Ever heard of time batching? This productivity hack can help you work more efficiently — which leaves time for more fun after the work is done. Do you remember that Saved by the Bell episode where Jessie Spano rants, “There’s no time! There’s no time! There’s never any time!” Even if you haven’t seen the episode, I’m sure you know a lot of people like that – or perhaps it’s even you. I used to be a slave to time. I was always too busy to make time for a lot of things that were important to me. I was chronically late and time was always the excuse for everything. But it all changed when I learned one simple trick: by batching my time, I can maximise my productivity. Time batching is a simple time-management productivity hack that allows you to take advantage of your full concentration by grouping a bunch of similar activities together and doing them all at the same time.

Why use time-batching?

Streamlining your efforts in this way has three main benefits:

1. It reduces your start-up and slow-down time. The time it takes for you to shift gears — whether it’s opening your inbox or running to a coffee meeting — might not seem like much, but it adds up over time. Even worse is the mental delay it takes to switch from doing one type of task to another.
2. It reduces your daily clutter. Instead of taking five different days to work on a short project, you have one. Instead of having several scans of your inbox each day, you have one. It just simplifies everything.
3. It improves your focus. As you work longer on a task, you can begin to enter “flow.” Flow is the state of mind where work becomes easy and distractions melt away. Successful batching is like meditation for your work.