I remember the first time I heard someone talk about batch working… I was so annoyed, LOLOL

My entire business balanced on the head of a pin. I was working so many hours face-to-face with clients that if I had any bit of free-time, the last thing I wanted to do was spend that time… working more.

So I’d veg out all day Sunday to try and recoup some semblance of energy… wake up Monday and hit the grind all over again.

But then here’s what would happen:

-I’d stay up until 1am recording a podcast that needed to go out the following morning.

-I wouldn’t post on social media at all… then was left in a panic when a client’s contract or a program was wrapping up and I had gone completely radio silent with zero new content out, no social media strategy…

-Or I would post content and it sucked ass and wasn’t helpful for my ideal clients- I was just desperate to get a post out. “Hey look at my dog, Happy Monday!” isn’t all that great, LOL.

Batch working won’t fix any systemic issues in your business like a soul-sucking business model or a horrible social media strategy- BUT.. BUT! It will buy you back your time. And that opens up a whole lotta doors for us as business owners because time, after all, is our greatest asset.

My first excuse to not batch working was that I needed to feel “in the moment!” and “fired up!” in order to create content.

–> We’ve got IG stories now to help us bridge that gap. “Back in my day” (haha FML- but this is so true) IG stories was not even a thing. And now it is! IG stories can be where you pop in to riff on something that’s currently on your mind or important to your clients but doesn’t necessarily “fit in” to your content calendar.

My second excuse was that I “had no time.”

–> I had no time *because* I wasn’t batch working. Instead of staying up all hours of the night on a Monday to get a podcast out, which left me balls-tired on Tuesday… I would spend ~4-5 hours on a Sunday recording ALL of my episodes for the month. Yes, I had to sacrifice a portion of one Sunday to do this, but then it was off of my plate for the rest of the month. Just the mental energy this cleared up was enough for me to commit to batch-working for good!

You can batch work by writing up your IG captions for the week, by writing multiple blog posts at once, recording multiple videos or podcasts at once, or writing multiple emails to your email list at once.

What you should *totally* also be doing is time-blocking. Maybe batch-working feels too daunting for you right now, I get it, trust me. Set aside a specific time each week where you will create content. This is work, let’s be real. And sometimes you won’t *feel like it.*

As my mother would say- “too bad, so sad.”

It’s literally your JOB to create content.

Maybe this looks like taking a few hours on Sunday mornings to write your blog post for the week. Then you tease that apart into 3 posts for IG for the week. Technically, this wouldn’t be batching, because you’re not really “ahead of the ball”, but you have a set schedule for when you’re doing what. Yes, you’re technically batching your IG for the week which is GREAT and can free up so much time- but at least you have a set schedule now- Sunday mornings are for content creation, which alleviates some of the stress of “omg, when is this going to get done!?”

While I’m not the best batch-worker in the world, it’s been one of the best shifts for my inside my businesses that affords me more time, sleep, and sanity back into my schedule.

Of course, it takes practice and discipline to get into the habit. But I can guarantee that the discipline it takes to get the ball rolling will be so, so worth it.

Do you batch work in your biz? Send me a DM on IG @christina_montalvo and let me know 🙂