Would like to increase the value of your time? In this article, “Productive Artist – Batching” learn how you can get more done.

Productive Artist – Batching

As your business starts to grow you will notice that there will be specific jobs that are repetitive. These tasks can become time killers if you are not careful. The good news is that there are ways that you can get more work done in less time. What happens when you can get more work done in less time? The value of your time increases. You have just received a raise.

I continuously try to find ways that I can achieve more in less time. The more productive that I can be with my day, the more time I will have to focus on different ways to make more money.

I want to share with you a technique called batching. Batching is a powerful technique that will improve your productivity while reducing stress in your life.

Every job will have repetitive tasks that need to get done. Batching is the process of dedicating a block of time for specific tasks.

To start, you will need to take a deep look into your work week. What repetitive tasks are you doing throughout the week? What tasks can you do together in a block of time?

I am going to give you an example of how I used batching for my hand painted custom sign business.

When the business was new, I would focus on one sign at a time. The number of orders I was receiving allowed me to start one sign, finish it then start on the next order.

I could do this because I was only receiving one or two orders a day. As the business began to grow and I was receiving more orders daily, I needed to find a way to get more done with the time that I had.

Instead of working on one sign at a time, I group multiple orders together. Fist I would separate the order by background colors. Once the orders were divided, I prepped and painted the base of the signs.

I would paint all of the white backgrounds together, then paint all of the black backgrounds together and so on until all of the backgrounds were completed.

Not only did this save me a ton of time but it also saved me money because I did not waste as much paint. As I kept doing this, I became quicker and more efficient. I was able to prep all of the orders for the day in very little time.

While the boards were drying, I would organize the orders for the next day and answer any emails that arrived.

When I finished organizing the next day’s orders and answering any emails, the backgrounds would be dry, and I was able to paint the sayings on the signs.

I would then group all of the same sayings with the same colors together.  Doing this made me more productive and consistent.

When all of the signs were completed, I would prepare them for shipping.

Batching my tasks was the only way that I was able to stay ahead all of the orders that were coming in. I was more productive and efficient with my time.

My commissioned graphite drawing business is entirely different. The drawings take me a lot longer to complete due to the detail. I have found that while I am drawing the details of one commissioned piece, I can spend a certain amount of time preparing and drawing the contours for a different commissioned piece.

This keeps me focused and gives me a specific amount of time for each project. I am then more productive with the time.

Another way you can use batching is with your social media marketing. Schedule all of your posts at once instead of going on each social site throughout the day. Not only will you save time by scheduling posts, but it will prevent you from scrolling through the sites when you should be doing something different. I can not tell you how many times that I have heard people say that they have wasted valuable time on Facebook.

Blogging is another job that you can apply batching. You can write all of your posts for the week or month at one sitting depending on how many posts that you write.

Schedule the posts to go out for that week or month and you will not have to go back to it until the next time that you have to write.

Action Step:

Use your creative side to come up with ways that you can use batching in your workday. Not every plan will work perfectly but if you continue to try you will find that you will be able to get more done in less time.

Did you enjoy this article? Don’t forget to sign up for my free weekly newsletter.

You can also join me on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• YouTube

Learn how to start, grow and monetize your online art business.

Art Business eBooks

Art Business Workbooks

Art Marketing Video Courses

Art Business Planners

Art Marketing Resource