It’s true. Another productivity post. One of a million. I’m sure by now you read words like “productivity,” “task management,” or “David Allen” and want to slap yourself across the face. Sadly, despite all of the posts our friend Google feeds you, you’re still as inefficient as your high school final exams. You’re still immature on the war front to productivity and efficiency.
Fine, you’re busy, trust me, I get it. But the way you do things now costs you more time and mental energy. You don’t plan your day the night before, you don’t review your goals and you don’t have a game plan for the start of the day.
You just walk into your office and start rushing into emails and the daily chaotic grind of it’s really important and really urgent. You neglect the really important, non-urgent items you should be focusing on. If you're in sales it’s you neglecting prospecting and of you're in purchasing its you resolving issues and not focusing on gross margins. But this just applies to what I see at Skylink. It could be a number of others things for you.
There’s one trick I like to use to help me focus on certain activities throughout the day. It’s called batching.
Batch your life and keep more mental energy
Batching is simple, you take related tasks and batch them together. Hopefully I win the Noble Peace Prize for this record-breaking concept.
It’s honestly that simple but it’s difficult to get started for most since you don’t know where to begin. First, at work start with your job description. At home, start with activities you do on a repeat basis. Then look at your priorities and goals to stay in align with your responsibilities. After you do this you have a nice 30,000ft view of what your day should consist of.
Although email is important for some (like sales and Account Managers) it won’t be on this list.
Keep your morning tied up for creative tasks, this is when your brain has the most fuel to fire on all cylinders. I write and plan strategic initiatives all in the AM (I’ll show you an example of my batch process in a minute). I keep all of my sales and operation tasks for later in the day. Including HR. I don’t do any interviews or meetings in the morning. I have learned this zaps my mental energy and affects the rest of my day.
Every day set certain times for certain activities and tie in your key priorities. So for me I’ll group sales activities, marketing activities, and HR activities all together for certain time blocks. Yours may be much different and that’s fine.
The goal is to group related tasks so you don’t spend mental energy jumping back and forth. You dig in, get sh** done and get out. Your important projects and priorities are completed faster and more efficiently than ever before. Trust me, you’ll still have to deal with urgent things that come through your email or phone, and that’s fine.
This also applies to health and nutrition. Nobody wants to go home and cook after a long day. Spend 2 hours on Sunday and batch cook all of your meals for the week, or even just 3 days. You’ll save a ton of time and headaches having to prep your dinners every night. Batching can be used for many things.
Batch your life and get sh** done!
