When you’re running a small business, your brain is constantly pinballing between tasks. Emails then admin then creating content then back to emails then answering that phone call. It’s never ending. You may not realise it, but bouncing between tasks like this really puts a strain on our brains. That’s why task batching can help with organisation, productivity, and efficiency.
Let’s explore…
What is Task Batching?
Task batching is as its name suggests. It involves grouping together similar tasks and completing them in designated blocks of time, rather than continuously switching between different tasks. It’s a time management tool that small business owners frequently employ to help improve time efficiency, productivity and work quality.
Sounds simple enough, but how does it work exactly? How can it help you achieve those benefits?
How Task Batching Works
When you’re running a small business, your attention is constantly split. You’ll be juggling a multitude of responsibilities, turning your hand to multiple different tasks, all of which require different skill sets. This is tiring in itself! But when it’s also scientifically proven that multitasking reduces productivity by up to 40%, it’s not always a viable way to work when the success of your small business hangs in the balance.
Instead, task batching removes the need for the constant switching between tasks. Research shows that each time you shift focus from one type of work to another – writing a social media post to answering an email, for example – your brain requires a bit of time to adjust. This is a phenomenon known as ‘context switching.’ Each time your brain has to do this it needs a couple of minutes to regain full concentration – minutes that you likely can’t afford to lose. These minutes add up throughout the day and, in the end, have a negative impact on productivity.
By grouping similar tasks together, you’re gaining back those stolen minutes. Without context switching, you’re able to maintain focus for longer, complete deep work more effectively, and work to a higher standard than if you were multitasking or task switching. Those regained minutes add up and have a positive impact on your productivity and your small business over all.
The Benefits of Task Batching
Reducing Decision Overload and Mental Fatigue
The average person makes 35,000 decisions per day. If you’re running a small business, you’ll want to add a few more to that total for sure! From answering emails to deciding what to post on social media, to working on projects and collaborating with your team, you’ll be making important decisions at every turn. And that’s tiring. Multitasking and switching between tasks only add to that. Task batching, on the other hand, reduces the number of times you need to switch between cognitive processes, freeing up some of that much needed mental space.
Small business owners often suffer with mental fatigue, which can make it harder to make decisions, focus, and complete tasks to the required standard. When similar tasks are completed in a single session, the brain can operate way more efficiently without the added strain of constant transitions. This approach allows you to sustain higher levels of concentration and mental clarity, leading to more effective decision making and improved work quality.
Increasing Efficiency
Task batching is great for allowing better workflow optimisation by creating structured time locks for specific activities. This means that important, urgent tasks aren’t constantly interrupted by other, less important work. These tasks receive your full focus, allowing you to complete them more efficiently than you would if you were task switching or multitasking. By organising your tasks into a logical sequence, you can streamline your daily routines and complete work way more effectively.
For example, if you know you need to create some social media posts, set aside some time to write the content, create any graphics and schedule them all in one go. This way, the entire task is complete without leaving loose ends to tie up at a later date. You won’t need to add it to your to-do list again and once complete you can move onto other tasks without interruption.
Enhancing Focus and Work Quality
When focus wanes, work quality dips. You’ll have felt it at the end of a long day when you’re trying to complete that last task. It becomes harder to concentrate, mistakes are more likely, and the work probably isn’t the best thing you’ve ever produced. Task batching helps rectify this by encouraging deep work – the ability to focus intently on demanding tasks without distractions. When you’re logically grouping similar tasks together, it helps you to enter a state of flow. Your brain is entirely focused on the task at hand and not preoccupied with context switching. This keeps your concentration at peak levels, enhancing your focus and improving work quality. Not having to redo a rushed, end-of-the-day task the next morning sounds like a win, win to us!
Better Work-Life Balance
Running a small business can be all-consuming, and switching between tasks only adds to that. We’ve already learnt that doing so means you’re losing minutes to regaining concentration, and those minutes have got to be regained somewhere. Unfortunately, that means work spills over into your personal life.
Task batching improves your time management and increases efficiency, which means you’re gaining back those minutes without having to tack them on to the end of the working day all the time. Your work is contained to the hours you’ve dedicated to it, and your free time is exactly that – free.
Task batching isn’t just beneficial for your small business, it works for you, too.
Top Tips for Implementing Task Batching
The good news is task batching isn’t complex and is incredibly easy to implement when you know how. Think about it logically. If you’re constantly checking your emails in between other tasks, dedicate some time blocks to doing this instead to minimise the effort context switching requires. If you’re working on credit control, make payments and send remits at the same time to avoid having to come back to finish the job later. Filing? Add new paperwork and remove old paperwork all in the same time block. Task batching is all about planning before doing – group as many tasks together as you can for ultimate organisation, productivity and efficiency.
Or, for further support with running your small business, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our fab Virtual Assistants.