126: The Simple Scheduling Hack I Use to Save Time and Energy

The simple scheduling hack I use to save time and energy

What’s your favorite productivity hack?

If you’re a Type A, ambitious, overachieving perfectionist like me, you probably have a few tricks up your sleeve.

I know you’re super busy, with a massive to-do list, and even bigger career goals.

And I’m here to help take your productivity to the next level so you can achieve your goals even when life gets busy.

I’ll walk you through the difference between being busy– feeling like you’re constantly playing catch up without making any real progress, - and being productive– where you’re actually getting stuff done and moving closer to that dream career you’ve worked so hard for.

Keep reading to learn one of my productivity superpowers– batching– so you can schedule your days with full confidence that you’ll get it all done. Okay let’s dive in

My PRODUCTIVE days versus my BUSY days

A while back, I took a business coaching program where my mentor asked us to track everything we do for a week– we basically did a productivity audit.

Now this was a super interesting exercise, and I highly encourage you to give it a try. I’ll tell you why.

I found out the most surprising thing: my most productive days and my least productive days fell into a very specific pattern.

My least productive days turned out to be the days I felt the busiest. So let’s call my least productive days my busy days.

I still had a plan on these days– you know how much I love planning out my schedule the night before– but things kept happening and all of a sudden, my plan would go out the window.

And after feeling incredibly busy and stretched thin all day, I hadn’t actually made any real progress! I was tired, stressed, and cranky by the end of the day, with absolutely no clue where my time and energy had gone.

I was constantly interrupted at work, with distractions left and right!

From my colleague asking me questions, to calls, texts, and email alerts…
I even found myself aimlessly scrolling through social media!
So not only was I constantly getting interrupted while I was trying to work, I was also multitasking to try and get stuff done, and jumping from task to task every 10 minutes.
At the end of the day, I had checked nothing off my to-do list, and I had zero energy left in the tank.

Now let’s take a look at my most productive days.

On these days, I got the most tasks checked off my to-do list, made a ton of progress towards my goals AND still had energy left by the end of the day! So what was different?

On my productive days, I

worked on one task at a time,
with dedicated chunks of work time and
few interruptions or distractions in between.

Don’t get me wrong– I still took breaks. By now, you’ve all heard me get up on my soapbox about how important it is to take breaks to give your brain some rest.

But while I was working, I turned my phone on “do not disturb”, I was focused on the task at hand, and I found myself crossing things off my to-do list one after the other.

And the best part? I would come home with plenty of energy left in the tank to keep up with my 5 year old. You bet I was productive!

Why distractions hurt your productivity

If only we could make every day a productive one… My thoughts exactly! Good thing I’ve got ya covered.

Let’s start by looking at what we’re actually doing on our busy days.

Chances are, you’re multitasking– which our brains are not good at doing!

You might think you’re being more productive or saving more time by working on that project while you’re talking to your client over the phone, the whole “two birds one stone” thing. But it just doesn’t work that way.

Multitasking, or task switching, drains your time and energy.

When your brain’s resources are spent trying to focus on multiple different tasks at the same time, your efficiency and productivity go down and you might even notice that you’re prone to making more mistakes.

Distractions aren’t the only problem when it comes to productivity.

Switching between tasks all day, like going from answering your emails to writing client reports, then vice versa, burns your energy fast.

Your brain uses energy to shift its focus from one task to the next, then to shift right back again.

Do you ever notice it takes a while to get back into the flow after you’re distracted by something? Almost like there’s an extra buffering zone between tasks where your brain takes time and energy to focus and get re-focused!

A neuroscience-based productivity hack to boost efficiency

One neuroscience-based productivity hack that’ll help you schedule your time, boost efficiency, and get the most out of your day is called batching.

Batching works by scheduling similar tasks together, instead of jumping between tasks all day.

It takes advantage of how your brain naturally focuses by grouping similar activities together and blocking time for certain types of tasks.

Let’s say your schedule for today consists of answering emails, doing some paperwork, and meeting with some clients.

Instead of answering your emails in between your client meetings, then squeezing in some paperwork whenever you get a second to sit down, let’s apply the batching technique to make it easier for your brain to get through the tasks and get them off your list.

With batching, you would

schedule all of your client meetings together– let’s say you blocked the first part of your morning off to get all your meetings done.
Then you’d take all of your admin and paperwork tasks and block time for those after lunch.
And at the end of the day, you give yourself 1 hour to check and answer all of your emails before finishing up for the day.
This way, all the tasks that are similar are grouped accordingly in your schedule while you move through them seamlessly without switching back and forth, getting distracted, or losing motivation.

As a bonus– batching works for everything. If you’ve got a packed schedule on the weekend, you can totally use the same strategy! Group all the housekeeping stuff together, then the errands you need to run, and so on.

This productivity hack works by saving our brains the time, energy, and focus it takes to switch back and forth between different tasks. It boosts productivity by increasing our efficiency and momentum as we get in the groove and finally finish the tasks we’ve grouped together. And as we move through the tasks and get them done, our motivation continues to increase and we build confidence to take on what’s needed to reach our goals.

Your challenge this week

Here’s how to start scheduling your time and energy like a pro with batching.

Pull out your schedule and see where you can save the most time and energy by grouping similar work together.

Maybe start dedicating one morning a week for all your meetings, or dedicate time once or twice a day to check your emails.

Feel free to color code your batched tasks! You know your schedule best– practice taking advantage of your brain’s mental resources by batching to power up your productivity.

Episode bonus resources

This episode is brought to you by my free workbook - Your Daily Productivity Checklist. Ever wished you had more time in your day? This free workbook will walk you through the steps I use to set up my day to maximize productivity so you can get more done in your day (without feeling totally overwhelmed or staying up all night to squeeze it all in!) Click here to download your copy.

Key takeaways

If you were looking for a sign to level up your productivity, this is it! Turn any busy day into a productive one by making small shifts in your schedule to group similar tasks together and save your brain some time and energy. The next time you’re tempted to multitask, try batching instead. I guarantee you’ll feel way more productive and get more done.

Show Highlights

[01:56] - Give a productivity audit a try.

[03:05] - Not only was I getting distracted, I was trying to multitask on my busy days.

[03:37] - On productive days, I worked on one task at a time.

[04:23] - Look at what you’re doing on your busy days. You’re likely multitasking.

[05:10] - Switching between tasks takes a lot of energy.

[05:47] - Batching works by grouping similar activities together and blocking time.

[06:58] - Batching works for everything!

[07:42] - Listen to how to get started batching.

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