The Simple Process of Batching

There are a gazillion things you can do everyday. Throw out the trash, buy a liter of milk in the grocery, take your 2 dogs for a walk, check your mail, iChat with your friends, watch the Final Four with your buds, go have tea time with your girlfriends, to tweeting during games, even just sitting at home and lazily typing an article to be posted on your blog!

“What the ef? Why should I need this?” Batching is VITAL to your success in Lifestyle Design. Trust me, it will save you a million minutes….or so.

From the past articles, you’ve learned how important the Stage of Elimination is. In short, you eliminate redundant tasks so you can focus on the one’s that would help you reach your goals which ultimately lets you waste your time the way you want to waste it.

So what actually is “batching tasks?” This means you have to set tasks in to a group. It’s doing the same tasks for a certain period of time without interruptions to do other tasks.

Here is an example. You check email every 10 minutes because you get lots of mail. You read each one and you decide to answer each one. Then you go back to doing what you were doing. Then 10 minutes later, you check it again and do the same things. You waste time because you keep on doing the same thing and you keep getting distracted from what you were actually SHOULD BE doing. Before you know it, the day is over and there’s no way you can get it back.

Why am dedicating a post about batching tasks? In the next stage, Creation, you will start with your online business and there is no way you can manage time without batching especially if you are juggling your time with a job.

Some Things To Keep In Mind:

1. Stop Multi Tasking

Yes, you can do it, yes you are capable and smart enough to handle it, but please stop doing it. It is more important for you to focus on something right now. Batch up your emails and read them once or twice a week for a certain period of time, like 30 minutes then get on with your life.

2. Know The Right Place To Do A Batched Task

You need to type an article for your job or website, and you batched it so you can write around 3 or so within 30 minutes. That’s great! You started typing and around halfway your first article, you phone rings. So you ignore it and you focus, then type again. Someone knocks on the door. You get bummed out and stop doing the articles and finally give in to distraction. I hate that, you will too.

3. Batch Small Tasks Together

You certainly have many small, menial tasks. What you do is write it down. When you get to a certain point of the week, spend a few minutes to do these things one by one. Do not include them in your daily routine of important stuff.

4. Stop Twittering….Or Surfing…Or Instant Messaging….Please…

You will get distracted, it’s a sure thing. What you should do is close these applications, or better yet, make sure you don’t have internet connection. Set a certain time of the day to Twitter or to Surf. Don’t do it while doing tasks.

5. Schedule Making A List….Everyday…Before You Sleep

Why? Because when you do it before you sleep, your subconscious mind will keep on working and it will help you finish the task faster when you do it or sometimes gives you a better idea on how to do it. So batch up tasks you need to do and schedule it. You can skip doing this if you already make a list of tasks for the whole week. All you need to do is review them nightly. (Be sure to read this method for Goal Setting too, they go well together)

You will be more focused, trust me. You will finished tasks faster and you will have more free time. With the free time, you might even teach people about how this method worked out for you because you just have too much free time!

Now, let me finish 5 more articles so I can leave it for auto posting. =)

It might be hard to contact me for a while so catch me on Twitter ok? (Cause I only check mail once a week)

The Art Of Batching Tasks is a post from: Lifestyle Designer

Related posts:

1. Step By Step Elimination: Towards The Next Step
2. Beginners: Experimenting With Goal Setting
3. Eliminate to Attain: An Introduction to a Better Lifestyle

Step By Step

Find a system that works for you and your lifestyle, and then apply it. At work, build a system that can replace you, the physical you, so that you can do more important (or fun) things. But always be aware of delegating tasks. Before you delegate or outsource time consuming tasks, you have to do elimination. Eliminate first those tasks that are not important. It is useless to delegate tasks that are not worth doing. You do not only waste your time, but also of others. This article will give you easy, yet necessary-to-follow steps, in doing elimination.

Know what you want. Have aspirations in life. What is the point of designing your own lifestyle if you don’t know what kind of life you want? Having a goal, whether it is to have vacation time once a month or something bigger, will be the driving force of your entire life. If you don’t know what you want in the long term, have something smaller for the moment. This will guide you later to bigger aspirations. The key is to have a destination, a point you have to reach.

If you still haven’t, please read the Definition/Recalibration Stage at http://www.yourlifestyledesigner.net/articles

Identify tasks. Once you know where you want to go, the next step will be to recognize tasks that will help you reach it. This will be easier now that you have a goal. Look at the tasks you are working on now. Most probably they are not leading you to the lifestyle you want. In every task you take on, always check if it will make you get to your aspirations faster. Know also what tasks you still have to undertake, and take action as soon as possible. Take action right this minute. Start preparing what you need in order to start on the task.

High Priority, Mid Priority, Waste. There are just three categories to put your tasks in. Tasks should go in the “high priority bin” if they are a must in achieving your aspirations, and if your goals will not be realized if these tasks are not taken. YOU will be doing these tasks. Your time should only be consumed of vacations, family, hobbies, and these high priority tasks. The rest will go to your “mid priority bin”, where you can ask someone else to do it, or pay someone to do it, and to your “waste bin”, where you throw it away and never think about it anymore. Mid priority tasks are tasks that will help you achieve the lifestyle you want (your aspirations), but are not the fundamental tasks. Even if you do not do them, you can still reach your goal. They are enhancers. They either make it easier or faster for you to reach your aspirations. They are not so important that’s why you can outsource them. Pay someone to do them or be resourceful and find someone who can do them for you without a cost. If you are not sure whether a certain task is important or not, then they also fall under this category. You put them on hold and return to them when you can. One by one you will realize which of these tasks should be done, and which should be eliminated. Lastly, the waste bin. The tasks you eliminate because they are just that—WASTES.

Eliminate to Obtain. This step will free you. Eliminate to obtain the lifestyle you desire and your aspirations. Just let it go. They do not help you, but hinder you from getting to your destination.

Remember, get rid of time wasters, stick with more focused actions and these lead to faster results, more fun times, better productivity. Understand these and the next stage, the Creation Stage, will be very easy for you. Ignore this and you will take a lot longer…trust me, I’ve been there.

Step By Step Elimination: Towards The Next Step is a post from: Lifestyle Designer

Related posts:

1. Criteria for Elimination
2. Eliminate to Attain: An Introduction to a Better Lifestyle
3. The Art Of Batching Tasks