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Is your phone nearby?

If you’re in the office – chances are that your day is split up into meetings with coworkers, clients, emails, phone calls and tasks.

If you’re working from home – chances are that you have dinner cooking, you’re waiting for a call from a kid’s teacher, you have a load of laundry in, and you’re helping with homework while you read this.

Without a doubt, there are no lack of things demanding attention in our days!

But, have you ever noticed that if you just take your computer to the coffee shop to get something done, magically you’re through in half the time.

Why is that? Certainly the triple espresso played into it! But more importantly, it was the power of FOCUS.

It’s not rocket science to know that we all get more done when we can just focus on the task at hand.

So let’s talk about BATCHING.

I am a huge fan of batching. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s simply the concept of grouping like items together.

This saves time in the grand scheme of things, because every time your attention is distracted, it takes an average of 15 minutes to get your focus back on task. That is a TON of wasted time! I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have that time back, and get to have some fun with it!

To explain – if you are making phone calls, sit down and make all of the phone calls you have to make in a row. Focused. Done. You can move on without giving it another thought.

The same could be said for emails, writing blog posts, or even laundry or grocery shopping. Planning a block of time where you accomplish one type of task will do wonders for your productivity and mental energy!

This is especially true with SOCIAL MEDIA.

If you try to fit in social media for your business in little 2 minute increments here or there, 3 things happen as a result:

1. It simply takes more time.

Each time you dive into your social media posts and work, it takes time to get reoriented and remember what you are doing. Wasted time.

Also, creativity and the freedom to expand on your ideas rarely happens in 30 second increments here and there. Ideas need some focus in order to be well fleshed-out.

2. The quality of your social media posts will be dramatically reduced.

This comes from lack of focus. Think about the difference in your work when you can sit and focus for an extended time, and compare it to your work when supper’s boiling over, kids are yelling and the phone is ringing like crazy. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that a “quick 2 minute” time of work during that last scenario will not be your best.

3. You will be more frustrated.

If you have a task that you just constantly work on all day in 2 minute increments, it can quickly become the thing you LOATHE. What first began as a fun endeavor becomes a nagging pest in your life.

The solution: BATCH your Social Media.

1. Plan 1-2 blocks of time each week for content creation.

During this time, you will create the graphics or photos that you need, plan your posts for the week, write the text and actually schedule them to post. Your posts can then function on “auto-pilot” for the rest of the week.

2. Plan a block of time each day when you will engage with your audience.

Whenever it fits into your schedule, know that at that certain time each day, you will log into your social media accounts and answer questions, respond to comments, talk to people, and be present on your social media pages.

3. Plan 1 block of time per month to brainstorm larger ideas.

During this block of time, take a look at 1 to 2 months ahead. What’s going to be going on in your business? What are some promotions you could run? Think through them and how that will affect your social media posting.

Make assignments after this brainstorming session. If you need to hire a video out, make calls. If you need to get pricing on something, do it.

This block of brainstorming allows your social media to be a well thought-out faction of your business, instead of an after thought.

By allowing yourself focused blocks of time, you can start to enjoy the effectiveness and even FUN of social media to grow your business!