Are You Batch Processing Your Outsourced Work?

Over the past couple years I’ve been very privileged to participate in Yaro Starak’s coaching programs and learn from his teachings. Recently I’ve been listening to his audio Mindset series in the car quite a number of times, not because I don’t have anything to listen to, it’s because I want to. What I have noticed every time I listen to this series is a new idea will come to mind and it keeps me grounded in how I should be approaching my Internet business.

A specific topic Yaro talked about is batch processing and it’s an important system for any Internet business. This topic wasn’t directed to outsourcing, though I wanted to share with you how relevant it can be.

What is Batch Processing?

Let’s take a look at an example in relation to emails. Emails are probably one of the biggest distractions in modern society (sorry guys, in my opinion it is), though they are necessary because it is considered a main form of communication between a client and a business. Now you can have the option of checking your email every hour of the day and replying to people answering their questions or you can batch process them at most once a day or twice a week (ultimately this is what you should strive to achieve). What batch processing does is it allows you to process all your tasks at one time rather than processing them as they come.

Rather than answer an email straight away, which takes 5 minutes to complete and interrupt your current task, you can process all your emails once at the end of the day, that allows you to have a focused effort. So you get the emails replied to in 30 minutes compared to the 50 minutes it would have taken you if spread these over the day.

In my Dragonboat business I let customers know that I personally check my email twice a week on Tuesday or Thursday and if the matter is urgent, they need to send the request to my support team who checks the ticket system twice a day on my behalf.

What Are Tasks You Can Batch Process To Be More Productive?

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Taking A Break Helps Grow The Business

After taking a break for a week down the coast I am back and revived and ready to take lots of action! I was away from my computer and had no Internet access, which felt great. I find that just taking a week off with no distractions of emails, client issues and other business related tasks allows me to just sit back and reflect on life. So you might be wondering what did I do for a week? Let me share with you some highlights of my week away.

A Relaxing Trip Down To The South Coast

My partner and I drove 2 hours south into a small town called Gerringong. It was a quaint little town that had a population of around 4,000 people and the neighboring town of Gerroa had about 500 people. (The reason why I knew this, was I could remember a sign that said “Welcome to Gerroa. Population: 500 people”)

I think we were also the only Asian couple in town, so we really stood out when we walked down the street to buy food. From experience I love coming to these quiet towns because the pace of life is much slower and it allows me to wind back. We made sure that we also visited different places and checked out the lovely scenery.

For the first day when we drove down the coast we stopped over at the following places: Fitzroy Falls, Kangaroo Valley and Berry. Overall the whole journey took around 4 hours before we arrived at Gerringong. We took some amazing photos and amongst the cold it was well worth the time to stop over.

The beautiful Fitzroy Falls

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Top 10 Tips To Increase Your Blogging Productivity

I have been working from home for just over three months now, in the beginning I found it hard to focus and my productivity dropped, especially in the summer months when the sun was shining and beckoning me to go out. Today I’m going to share a few tips that I have put in to practise…

1. Write down special goals – If you work from home, you have to do this – There are just too many distractions and no boss watching over your back every minute of the day. On my table I have a small card that I write down 2 mission critical tasks for the day. That way I focus on the most important tasks and outsource the rest.
2. Wake up at the same time everyday – Set a time to get up each day and stick to it. I get up at 7.30am to exercise, then have my breakfast and start work around 10am. I stick to 4 hours of work a day.
3. Turn off phone and instant email notifications – Having constant interrupts makes it harder to stay focus. I make sure there are no interruptions when I am writing a blog post because my readers want the best from me. Don’t you?
4. Exercise – I find doing exercise in the morning gives me so much more energy and motivation for the day, if you don’t regularly do exercise, try it for one week and see how you feel. Your mind will be clearer for the day and you might shed a few kilos along the way!
5. Tidy office – Keep your office clean by filing away piles of paper. If you have notes written down, transfer them to your computer and put a reminder to complete them. That way you will have less clutter and paper lying around.
6. Music – Not for everyone but I find music really helps me work during the day. Put something light and soothing on in the background.
7. Daily schedule – Even though you are working from home and don’t have to follow the usual office rules, try and set out a daily plan for yourself – start at the same time, have lunch at a set time etc – I find it helps to have a daily routine.
8. Just do it – If you are like me you have certain jobs that you try and put off because they’re dull or take ages, make sure it gets done first thing in the morning when you are fresh and motivated.
9. Outsource – Even though you can do a job doesn’t always mean you should do it – why not outsource that boring coding job which will leave you free to concentrate on more important jobs or jobs that you enjoy doing more.
10. Close your door – If there are distractions at home, like people calling round or noisy kids, make it a rule to not be disturbed when your door is shut.

All of these are pretty obvious things to do but if you don’t do any of them, give it a go and see if your productivity improves.

Tyrone Shum
Increasing Blogging Productivity