Welcome to DAY FOUR of the 7 Day Nurse to Writer Challenge. If you haven't listened to the prior episode, I recommend you go back and start at Episode 116.
If you haven't joined the challenge yet, here's the link to join: https://savvynursewriter.com/challenge/
Here we go into DAY 4!
Today we’re talking about not so much a time management activity, but a productivity activity. This is also one of my favorite topics because it has literally changed my life.
It’s called Batching.
Batching Work to Achieve Productivity
When I talked about managing your time, you may have noticed that you can do a lot within your day. It’s VERY easy to become distracted and multitask in this type of business.
In order to start batching, you have to first stop multitasking.
Every time you try to do something while you’re working on something else, you now have made your brain change. You have to now focus on something different, which is mentally draining.
Did you know that multitaskers experience a 40% drop in productivity, take 50% longer to accomplish a task, and commit up to 50% more errors (thanks, Neil for that statistic).
How I use batching for writing assignments
I use batching in all areas of my business, such as:
- Pitching
- Podcasting
- Social Media
- Email creation
- Writing assignments
When I sit down to write blog posts or even assigned work for a client, I prioritize.
For example, when I write up challenges, like this one, I don’t ever do it from beginning to end.
I start with a prioritizing system. When I have multiple assignments from clients, I break them up into different “batches”:
- Research
- Outline
- Draft
- Finalize
- Format
I use my tool called Clickup to take the articles through the process. ClickUp lets you move the “card” through the stages (research, outline, draft, finalize, and format).
For my ideal work week, I will do a day of batching for research for all the articles I am writing. Then, I will do a day of outlining, etc.
When I get to the most challenging phase, for me, drafting, I don’t do all the writing for every article that day. It can be too draining. That’s why there’s always another day. That’s also why you want to protect those hours of power and protect your time to grow your business.
Today, I want you to make your list of things yo