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Batching – group similar tasks to make the most of your time

August 13, 2008 By Linda Dessau

I had a wonderful meeting with my mentor at the end of July, and one of the things we spoke about was "batching." In essence, she asserted that my time is valuable, and to make the most of it, I need to use it efficiently. That means grouping together similar tasks and getting super-focused on doing them all within that same block of time.

I had already intuitively implemented a lot of batching practices in my life (though I have to say that I practice some more regularly than others). Things like:

  • When I run errands, I group them together based on location  (there's extra incentive now because of gas prices)
  • Saving up cheques for less trips to the ATM (I also avoid any fees by doing my cash withdrawals at the same time, at my own bank)
  • Processing emails only twice a day (this one's been harder to stick with, and I still do like to check more frequently for messages from clients)

When it comes to writing, batching has meant creating a special block of time in my calendar every week for drafting, writing and pre-scheduling blog posts. I'm sitting in this time slot right now, and it feels spacious and precious to me. This routine has progressed out of my blogging in fits and spurts technique, and using the "draft" post function as an idea catcher is what makes it work.

Writing Prompt: What are some writing jobs that you could group together to tap into the momentum and efficiency of batching?

Filed Under: Blog Planning, Blogging Consistently, Productivity, Writing Prompts

Blogging in Fits and Spurts

August 22, 2007 By Linda Dessau

Everyone has a time of the day, week, month, season or even year that is their most "fertile" for ideas, creativity and motivation.

In trying to stay active on my blog (I'm aiming for 1-2 posts per week), I'm finding that the best method for me is to notice when I'm "on a roll" of ideas and capture as many as I can all at once.

Sometimes I just jot down a sentence or two and save it as a "draft" post for later. Today, I'm writing and pre-scheduling several blog posts so that they'll be published over the next couple of weeks.

Some people blog so they can have an intimate and interactive conversation with their readers – to share their most immediate thoughts, stories and experiences. A "canned" (pre-scheduled) post just wouldn't work.

I do want to maintain some of that spirit in the Idea Generator, so I'll still be posting spontaneously once in awhile!

But for today, I'm going with my own creative flow and I'm going to get these blog posts written and published while they're coming out of me.

Quick Writing Prompt: When is your "fertile" idea time? How can you make the most of it the next time it comes around? Need some help to generate ideas? Let's talk!

Filed Under: Blogging Consistently, Writing Prompts

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