Comments on: How Batch Processing Made Me 10 Times More Productive

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:02:47 +0000

Darren, awesome post. Interestingly, I just sort of discovered batching myself this week. I run a food/cooking blog and am always scurrying getting things cooked/baked with reasonable frequency. Last week I decided to put together monthly calendars (with flexibility, of course) for blogging topics, and this week began doing all of my in-kitchen work in one day (Monday) then spending the next day writing and processing photos. SO much better!! I am looking forward to implementing the rest of your ideas regarding email, IM, RSS, etc.

By: Norm

Norm — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:23:21 +0000

This is a wonderful post. It solidified something I heard some time ago. That is, that it is indeed better to work in sections of time doing one thing at a time. I’m hearing it again. I gather I am learning something here. Batch processing is very cool especially the technique of doing a whole week of posts at one sitting and off line.
Thanks

By: cheriebombe

cheriebombe — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:44:19 +0000

Nice post. I’m one of the ‘impulsive types’ you mention.

I’ve struggled with time management, but I’ve recently developed an unorthodox way of dealing with it. Thought it might be interesting to share how I deal with it:

I’m most productive attending to what I want, when I want, but sometimes it all gets a bit much and I can’t turn the anxiety off long enough to figure out what to do next.

Solution?

1. To-do lists. Very important.
Sometimes if I’m really bogged down I’ll need to write an all-encompassing one to begin with.
I find that once everything’s down on paper, it’s as if I’m allowed to relax because I don’t have to bother keeping all those reminders in my head any more.

Once that’s done and I’m a little more chilled out, it’s time to refine it into a short-term list – comprising only things I’m realistically likely to do in the next day or two. (Need to be honest with yourself for this one)

2. Each item on the list gets jotted down in great big black marker on a small piece of paper (single words will do).

3. Each bit of paper gets blu-tacked evenly around my home office.

4. I swivel out into the middle of the room, clear space around myself, close my eyes and swivel til I don’t know where I’m facing (and can’t fix the results).

The first note I see when I open my eyes is what I fixate on until I feel I’ve progressed significantly with it and it’s time to get back into the middle of the room and take another spin.

(NB. Not so good to do straight after lunch)

Yeah, ok, I’ve been called weird before. But I’m more productive than I’ve ever been and it feels great, so there :P

By: Make Money Online

Make Money Online — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:18:46 +0000

This is something which will cover very handy for blogger. I surely need to try this and see how I can be more organised and save time too.

By: Tari

Tari — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:42:42 +0000

What a great posting. I think ‘batch processing’ will be the in-thing
as it will help us who have less time to devote to our sites.

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:36:45 +0000

You’re showing your age calling this post batch processing – at least if you’re thinking of the same batch processing I am. :-)

Thanks for sharing with us how you manage all the details involved in being a problogger. I wonder how many realize how much knowledge is involved and how many different tasks there are to get done?

Recently I’ve been focusing on commenting in other blogs. Since I subscribe to comments for each post my inbox is overflowing. I’d love to have an application that automatically deletes them when I visit that blog post again.

By: Kapil

Kapil — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:00:51 +0000

Great post. I figured out that I was intended to do this from long time, but my impulse, as that of yours, stopped me, but now you reminded me. Thank you.

By: Jennifer Valerie

Jennifer Valerie — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:15:44 +0000

This post was very helpful. I have several blogs that I work on as well as homeschooling, ministry and other stuff. When I took a break in Dec I wrote batches of posts and had them scheduled and the blogs went on while I was away from them. So I’ve done it before but I need to make it a routine. Thanks for this and for heartofwisdom for tweeting about it.

By: Air Pistols

Air Pistols — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:46:25 +0000

What a great read Darren. My time is spent wasted on doing the most mundane things most days, I wish I could just keep on track and actually stick to a program of batch processing.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:15:49 +0000

In the early days of the big computers we used data cards. Each card had data or commands and the bunch of cards would all be submitted to the computer thru a card reader into the system. This was called “Batch Processing”.

By: Mike Gillis

Mike Gillis — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:49:54 +0000

Hi Darren, Great article on becoming more productive. I just posted a related article on how to get more done in your online business and have added a link to your article.

By: Mozi Esme's Mommy

Mozi Esme's Mommy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:08:48 +0000

I LOVE this post! As a mom of a 15-mo-old who works full-time at home, I really need to spend more focused (i.e. condensed) time on blogging activities. I will definitely try some of these ideas.

By: Silla

Silla — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:26:46 +0000

I have the same problem – too much to do and too little time to do it in, and then I go and get distracted too!

I have 1440 unread emails (not all recent of course) because I don’t always have time to read them immediately, and then I forget about them. And I have over 2500 unread feed posts in my feed reader! Plus I’m trying to start my new blogs and write posts, improve, and earn money from the one that’s already up and running, and I just don’t have enough time!

I must really set up some filters in my email program, clean up my desktop, and set a schedule for everything. I work best when everything has a set time, and that has just not been happening lately.

So thanks for the tips! :)

By: Reginald

Reginald — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:50:49 +0000

Ep@sloppypotatoes.com,

I think a little efficient use of time management, in your case, could make a significant difference.

By: p74

p74 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:17:43 +0000

Isn’t this just what people used to call concentrating on one thing at a time? Something I am not very good at admittedly. I guess the computer metaphor works for some people as a way of getting their heads around what’s involved. A friend of mine who turns her email off until lunchtime finds she gets loads done that way.

By: ep@sloppypotatoes.com

ep@sloppypotatoes.com — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:00:05 +0000

I stumbled across this site from a Digged post and have read many helpful articles. This one is definitely near the top.
I’m only a blogger in my spare time and an overworked journalist the rest of the time so I find it difficult to post every day (sorry, I know). A little batch processing-type structure could be a big help for me.
ep

By: Jo-Lynne (Musings of a Housewife)

Jo-Lynne (Musings of a Housewife) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:35:49 +0000

This post was SO incredibly helpful, as was your organizing the gmail filters post. I could relate to so much of what you said – especially about being naturally impulsive and thinking I worked best that way, until it all got to be too much.

I’m by no means in your league, but with a blog design business and four blogs of my own, plus writing for another, I find that I spend the majority of my day on the computer, flitting from one activity to the next.

Thanks for this helpful advice, and also for providing me with a great topic to blog about! I’ll be posting my own version of how I got to be more efficient later this week, referencing your posts, of course!

By: Phreaked

Phreaked — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:22:12 +0000

I feel like I try to batch process but then sometimes work against it b/c I want to feel like I have my choose my own adventure book.

A bad example would be the fact that I used to try to cook large portions of food and save the leftovers so I could eat quicker (I live by myself so it’s not as if I keep a lot in the fridge anyhow). BUT I would hardly ever eat the leftovers because I didn’t like knowing exactly what I was going to eat for the next two days. And thus they would spoil.

At the same time I wrote three blogs yesterday and posted them all. And two days from now I’ll probably be beating myself up for not posting more today, although I could have just posted one a day instead. That impulsiveness in me, dies hard.

By: Carla Alvarez

Carla Alvarez — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:06:59 +0000

When I was in real estate, my coach had me line out a schedule for a week and define what a “perfect day” looks like.

It helps determine how much time you actually have and what can be accomplished. When I am consistent about sticking to my schedule and realistic about the time it takes to do tasks, I frequently “find” time when something goes a little more quickly than expected.

It’s a great feeling to have rather than always trying to play catch-up.

Your ideal schedule break down also depends on your personality type. Some people like to switch between multiple tasks.

I like to do it until it’s done, which can be a problem for those “overwhelming A’s.” I have to force myself to break down a big project into more realistic chunks.

By: Mr. Javo

Mr. Javo — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:50:02 +0000

I agree with you Darren, everything works better if you organize your schedule to do all those activities which blogging requires. I also order my activities by priority, but sometimes I’m too busy with the university and I need to skip some of them, like social networking which take you a significant time.