Doing more in less time.

How often to you batch your tasks for greater productivity? Do you cluster tasks that require similar energy and do them all at once to get better performance? You should think about your day and your tasks with a batch-oriented mentality to achieve more in less time.

My employer uses a sophisticated software package to run its business. This software operates on the principal of batch processing. A lot of our users initially try to fight this principal of operation their productivity suffers and they complain they can’t use the system to get their work finished. They’re not used to thinking in batches.

When they finally embrace a batch-process work-flow a change happens. They can get more done, in less time than they thought was possible. Suddenly it’s not a problem to process 2500 invoices. Suddenly it’s not such a burden to print 800 checks. They get to a point where a minimum input on their end produces a maximum output by the system.

Applying this type of thinking to all aspects of your life can transform your productivity too.

Anywhere you can compile like tasks, and save your effort to finish those tasks until you can do them all at once, you can save time. If you pack a lunch to eat at work are you packing a lunch each night?

How long does it take to get the bread, get some lunch meat, make a sandwich, get some fruit, pack a bag of chips and put it all in a bag for the next day? What part of the process is setup and what part of the process is production? Now multiply the setup time by five days. If the setup time runs even 3 minutes per lunch that’s fifteen minutes per week spent just getting ready to make lunch!

How much more efficient could you be if you spent your three minutes setting up for lunch on Sunday night and then made five sandwiches, packed five pieces of fruit and five bags of chips? All you would have to do is grab a bag from the fridge each morning on your way out the door. If nothing else, you saved twelve minutes per week just on setup time.

Twelve minutes per week saved adds up to ten hours per year. That’s time you used to spend just preparing to make a lunch. Think about what your time is worth and then figure out what your “cost” savings is; it will surprise you.

This is a very simple example to be sure, but the idea scales to other areas of life too. You can also batch your tasks for times when you feel at your peak.

For example, I am not a writer by nature. I enjoy writing, but it doesn’t come naturally to me - I have to work at it. There are times however when I feel like I can’t stop writing. Those are my peak writing times.

When I experience a peak writing moment I take advantage of it. I keep a notebook with ideas for articles and essays and when I’m in a writing mood, I write! I cross out the ideas as I’ve executed them, and if they’re articles for my web site I schedule them in advance to appear automatically at a future date.

For this web site I will typically have three to five articles in the queue, ready for publication and usually at least one article “in process” that I keep working on until I’m happy with it.

I’m able to take advantage of my peak times, and by batching my tasks I end up getting a lot more done in less time than if I sat down every other day and forced myself to write an article. I wouldn’t necessarily be in a peak state, and I wouldn’t be using my time efficiently.

It can be tricky to get used to thinking like this if you’ve never thought in a batch-oriented mentality before. We are so used to real-time processing that it’s our default habit.

To get used to the switch, we have to think about efficiency and optimization. When faced with a task - especially a repetitive task - you have to constantly ask yourself, “How could I handle this in a more efficient manner?” Your goal should be to turn yourself into a factory - streamlining operations and steps as much as possible to achieve greater output.

* Try to setup your environment so when you tackle tasks you can do multiple steps at once and use the results at a later time (minimize input, maximize output).

* Work to recognize and mentally flag those times you notice you’re in a peak state for any given activity.

* When you feel that peak state “click” in the future, try to maximize the energy and results you can get out of it (you’ll get more done and it will likely be better quality than “normal”).

* Think in terms of long-term time savings (months or a year) and challenge yourself to find ways to save time in the long run - you’ll find something else much more enjoyable to fill that time.

* Realize that effort and output don’t have to be directly linked. It’s easy to feel some guilt when you realize that you’re getting tremendous output with less input than you’re used to. It may take a little time for you to adjust and be comfortable when your productivity goes up. We get stuck in a feeling of “I should be doing more right now” mentality and we rush to fill it with “something” - even if that “something” isn’t a great use of our time!

Once you get used to batching your tasks you’ll wonder why you didn’t start doing it sooner. When you can work on tasks in a peak mental state you’ll be amazed at how much you can get accomplished with seemingly no effort (or minimal effort) on your part.

When you learn to think and work in a batch-process mentality, the time will fly by, your production will be up, and your quality will be great. That sounds like a pretty good reason to think in a batch-oriented mindset to me!

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January 11th, 2006

Entry Filed under: Time Management, Productivity, Tools