Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to batch similar tasks. Batching tasks, sometimes
Speaker 1: referred to as batch processing, cuts down on the time
Speaker 1: and energy expended by task switching. You know those times
Speaker 1: when you find yourself hopping back and forth multiple times
Speaker 1: an hour between the document you're working on and your inbox,
Speaker 1: suspecting you're getting nothing done, Well, you're probably right. You
Speaker 1: aren't getting much done. Do one type of task at
Speaker 1: a time, and you can save yourself all kinds of time.
Speaker 1: We live in a world that encourages near constant tasks switching.
Speaker 1: We carry around our phones in our pockets and we
Speaker 1: check them every time they buzz. The problem with this
Speaker 1: is that cognitive scientists have found that tasks switching has
Speaker 1: various costs. We make more errors, and although switching can
Speaker 1: feel productive, tasks take longer to get done since we
Speaker 1: lose time on every transition. If you listen to this podcast,
Speaker 1: you probably already know this, but easier said than done. Right,
Speaker 1: as I've been working on this episode, my fingers have
Speaker 1: felt almost twitchy, wanting to pop into my inbox to
Speaker 1: see what's going on in there or how many people
Speaker 1: liked my most recent photo on Instagram. I see my
Speaker 1: journal on my desk, and I know that I meant
Speaker 1: to write in there too, So should I stop now
Speaker 1: and do that? Yeah. It turns out that knowing and
Speaker 1: doing are different things. So if you're serious about batch
Speaker 1: ng similar tasks, there are a few things to do. First,
Speaker 1: be intentional about it, which is always a good idea.
Speaker 1: With time, sit down and make a list of all
Speaker 1: the work tasks that you do in a regular week,
Speaker 1: and think about when you do them. Consider whether some
Speaker 1: of them could be badged for greater efficiency, and make
Speaker 1: a plan for when you'll carry out your badge processing.
Speaker 1: For example, maybe you save an hour for responding to
Speaker 1: email at the end of the work day. This way,
Speaker 1: you avoid the task switching costs of checking email when
Speaker 1: you may be doing your deeper work, but you still
Speaker 1: respond to all important messages promptly. Email at the end
Speaker 1: of the day may be a particularly good idea for
Speaker 1: those of us who feel like our brains are too
Speaker 1: fried by three pm to do anything more complex. I
Speaker 1: try to work on a week's worth of podcast scripts
Speaker 1: in one block. You can send all your invoices or
Speaker 1: pay all your bills at the same time too. If
Speaker 1: you're setting up a lot of meetings for a project,
Speaker 1: you can try to do all the scheduling at once,
Speaker 1: which is helpful for then batching meetings meet for three
Speaker 1: hours in the afternoons, and your mornings can be open
Speaker 1: for other things. It's likely you're already using batched task
Speaker 1: processing in some areas of your life without thinking about it.
Speaker 1: Most of us wait to do laundry until we have
Speaker 1: enough dirty clothes for a full load, rather than washing
Speaker 1: every single item as it gets dirty. This is not
Speaker 1: to say that all similar tasks should be batched. There's
Speaker 1: often good reason for doing certain things daily are spreading
Speaker 1: things out throughout the week. Not everyone feels like cooking
Speaker 1: for the week on Sundays, but batchng light tasks allows
Speaker 1: you to get in the groove and establish efficiencies. You
Speaker 1: plow through your inbox, you actually write the memo you're writing,
Speaker 1: you order all the kids summer clothes, and then you're done.
Speaker 1: In the end, this technique should leave you with the
Speaker 1: time and energy to focus on what really matters in
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E
Speaker 1: the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at
Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.