethings. 

02. I zoom out to focus in.

While batchworking lets me focus on that big picture, it also requires a good amount of nitty-gritty tasks while I’m in the process. I like to take that batchworking lens, zoom out on the task at hand, and focus in by breaking it all up into mini chunks that I need to get done. 

Take the whole process of researching, interviewing, writing, and editing Goal Digger episodes. That’s no small feat, and there are A LOT of moving parts to the whole process. From creating lists of dream topics and guests to scheduling interviews to writing solo show outlines to recording the actual episodes, those batch workdays are dedicated to the small things when it comes to the big picture.

But, here’s the thing: in the past, my workdays were a mishmash of little tasks for all of the different moving parts in my business. I was stressed to the max, and I had my hands in way too many things at once. By breaking down my batchworking into smaller categories, I can guarantee that I’m giving all of those little tasks the proper amount of attention so that the final product is everything that I want it to be.

03. I do the dang thing.

Just like everyone, focus is hard to come by for me at times. But, by batchworking, I KNOW that I’m doing what’s best for my business and my team by working in a way that prioritizes my wellness and efficiency. When I spend days batching work and getting way ahead on the things I used to barely balance, those freed-up nights with Drew and Coco are even sweeter than usual.

So, I do the dang thing, friends. I turn on airplane mode, turn up Spotify, lock my phone in another room, and challenge myself to put my head down and work. I spend those days deep in the nitty-gritty so that I can free up the rest of my days, and it’s REALLY freakin’ worth it. 

I’m all about finding ways to hone in on efficiency and time management so that my work works for me, and batchworking is a huge piece of that puzzle. I encourage you to make batchworking part of your A-game, whether you love the idea of scheduling out your days or you keep it more project-focused. 

I promise that you’ll see your business (and your day-to-day) change before your very eyes, and there’s nothing more worth it than that.

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