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Batch Tasks Save Time

By: Krista Dicks RMT

This is the radical RMT podcast where I talk to radical massage therapists chat about the unique lifestyle we have in this profession and cover topics we care about beyond the massage table. My name is Krista Dicks. I'm a registered massage therapist with over a decade of experience. If you want an inspiring career that leads to an incredible life, stay tuned.


Krista Dicks: Hello, radical RMT friends, it's just me, Krista here the host of the podcasts you are currently listening to thank you for listening. By the way, I thought that I would try a solo episode just to mix things up a little bit. I put a lot of attention obviously, on the guests. And they've been absolutely incredible. And I just wanted to offer some more of myself as a way to get to know me and what I find super helpful in my own life and business and practice as a massage therapist. This may be one of the episodes that I am the most nervous about, because it is just me. And usually I am the one that's putting someone else in the hot seat so to speak. So let's get into it.


Today I want to talk about batching. I had no idea really where I wanted to start, but I have a lot of ideas. So I just have to really start somewhere.


So batching is something that goes on every week. And essentially, what batching is, is definitely not a concept that I came up with. So I cannot take credit for creating this concept idea system, what have you. It's a combination of entrepreneurs that I follow, that I read about that I listened to, and some that I actually know in person and have probably seen some examples of batching in their own lives as well and sort of stolen from it. But it works really well in my life, it may be great for you, it may not, you may take my version, and you may make something else of it for yourself. And if you do, I would love to hear how you how you use it, because I am definitely a nerd about systems that way.


So essentially, what batching is, is that we all have these tasks that we do each week. And they can seem really small and like they don't take up a lot of time at the moment. But actually, if you added up all of the time, like by the end of the week, then you would be doing that task for much longer than you would if you'd actually just put all of the tasks the same tasks together and just done that particular task, subject at one particular time, say for an hour or 90 minutes. So one example might be that we have a expense receipt, you get gas, then you get home, at the end of the day, you take out that receipt, you go to your computer, you open your computer, you open the spreadsheet, you input the expense, and then maybe while you're on the laptop, a notification pops up or something else just happens that you end up going on, like a big distraction rabbit hole, which I am totally guilty of. So essentially what it means is that what you can do is pull all of your receipts together as an example of what batching would be pull them all together, keep them aside and instead of inputting at the end of the day and I get it some people feel like they want to clear their third day and start fresh the next day. But I'm definitely know that does not happen. Not to me, and probably not to you some days, yes, and definitely some days no, and then that one day turns into like three five to 10 and then that you've got a bunch of mini tasks that you need to complete. So batching sort of helps with that. So if you take all of your receipts, you complete them in one particular day in time, then that actually does save you time overall and energy and you're in that flow state when you're doing it all in one go.


So basically like an email tracking is another example of this. I'll tell you how I use it in my week but give me some examples that you can relate to. So I mean, we get notifications on our phone or email system that you have a new email and you usually check it right away if you can. And you might not be in the headspace to answer that email right then but you read it, because the notification is blinking. And then what happens is sometimes we forget about that particular email, we forget to answer it, we forget what the context was about, we like if somebody asked us what that email was about after we had just read it, sometimes we might not even remember. So it's just better in the situation to read them all at one particular time of the day, or a couple times of the day, just setting that time aside, there's a lot of really successful entrepreneurs that do this. I mean, massage therapy, we kind of have that advantage that we can't check email all day, because we're with clients. But you know, just checking that email in between clients can be super distracting, breaks up your day, even just in that moment, it just takes you out of your treatment mode, then you're in the headspace of that email that you're reading. And like I said, most of the time, we forget about that email. So it's just better to, to have everything all together, you know, do it in one go. So this is how I use it in my week.


And what I've done is I take each day of the week, and I label it as the tasks that I'm going to like batch together and accomplish for that day. So it really helps with my organization, I just gives you a nice set of like control so that I know that I'm going to get to a certain task on a particular day. So if it is starting to pile up, it sort of helps with my anxiety about it that I just don't have to worry about it. I'm like, Yes, I see you. But I'm going to get to you like on Tuesday or Thursday, or whatever the task is.


So here's my week, on Mondays, I do marketing. So that was going to involve anything that has to do with marketing for my massage practice or for this podcast. So as you would know that marketing is going to involve I guess advertising, or maybe social media creation. So I try to do all of my social media posts on the Monday create them, do the captions doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes they only get a few days ahead, and I consider that a win. But I do try to complete all of the week's social media posts, schedule them, so that that they can go out and I don't have to worry about them each and every day about posting something specific. I will usually write to guests on Mondays and invite them onto the podcast. Consider that marketing. Marketing for you may look like emailing clients and potential clients maybe a potential business in the neighborhood that you can collaborate with. So any type of networking, obviously, that falls under marketing as well. So Monday is marketing Monday, the rest of them don't have like a super cool name like that. But a Tuesday, I do accounting. So you know, anything that's payable or receivable so that I just double check my income, my pay receipts, I check my invoices that I may have put out for different contracts that I have, I will just Yeah, verify the income that I've had coming in just from the week maybe I've done some home visits, combination of the clinic, just make sure that everything is accounted for. Everybody's received their receipts. And I have also been paid or I know when payment is coming. I also do all my expense receipts on these days. So this is the day that like I'll set aside an hour to 90 minutes. And it usually takes a lot less than that. Put on a podcast, put on some music and just put in the expenses that I've had for the week. I do the mileage here as well. Basically anything that has to do with money, I might put some more money into my RSP I'll check my credit card statements. All is really helpful to do on a Tuesday. So these are all just you know, you know, you have to pay your credit card bill, you don't have to just, you know, check it out. So I do that on a Tuesday and I just kind of let it go for the rest of the week. Wednesdays is a catch up day. So if I didn't complete something on the Monday or the Wednesday, then I try to catch up with it on the Wednesday, Thursdays or follow ups. So if I have heard back from potential guests, or maybe I haven't heard back from somebody yet, then I will follow up with them on the Thursday. So same thing for you. If you're looking to get in touch with a client or you haven't heard back from them then it would look like you know that the follow up on a Thursday is when I also answer emails. So I feel very guilty of obviously reading an email, but then I will just leave it until Thursday and answer it, I will not put any pressure on myself to try and answer it in the moment unless it is something that does need my attention right away. And then on Fridays, I do a combination of like just some training or some growth or personal development. And what that usually looks like is because I've signed up for a webinar, or I have a blog post to read, or I'm reading a book that's on personal growth or self-development or business. And so I'll just try to leave those until the Friday. I might have sign up for it like on the Tuesday or God knows, like how long ago. But if it's something that I feel is still relevant, then I will try to watch it, read it, whatever on the Friday. And obviously, this like doesn't work. If it's like a set course or whatever, I can't just only do it on a Friday I follow along with those particular guidelines.


But that is essentially what batching looks like, for me. So it just helps me with my week. I work during the week, of course. And then when I do have the time, which as a massage therapist is lovely. Most of us have a few hours of the day free to accomplish these tasks. And it just ties in with your routine really well.


So if you found this helpful, my first solo episode about rambling on about batching then I would love to hear from you. If you already use batching in your week, then please tell me how you do it, how it works for you because I am always curious about that. There's a way that you would tweak what I've done then I'm always curious to hear about that as well.


So that's batching guys, I hope you have an awesome day. And thanks for listening.


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