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You’ve most likely heard of the concept of batching (doing similar tasks together to free up time) and love the idea. But if you can’t seem to make batching work in your biz, here’s the secret spoiler – I discovered that NOT batching like the gurus glorified led to the most amazing momentum.
Curious to know more about this? Tune in to find out why I actually recommend you do not batch (especially when you’re newer in your business) and what you should do instead. We’re gonna dig into that in today’s episode and I’m sure you’re gonna LOVE this one.
Episode Highlights:
- What is batching and why it’s valuable in some areas of your business
- Things to be aware of when you do decide to batch
- When batching can hurt your momentum and growth
- Plus what you can do instead to leverage batching in a way that works with your season and style
Episode Show Notes:
What is batching and why it’s important?
Essentially, batching is taking similar tasks and doing them in bulk.
It’s the idea of you’re more productive and less susceptible when you’re not switching to different tasks (trying to move from your creative brain to your analytical brain), and many productivity studies show that when you group tasks together, you can be more effective with it.
I think the bigger reason why batching can be very valuable is because it makes our business be a little bit more life proof.
So if something happens or any unexpected event comes up, you’re more life proofed where you’re not constantly going, oh my gosh, I can’t get my blog post out or I can’t get my podcast recorded.
Why batching can hurt your business in certain ways
here is a huge case for why batching is important but in reality, there are so many reasons why it may not work for everyone. Here’s why I actually think that batching can hurt your business in certain ways.
- Your content can become pretty stale.
You cannot reflect what’s happening in current events or trends in the online space or your specific niche when you do content batch creation, let’s say for your podcast.
For example, if you batch record and start doing podcast episodes and a huge crisis happens in the world (hello, pandemic!) or huge conversations that need to be front and center like Black Lives Matter, how are you going to add that kind of sensitivity into the conversation if you have all this other content coming out?
Most business owners forget to not mention things on their podcast that then makes it irrelevant when it goes live and what happens is the timing become stale. Depending on what kind of format or industry you have, this might not matter. But I know one of the things that’s really powerful in podcast is being able to develop a relationship with your audience, and part of that is talking about what’s happening now in your intro or somewhere in the episode.
- Your content can feel too systemized.
Have you ever noticed that some podcasts are like so freaking streamlined? It just feels like every episode is kind of the same. Their system is so rinse and repeat that they all sound the same. Yes, it’s a new topic but same rhythm.
This is what I think happens if you record too far in advance – your content can feel very systemized.
The problem is a lot of business owners don’t know how to find that rhythm so their audience feels like they’re part of a system or that they’re being put through a process which they should never feel like one.
I don’t know about you, but I want interesting. I want to feel like I’m having a real conversation. I want to feel like I have somebody’s real insight, not their curated insight.
- You do not get to benefit from the learning.
What happens is when you batch your podcast episodes, typically, when you record them is different from the time when you edit them. So most likely you are cringing the entire time when you edit them, hating the way you look, the way you sound, and just nitpicking the crap out of yourself but you’re not giving any kind of constructive feedback.
And by the time you get back to the camera, you forget about these and failed to bring any of these lessons you learned with you. What happens is the application of that feedback is delayed and therefore microscopic so you did not get to benefit from the learning.
Ok, so what should you do instead? Find the system that works for you— here’s my suggestion:
Here are some ways you can do to leverage batching in a way that works with your style:
- Build the right skill for your business.
If you want your content to be high quality and to get people to pay attention and keep coming back, you have to build the skill – the skill of speaking, the skill of looking on camera, the skill of video, the skill of podcasting.
All of these things are skills and there are no shortcuts to you getting better at a skill other than you actually doing the skill. But if you’re only doing the skill once a month, how can you expect to get better at the skill?
What we have to do instead is build consistency and repetition with that skill. Do it a lot. Show up and do it frequently and in abundance.
- Consider what you are batching.
Think about what’s going to be the cadence that’s going to improve your skills and don’t put yourself in a position where you’re going to be stressed about it because that stress is going to impact negatively how you show up. So if you are recording a podcast episode, you have to think about this.
What would it look like for you to either do one a week or maybe two every two weeks? Figure out that groove for you. The goal is how do you batch out the non live recording time. Could you batch together show descriptions and show notes? How could you put that in a cadence where you’re forced to show up each and every week?
- Find the blend that works for you in this season.
Whatever season that you’re in right now in your business, I want you to really find the blend that works well for you and be open that whatever works for you now doesn’t mean that’s what you need to do forever. Learn to adapt to what you need and what your business needs.
Think about is what season are you in right now? Don’t be committed to it for the future. It’s not about chasing the best practice but it’s figuring out what works for you right now in the season and then being open to find your next version that works for you.
There is a right way to do it and you need to work on finding your way to do it. But along the way, make sure that you’re prioritizing the skill that’s going to take you where you want to go.
