Work Smarter, Not Harder—How To Use Time Batching At Home

‘Tis the season to be busy, fa-lala-lala-lala-la-la! Happy December, everyone – I hope you’re hanging in there. Everyone I know is the busiest they’ve ever been this season, so the number one present I’d like to wrap up and put under the tree for you is the gift of TIME. So this blog post in meant to be just that, because we’re talking about time batching.

What is Time Batching?

Time batching is the number one thing I do to increase my efficiency and save time, both at the workplace and at home. Time batching is the act of combining similar tasks and completing them all at the same time. It means that you sometimes save your work for a later time, but once you do it, you are focused and can get into a good flow.

Advantages of Time Batching

Improves Focus

Completing like-work all at once is advantageous because it reduces multi-tasking and context-switching, which kills your focus… and thus productivity. Your ability to focus on your work will directly correlate to the time it takes to complete and the quality with which its done. Focus is gold. Maximize it by batching your time.

Reduces Stress

I have also found that time batching significantly reduces my stress and anxiety because it encourages compartmentalizing. If I remember something that needs to be done that falls into a batched category, I just write it down as a sub-task of that category, and then I can let myself forget about it and move on. This habit can really lighten the mental load.

Promotes Efficiency

For all my fellow Type-A’s out there, consider this: Are you letting perfectionism get in the way of efficiency? A perfectionist mindset focuses on getting tasks done promptly, spaces being clean, and to-do lists being done in the short-term. An efficiency mindset focuses on maximizing value: by strategically deferring some things and letting certain work pile up, you can make time for the things that will bring you more joy in the long-term.

Time batching serves an efficiency mindset rather than a perfectionist one. You want to let piles form around your house. You want to procrastinate certain tasks. Because you know that those piles and tasks are not as urgent or valuable as the other things you could be spending your time on! Time batching is the ultimate way to work smarter, not harder.

How To Use Time Batching

At Home

Here are some ideas for how you can time batch your work at home:

Pick one grocery store and get everything there. If you like specialties at multiple different places, consider rotating which week you go to which store.
Meal prep: Chop all of your ingredients on one day of the week. Or even go so far as to make all of your meals on one day of the week!
Let your dishes pile up throughout the day and then clean them or load them into the dishwasher all at once.
Put things that need to go upstairs or downstairs in a pile or in a house purse, then move them all at once.
Pick one day of the week to run errands, and get everything you need that day while you’re out.
Have a laundry day.
Go through mail, papers, and bills once a week.
Open packages once a week.
Have a “restock day” every once in awhile where you go around the house refilling soap dispensers, restocking toilet paper, restocking tissues, ensuring you have proper back-stock, etc.
Wrap your Christmas presents all at the same time.

With Kids

And if you have kids, here are some ideas for how to time batch your work as a parent:

While preparing a meal or setting the table, grab by type of item rather than by person (ex. all of the plates, then all of the waters, then all of the bibs, etc.).
While leaving the house, gather items by type rather than by person (ex. everyone’s hats, then everyone’s sunglasses, then everyone’s drinks, etc.).
- The exception to this is with dressing kids—for this I’d recommend flipping the approach since your bigger battle is a wiggly child. So dress by person rather than by item type.
Bath time: Bathe all the small children at the same time. (I know this is a pretty standard approach, but it is nonetheless a great example of time batching!)
For bedtime, make the tasks similar by moving all of them to the smallest area possible:
- For babies, use the changing table: move any medicine, lotion, clothing, etc. to the changing table and do it all in one place.
- For toddlers, use the bathroom: bring the pajamas, pull-up, medicine, etc. to the bathroom and close the door… this way they can’t run away as easily. 😉

Here’s to hoping you can use one of these to find a little bit of extra time as this year comes to a close!