The question I am asked most often in my practice is, “How do you manage 45 clients?” The answer is a really easy one for me to answer: I batch my work.

In Tim Ferriss’ book, “The 4-Hour Work Week“, he actually talks about this very work tactic. I’ve been doing this for ages so when I picked up his book, it was nice to have that affirmation that what I was doing worked for others too.

Here’s the lowdown - each day when you set out to do your work, don’t get frenzied and spastic. Don’t do work for client A, then client D, then client B, then client A, etc. Instead, look at your to-do lists and work your way through them, one client at a time.

Now, if I have important deadlines, I certainly take care of those first but once that is done, I work my way through, batching one client at a time.

Why does this work so well? If you think about it, we’re bouncing from one company to another all day. It’s exhausting if you don’t do it systematically. By batching your work, you can think about one client at one time and not get overwhelmed by everything you need to do. Overwhelm = work paralysis. I’ll talk about work paralysis at another time.

So, try it. See if it works well for you. Batch your work and stay focused on one client until you feel you’ve accomplished enough to move on to the next. Let me know if it works for you!

Original article posted here: http://thevacoach.com/blog/2007/10/1...tch-your-work/

I was really trying to figure how I would cope with 10 active clients when I get started and still manage to home school the little one. But Batching sounds practical and less frenetic


Big thanks

I've been doing similar for many years. I work with lists of actions which are written in my diary and I use it - amazing how many people don't use their diaries. Great thing is about this is it means I can look over my diary in past days, weeks and months and confirm that certain actions took place, or were shifted to another day if not completed. And in looking at the page at the end of the day I can feel satisfied that I did achieve a great deal, even if it feels like I didn't some days. The lists are set up similar to Erin's description.

Prior to starting my business I was working for the Dept of Defence (late 80s/early 90s) and I did a Time Management course - they encouraged us to use To Do Lists which I carried over into a diary once I started working for myself in 1994. Been doing it ever since.

Thanks for sharing about 'batching' Erin - it is good to get that confirmation.

I agree batching is a great idea. I actually schedule blocks of time in my calendar to work on each client. For instance, 9-10AM Client A, 10:15 break to check emails, drink water, return phone calls, whatever. 10:30 - 11:30AM Client B, 11:45 break and on and on. If one client needs more than an hour I can easily move around the blocks of time. If need be I can move a client block to the next day. I fill up the beginning of the week heavy with client work and try to leave Thursdays and Fridays less busy... this gives me wiggle room and allows for any last minute projects that come up. I also take time in the mornings to review my to do list and prioritize which client work to do first. Thanks for posting your article Erin, it's a great reminder to start off the new year organized.

Thanks for posting this Erin! What I do is under each client name, I list the projects that need to be done. Then I prioritize and enter them in to whichever day or hour of the week that the project needs to be in. Normally, there are always open time chunks during each day that I use to schedule prospect calls or those last minute projects that pop in every once in a while! I used to want to get everything done at once and that definitely doesn't work with a large client load! All my clients know that projects get turned around within 24 to 48 hours if routine, otherwise we always schedule in a due date in advance.

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

I agree that batching your work is an effective strategy. On top of being more efficient, it helps me to see my progress better as I am able to check off the entire client, not just small tasks- and that is a huge motivator for me.

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Rosanna Tussey
OfficeSupportNow.com
The Virtual Assistant Connection - A blog for VAs

Hi Erin,

Thanks for the great information on batching your work. This is a great way for the newbie to start off their business. I also just bought the book to read.

All the best,

How about batching by client AND task type?

• Check emails (for every client)
• Input Bills to Pay (for every client) etc

I know it doesn't work for everything, but some of the day-to-day "busy" stuff seems like it might be easier to handle this way

Very interesting thread. I haven't had have many clients "yet" but I'm sure one day I'll have enough where I can put "batch your work" in effect! I'm glad to have read this thread. Thanks for sharing!

An interesting article...and thank goodness I'm doing something right! I've *only* got 3 clients at the moment and that's exactly what I do - look at the lists of tasks for each one and prioritise and see how long it will take, that's how I decide how to order them.

Also, like Kathie, I'm a great believer in To-Do lists - every evening before I switch off the computer I go through and make a list of everything I need to get done the next day - believe me it stops that panicky feeling at 4am of "OMG, I'll need to remember to do XYZ"!!!