Batching and How It Can Make You Insanely More Productive

Mar 2018

Learning about how condoms are made via a process called batching will teach you how to be insanely more productive. I promise!

Yup, that’s right, I said it!

“This dude is out of his mind!” you are saying to yourself. “What the hell does understanding how rubbers are made via batching have to do with me getting more stuff done?”

A lot…let me explain.

But first, do you often find yourself saying these types of things:

“There is not enough time in the day to do all the stuff I need to do!”

“I constantly find myself jumping from one task to another”

“I find myself busy all day, but when I look at my to-do list at night I realize I haven’t got much done”

“Sometimes I feel like I am always running around like a chicken with my head cut off”

If you do, read on.

If you don’t, read on anyway because you probably know someone who does.

Ok, back to condoms…

There are a bunch of steps to making a condom – from extracting the latex out of rubber trees, to treating the latex with chemicals, to dipping glass molds into the liquid latex to give it its shape, to washing/drying and covering it in talc to remove any stickiness (how ironic, right?), to a multitude of testing processes blah blah blah.

I’ll spare you any more details, but you get the point. There are a lot of things that happen from the rubber tree until that when that bad boy goes on your ol’ wiener, or on your partner’s ol’ wiener, or on your favorite pornstar’s ol’ wiener (…or not).

Now imagine how long it would take if each of the 9 billion condoms used each year were manufactured one at a time – yup, a long time!

Hence, they are done in batches, meaning that at each step of the process, not one but thousands or tens of thousands are processed at the same time, then they all move on to the next step. In manufacturing, this is called batch processing.

You can do the same thing with your own tasks. Instead of jumping from task to task (aka multitasking), the idea is to group similar tasks together, get them done, then move on to the next set of similar tasks.

The rationale is that:

Bouncing from different task to different task means you need to get re-focused into what you are doing, which takes time.

There may be a setup and shut down process for various tasks that if repeated, waste time. For example, cooking (getting things out, setting up pots and pans, mixing, cleaning up etc.)

In an article for the Harvard Business Review on multi-tasking, Peter Bregman notes that “Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we’re getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don’t actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.”

Let’s look at my imaginary friend Suzie’s To-Do list and see how she can use batching things to help her save time and increase her productivity.

Suzie’s To-Do List – prior to batching

(1) Pick up groceries
(2) Email Mom
(3) Go to dry cleaners
(4) Clean bathroom
(5) Call Mary
(6) Handle work email
(7) Drop-off package at UPS
(8) Respond to emails from John
(9) Cook dinner
(10) Clean kitchen
(11) Wash dishes
(12) Go to Target
(13) Respond to voice messages
(14) Vacuum

Suzie’s To-Do List – after batching

The idea here is for Suzie to group similar items together and do them at once. Let’s take a look at her to-do list and see if we can re-arrange it into batches:

Batch #1: Errands

Pick up groceries, go to dry cleaners, drop-off package at UPS, go to Target

Batch #2: Email

Email Mom, handle work email, respond to emails from John

Batch #3: Cleaning

Clean bathroom, clean kitchen, vacuum

Batch #4: Calls

Call Mary, respond to voice messages

Batch #5: Wash dishes

Rinse off, load dishwasher, run it when it is full

Batch #6: Cook dinner

Instead of cooking dinner every night, meal prep on Sunday and put food in Tupperware

Some Ideas of Things You Can Batch in Your Life

Email
Cooking – meal prep
Errands
Calls
Reading
Paying bills
Studying/taking classes
Meetings
Running the dishwasher
Social media
Cleaning the house

Use it Or Lose It

How to Batch:

Figure out what you need to do – create your To-Do list (Use 80-20 rule or the Eisenhower or Personal Kanban to prioritize)

Group similar things together

Figure out how long each group of tasks will take and then schedule time

Eliminate distractions and get focused

Execute

Cross the item(s) off your list and move to the next item

When to Use Batching in Your Life

When you find yourself jumping from task to task and not ever making headway on your to-do list

What Do You Think?

How have you used batching in your life? Are there any other good examples you can think of?

So, when it comes to getting more stuff done…Stop bitching and start batching!

Thanks for reading, batch on, practice safe sex, and until next time remember…PYMFP!
–Rick

P.S. If you haven’t already done so, sign up to receive our Weekly Blog Posts Summary in your inbox by clicking here.

If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it via any of the platforms below!

Sources

http://www.mtlc-latex.com/manu.htm
https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski.html