766: 12 Ingenious Batchwork Strategies You Need to Try

0:01Okay, I have been on this ruthless pursuit to purge any clothes that I'm not actually wearing. Like if I haven't reached for it in months, it's got to go. I am trying to be really intentional about what I bring into my closet right now, which means I am only buying pieces that I know I will actually wear and use. Revolve just gets it though. I'm literally wearing my brown Autry sneakers from there right now and my new suede purse. It fits my laptop in it. So it's basically a fancy shoulder bag that works for everything. I love finding pieces like that. Things that look good, but also work hard for my actual life.

0:35Their holiday shop is live right now with all the good stuff. Sparkly party dresses, cozy sets, cute gifts, everything you need for whatever is on your calendar. And it's all in one place, which makes shopping feel way less overwhelming. Whether it's a weekend away, a big night out or a holiday party, your dream wardrobe is just one click away. Head to revolve.com forward slash gold digger, shop my edit and take 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger. Fast two day shipping, easy returns. it's literally the only place you need to shop from. That's revolve.com forward slash gold digger to shop by favorites and get 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger offer available for a limited time.

1:15So happy shopping. If you are someone like me who has multiple facets to your business, where you have different offers or different focuses, it allows me to like focus on the podcast really deeply for a week and then scoot to the other areas of my business and give my dedicated attention to those. And so this has been really huge. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher, and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business.

1:52I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore. Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy, and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. So I did my first podcast episode on this topic way back in 2018. So it is safe to say that this is a tried and true technique in my world that I have leaned on over the years. But let me tell you, this year, I am taking this strategy to a whole new level.

2:31What am I talking about? I'm talking about batch working. So if you're wondering what batch working is, it's this productivity technique where tasks are grouped together based on similarity or type, and they're completed in dedicated, uninterrupted blocks of time. So basically, instead of context switching or switching between different activities all the time, batch working encourages individuals to focus on one type of task at a time, allowing for increased efficiency and concentration, both things I need more of in my life. It basically involves structuring your workflow so that you can streamline processes and minimize context switching, which enhances your productivity and ultimately it enhances your output.

3:12So if you are someone who wants to get more done in less time so that you can get back to the things you love and the life that you're living, or if you're tired of working so hard every single day, only to rest your head at the end of it and wonder, what did I actually get accomplished? This episode is for you. We're talking about batch working, but we're going to show you the 2.0 version that's happening in my life and business this year. Okay, real talk, are skinny jeans out or are they in? My friends and I continue to have this debate and it just goes to show that trends come and go and come back again.

3:47And the same goes for marketing strategies. Like who can even keep up? Luckily, HubSpot makes it their job to keep marketers on trend and on track to hit their goals. Their 2024 state of marketing report is an all-in-one guide for everything happening this year and how marketers can best approach it all. HubSpot surveyed more than 1400 marketing pros across the world and curated the top trends are thinking about. Sure, there's AI, but there's honestly so much more. The report covers everything from increasing awareness and engagement to ensuring privacy and boosting efficiency and growth. This report will give you all the info you need to shape your strategy for the year and keep on winning into next year.

4:26So friend, do not get caught hopping on an old trend. Visit HubSpot.com slash state of marketing to get your free copy of the report today. That's HubSpot.com slash state of marketing. So it's kind of funny because I have been batch working for six years, probably longer if I'm being honest, but I recently learned why this approach is so helpful for me specifically. So nearly two years ago, I was formally diagnosed with ADHD and that diagnosis has taken me down a very, very deep dive looking at the techniques that work for me in order for me to be productive and get my work done. Now, the truth is, is that people with ADHD really do great with batch working because it provides this more structured approach to task management.

5:13It also helps minimize the need for constant context switching and decision making. There's so much research out there about how long it takes our brains to context switch. And so if you're someone like me, who tends to have like 20 tabs open and you kind of forget what you were doing, this method can be so game-changing. When you have uninterrupted, keyword uninterrupted, blocks of time for specific tasks, people with ADHD can maintain their focus and concentration, which then of course leads to increased productivity. And let me just preface this by saying I am not someone in the camp of like, I want you to work smarter so that you can work harder.

5:51I think there's a lot of people who are like, I want to be the most productive version of myself so that I can get the most work done and keep working and working and working. I want for you to work smarter so that you can live more so that you can unlock more time in your life where you're not thinking about all the things you need to do or what you didn't get done, or you're not berating yourself for not totally crossing off everything on your to-do list. So one of the things that I love about this is it helps reduce that feeling of overwhelm that I think so many of us can feel. And it provides a sense of accomplishment that I think so many of us are lacking, especially entrepreneurs, because when you batch work, you are completing a batch of tasks.

6:30It also just helps you better with time management and prioritization. People with ADHD really can have a challenge of managing their workload. And so when you feel more in control of your workday, you finish it feeling more accomplished and you tend to actually achieve more. Overall, batch working offers practical solution to a lot of common challenges that entrepreneurs face, but specifically entrepreneurs with ADHD. Now, if you do not have ADHD, I promise you there's gold in this episode. So don't tune me out yet. Okay. So the first thing that has been so game changing for me this year is themed days.

7:07I am talking about designating specific days of the week for certain tasks or themes. For examples, You could do Mondays are your admin days like accounting and emails. Tuesdays could be client meetings and brainstorming. Wednesdays could be content creation and so on. This allows you to focus deeply on one task at a time, minimizing context switching. So this has been a huge shift for me this year. And I also have to recognize what a stinking privilege it is to be able to say like, I don't want to do meetings on Mondays, to be able to designate what your schedule is. But here's something I want you to remember.

7:43So many of us go into entrepreneurship, wanting more freedom, wanting more control. And sometimes we end up building businesses where we feel like we have zero freedom and we're out of control. And so you want to control the controllables. And for me, that looks like designating themes for each day of the week and communicating those and kind of creating this rhythm within my life and business that feels so much better. So for me, I decided last year, my team started doing four day work weeks. We started it as an experiment. I did a whole podcast episode on the topic and we loved it. And so we have not gone back.

8:20So we do Monday through Thursday. And one thing that I noticed is that my favorite days of work, the days that I feel like I get the most stuff done are days where I don't have any calls or any meetings. And so I decided I wanted Monday to be my deep work day, meaning I have no meetings. I have limited Slack interaction and I'll jump into my inbox, but I might not get through the whole thing. And so Mondays have become this really sacred day for me in terms of work where I am learning, I'm exploring, I'm creating, I'm ideating, I'm being the visionary. And so what this means is that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are usually jam packed, but Mondays and Fridays, the bookends of the week feel very free to me.

9:02And they also just allow me to kind of transition a little bit easier out of a weekend filled with straight on motherhood and back into the work week. And then also easing out of that entrepreneur mode and into mom mode as we go into the weekend. And so this has been just amazing for me to have kind of these themes. So Monday, I don't do meetings. Tuesday, I usually have a lot of meetings. Wednesday, I usually do recording. Thursday, I do review and then we have Fridays off. And so that has worked out really, really well for me. And so if you can call in just different themed days, not only does it help you kind of plan your schedule a little bit more in advance, but it also helps you find a rhythm that allows you to get into the deep work.

9:46Because when people talk about deep work, as someone with ADHD, I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. It takes me so long to like sink in, feel super creative, just like creating on the fly. I have to create a really intentional environment to get to that place. And so I recognized the way that I was setting up my schedule was not allowing me to ever get into deep work. And so that has shifted with theme dates. Next, kind of touched on this a little bit, but meeting days. So rather than scattering your meetings throughout the week, schedule them all on specific days. This allows the business owner to fully immerse themselves in these interactions without interruptions.

10:20It also frees up other days for focused work. So I have something weird and I'm curious if any of you relate. You should send me a DM if you relate to this. But if I have a meeting on my calendar, I really struggle to get things done either until that meeting happens or even if it's like 2pm. All day I'm dreading that meeting. Even if I love the person I'm meeting with. Meetings really throw off my productivity and my desire to get work done. It just feels like a wrench in my schedule. And I'm trying to like Jenga my way into creativity around a structure of meetings. And so I am someone who dreads meetings.

10:58I mean, there's no other way to put it. This has been a really big thing for me. So at the beginning of the year, I worked with all of my contractors that I have meetings for and my team. And I said, okay, is there any way that we can line everything up on Tuesday for me? So we'll have team meetings. I'll meet with different contractors. I have monthly review meetings. We do budget reviews. I have gotten it down to a place where basically one day a month, I have back to back to back to back to back to back meetings. So it's just like a day of meetings. But then every other week, my Tuesdays are open, wide open.

11:33And so before it was like a meeting here, a meeting there, a meeting there. And so this has been amazing. Of course, those meeting days are draining so much Zoom fatigue, but it's totally worth it to me to have that one condensed day so that there are more free calendar days, which again, for me is like my favorite days as an entrepreneur. And so I've just kind of gotten to protect that creativity and that time that I need to get into that creative space and then batching up my meeting days. So if you can do that, do it. And let me tell you, I was very nervous about communicating this goal with my contractors because they all have businesses and other clients, everyone was like totally cool with it.

12:15And so I think that Minnesota like, Oh, is this going to be a problem? I hope this isn't an inconvenience. It's like, communicate and be flexible as flexible as you can. But man, once I got everything lined up, I'm like, this is awesome. Okay, the next tip for batch working is called project sprints. Okay, if anyone was in track, I was in track sprint, you go really fast for a short amount of time. Now keep in mind short amount of time. I'm not talking about or promoting burnout culture where it's like go really fast and hard until you burn out. Talking about short bursts of intense work focused on completing specific projects or goals.

12:53So this has been great. And this most predominantly shows up in my business during launches where we just have like one linear focus. And for me as a multifaceted, multi-passionate person, it can be both beautiful and also constricting to do this. But when you dedicate uninterrupted time to one specific thing, you can make progress really fast. So this could be talking about setting aside a specific day, setting aside one week or two weeks, or even a month where you are solely focusing on a new project or launch or a new offer. You're revamping your website or whatever this is, but it's like very, very hyper focused work where you kind of put the blinders on and you forget about everything else.

13:36So when I think about this, I think about our live launches. So our launches are usually open for a little bit over a week. So this is when I'm doing live webinars. I'm supporting my students. I'm answering questions. I'm in the support inbox, like all of my focus. I'm not thinking about the podcast. I'm not thinking about my book. I'm not thinking about my blog. I am all in on this one thing. And so is my team. It's like all hands on deck. We're all in for one United Goal. And I love this because when I know that we're going into a launch, I am batching, see the theme here, batching everything else in advance so that there is nothing else needing my attention, but this specific launch, this one product, this one webinar, I'm going all in.

14:18And I have realized that when I do this, I am so much more freed up. I'm so much more energized. guys, I'm so much more clear. There's so much more clarity for me. And so if you do a project sprint, I want for you to make sure this one important thing that you have a very specific end date, because what can happen is a lot of times you say, I'm going to go hard until this thing is done. And then it takes longer and longer and longer. And all of a sudden you're just going hard every day. And so the big thing with a project sprint is like setting aside one week. And this is the end date. This is when I'm done sprinting.

14:52I know your family, your friends will appreciate this tip because it'll shift your relationship with it. And it'll also give you these clear boundaries. I know when I was just in my launch, I was literally going from like live webinars to bringing my daughter to swimming lessons. And like the context switching in those times were so hard for me because I was still thinking about work, watching my daughter and her swimming lessons, like trying to balance it all. And I remember telling Drew, like this next week, like if I look like I'm in la la land, I'm probably thinking about this launch. Like I just want, you know, here's when it's going to be over with and I will be back to normal.

15:24but like my brain is like really hyper-focused right now. And that's all I'm thinking about. And so having that end date is really powerful, especially if you adopt this project sprint idea. Okay. Next is having a monthly planning day. So this is where you reserve one day each month solely for planning and strategizing. This could involve reviewing previous month's performance, which we've been talking so much about. It's just the power of measurement and understanding your numbers. You can also set goals for the upcoming month and outline different steps that you have in order to achieve these goals.

15:59For us, this looks like understanding what content is coming out from the brand in the next month. So this is a little bit newer for us. But I am absolutely loving this. So what we're doing is we have some key team members get on the phone or zoom once a month. We have my content project manager, my online course project manager, my podcast producer, my copywriter, and my VP, all of us, so it's five of us, we get on a Zoom call and we walk through everything that is coming from the brand in the next month. So we're talking about podcast episodes. We're talking about emails that are going out. We're talking about blogs that are being published.

16:36We're talking about promotions we have going on. And we walk through it all together. In the past, there was this lack of cohesion in my messaging because everything was siloed off. So the emails were doing their own thing. The podcast was doing its own thing. The blog was like living in la la land. And so we decided like, we want to have this very collective united front of like messaging. So if somebody sees a post on Instagram and they open their email, it's the same message and they're just getting it in two different ways or on two different platforms. And so in this call, we basically have a doc ready to map out the entire month.

17:09We come prepared. Each area of the business comes with like their desires. It's almost like we do like an auction of like who needs which emails, who wants which content focuses for which week to support their goals within the overall brand. And I love this because even if you just had one VA helping you out or you were hiring a copywriter or something like that, making sure that you are unified in the messaging and the mission and also clear on the goals. This helps so much. And I just love these monthly planning calls because essentially we get on the phone, we plan it out. I spend the next hour after the call, outlining all the content, dropping in my thoughts, leaving bulleted lists, recording voice memos of like, this is what I want this to be.

17:55This is what I'm thinking for this. These are the three points I want to make sure this covers. And then my team can start running with it. And so we already know one month out what's coming out next month. And one of the things that I think gives me the most freedom in my business is not always wondering, well, what's next? What's next? Like, it's so funny. I have so many friends who are so last minute in their businesses. And they'll be like, Hey, can you support this in a couple of weeks? And I'm like, dude, we already have the next two months planned out. Like you got to get on my calendar way sooner than this.

18:24And so having these monthly planning days can help you knock out so much in a very short amount of time. And it also just allows for you to look at like the month at a whole glance. Like you understand, we kind of look at our months as like themes and we break them out week by week by week. And it just adds so much clarity and consistency in your messaging. And so whatever that looks like for you, whether you sit down with yourself and schedule out your next month of content, or you think about like what's coming down the pipeline that I want to make sure that we're really driving home with our messaging and our content.

18:57It's amazing. When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business. You need a website, payment systems, a logo, and a way to reach customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully that's where today's sponsor Shopify comes in. Shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all U.S. e-commerce, from big brands to folks just getting started. They offer beautiful, ready-to-go website templates so you don't need design skills to look professional. Their AI tools help with product images, descriptions, discount codes, and more.

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20:09Okay, I have been on this ruthless pursuit to purge any clothes that I'm not actually wearing. Like if I haven't reached for it in months, it's got to go. I am trying to be really intentional about what I bring into my closet right now, which means I am only buying pieces that I know I will actually wear and use. Revolve just gets it though. I'm literally wearing my brown Autry sneakers from there right now and my new suede purse. It fits my laptop in it so it's basically a fancy shoulder bag that works for everything. I love finding pieces like that. Things that look good but also work hard for my actual life.

20:43Their holiday shop is live right now with all the good stuff. Sparkly party dresses, cozy sets, cute gifts, everything you need for whatever is on your calendar and it's all in one place, which makes shopping feel way less overwhelming. Whether it's a weekend away, a big night out or a holiday party, your dream wardrobe is just one click away. Head to revolve.com forward slash gold digger, shop my edit and take 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger. Fast two-day shipping, easy returns. It's literally the only place you need to shop from. That's revolve.com forward slash gold digger to shop my favorites and get 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger.

21:21Offer available for a limited time. So happy shopping. Speed NIF content. The next batch working task that you need to try is doing content creation days or weeks. So this is so interesting to me because I have just been in like a funk with creating content. And I think here's why. I don't show my kids on their faces on the internet anymore. And I'm with my kids basically all the time. And so, so much of my content is not going to be published or ever see the light of the internet because I'm with my kids and I'm maintaining their privacy. And then the other part is me just sitting at my laptop, working my butt off for this business.

22:02And that's not really fun to watch. And so when it comes to creating content, I have had a harder time of like, what do I want to share? What do I have to say? What value do I have to add right now? Like, I just feel like I'm in this like interesting stage of life where I'm like, I don't know, going a little bit more inward, but also like, ah, yeah, this is hard, but this batch working technique can totally help you. So instead of trying to create content every single day, you can dedicate one day or a week to creating a bunch of content and having a queue of it ready to rock. So this could again, include writing multiple blog posts, recording multiple podcasts, designing graphics, filming videos for social.

22:42When you can batch similar things together, you can get into a creative flow. You can produce higher quality content. And if you are like me, you can get ready once and shoot a bunch of content and then the next week be in your sweatpants. It was so interesting. But as I was outlining this episode that I'm recording right now, I also outlined four additional episodes. So yesterday was a batch working day. It was a deep work day of outlining all of the episodes for the next month. Today, as I'm recording, this is a batch recording day where I'm recording all day. I have everything set up one time, everything's plugged in or ready to go.

23:19That's amazing. And so what I love about this is like, I only have to get camera ready once. I can get everything done in one day. And now I know I have podcast content for the next month. Same thing for interviews. We do an entire day where I will do all of the month's interviews in one day. It's back to back to back to back, knock it out. And then I don't have to think about the podcast all month long. Then it just gets to run. This helps me so much. And if you are someone like me who has multiple facets to your business, where you have different offers or different focuses, it allows me to like focus on the podcast really deeply for a week and then scoot to the other areas of my business and give my dedicated attention to those.

23:58And so this has been really huge. It's also really helpful, like on days that I get haircuts, I'll try to shoot a bunch of B-roll content of just like making coffee or making lunch or working on my computer or running on the treadmill or whatever that is and just shoot a bunch of B-roll content. And then I use that content in my different things that I post online. So again, just thinking about batch working your content, I have friends who they'll fly somebody in from their team and they'll create an entire month's worth of social media content in a day. The beautiful thing about it is it eliminates that guilt of like, I need to create something.

24:33I have nothing to say. I don't know what to post. Okay. I'm not going to post today, but I'm really mad at myself for not posting today. And it kind of gets you out of that cycle or that loop that a lot of us can find ourselves in. Okay. The next one is batch emailing. So this is setting aside specific times of day where you are focusing on your inbox. Now, this is really huge because I don't know if you are like me, but I see and I can pinpoint people that are constantly checking and responding to every email as they come in. Don't do that. You are letting your email control your day. You're letting your email control your output.