The Best Time Blocking and Content Batching Techniques
Do you ever find yourself transferring your Monday To Dos to Tuesday’s list? And sometimes to Wednesdays and Thursdays’ lists? Possibly even Friday’s list? I feel your pain. But until we’ve mastered our schedules, we’ll never feel like we’re in control of our business. Let’s turn that around NOW so, you make the most out of your time.
If you’ve been struggling with time management, this post might just be the answer to your prayers. We’ll take a look at the best ways to schedule your time and get your content under control.
See Time As Your Asset
The most important thing to get to grips with is that time is not your master. You are the master of your time. If you see time as a resource that helps you achieve your goals and not as an ‘enemy’ then you’re rocking the right mindset that’ll move your business forward.
Two Ways to Make Time Blocking Work For You
How Task Batching Works
The task batching technique stops you from yo-yo-ing between tasks. It breaks the cycle of the “I’m just gonna just have one quick peek at my emails” or the “I’ve got a great idea for a Tweet that I absolutely have to do right now or I’ll burst” kinda moments.
You might need to do some auditing first to see how long tasks actually take and then batch your day accordingly. Give yourself 3 times a day to look at emails for short bursts. Once or twice a day for media engagement and schedule these for the ‘low-energy’ parts of your day. Those tasks that make you the most money need to be prioritized and NOTHING comes between you and that batch, baby.
Day Theming For Deep Work
Some people swear by the day theme technique to take their time management to the max. This means that you schedule entire days to a particular aspect of your business. You’ve just got into podcasting? Cool. You’re going to need a day for that! You need to meet with clients? Give them a time on the meeting-themed day. Copywriting your content? Yep, that’s gets a day, too. Whatever you need to do to get that focus – do it for the entire day. It does require being ruthless but it’s worth it for those results.
Two Techniques To Make You Master Your Content
Values Led Content Batching
What’s at the core of your business? Is it sustainability, inclusivity, adventure? Whatever you identify as your 3 main business “pillars”, these are going to be basis for 3 – 5 of your weekly topics – every week. You might give one post to each one of your values a week or touch all three of your values for all 3 – 5.
Value batching your content this way saves a ton of time because you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You take one focus for the week and find 3 -5 different ways of linking that focus to your values. And that’s your weekly content planning sorted.
Season Themed Content Batching
Season theming works really well for travel content. It’s where you get to showcase the best of the season to your clients. And you want to know a secret? We get the same seasons every year. Who’d have thunk it?! The point I’m trying to make here is you can pre-plan way in advance and your content still appears fresh. Let’s take the fall. We’re going to focus one week on foodie things: those breaks to gourmet hotels or the best spot to buy your pumpkin spiced latte. The next, getaways to watch the leaves turn golden. You get me?
Using this technique, you’re breaking your content creation into much more manageable chunks, making consistent posting a walk in the park. Plus you’re keeping it super relevant for your audience.
Picked up a new time blocking or content batching technique today? Great. Now let’s get batching, people!