Batching content creation is the best way to produce more content. When you cook and photograph for your food blog, efficiency is key to creating more valuable blog posts.

Are you making three very different recipes every time you do a photo shoot? Or worse, doing one photo shoot at a time?

You’ve got to try batching. It is — hands down — the #1 time management hack that has made me a more productive food blogger. When you do like tasks together, it keeps your brain on task and you just get more done. And, it’s less time-consuming.

What is Batching?

Batching — also known as time batching, task batching, batch working, batch processing or time blocking — is the act of working on one specific type of task at a time until it’s complete or you’ve reached a designated stopping place.

Batching simply is a way of managing your time for any number of tasks, creating a system for them and being 40% more effective doing so because you aren’t multitasking.

Everyone knows multitasking is extremely ineffective, but as small business owners and CEOs, it’s so easy to fall into because there are always so many things to do.

Why Multi-Tasking Doesn’t Work

It’s almost counter-cultural to think of doing just one task at a time. But you’ve likely heard before that multitasking is completely unproductive. It’s all in the science.

When you are working on something, your brain is laser-focused on that task and there simply isn’t a lot of extra energy for other tasks — unless those tasks are automatic like breathing, humming or chewing gum.

And when multitasking, you lose some more of that power by switching tasks. We will use up a lot of our brain’s resources on the process of switching, instead of the tasks themselves. Not helpful.

…brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40 percent of someone’s productive time.

American Psychological Association

Finding Your Flow State

If multitasking is so unproductive (and yet completely normal in our society), then what does the opposite look like? What does being in a state of ultra-productivity look like?

Well, it’s called being in a flow state. You might refer to it as “getting into a groove.” It’s that feeling you get when you are really focused and getting a lot done.

How to Time Batch

I’ve talked about time batching before, but this wouldn’t be a list of time management hacks without it. When you batch together similar tasks, it’s easier to get into a flow state. You can also get a lot of related tasks done at once.

Think of it like meal prepping. You’ve got all your veggies chopped at once, ready to go into all your lunch salads and dinner recipes this week.

For example, a typical assembly process for one single blog post might look like this: 

• 30 minutes editing photos
• 30 minutes of SEO research 
• 1.5 hours writing the post 
• 1 hour formatting the post 
• 30 minutes scheduling social media 

That’s about 4 hours of work! And if you repeat that process for four posts per week, starting from the beginning each time, you’d spend 16 hours on all four. And I’m willing to bet that your brain is quite tired by the end of each one. 

 But what if you did this instead, not for one blog post, but for all four at a time? 

• 1 hour editing photos for 4 posts (15 mins each) 
• 2 hours doing SEO research and writing outlines for 4 posts (30 min each) 
• 4 hours writing the posts you outlined (1 hour each) 
• 2 hours formatting the posts and scheduling (30 mins each) 
• 30 minutes scheduling social for all 4 posts 

Altogether, that’s nearly 10 hours of work but, broken down, each of the four posts would take about 2.5 hours. That’s an hour and a half back per post! And more than half your time back.

In the first example you are having to multitask a lot during a short amount of time, times four. Every time you get into a flow state, you’re probably close to done with the task and then it’s time to start another task. 

Blogging Tasks to Time Block

Doing a few posts by batch working is like an efficient assembly line. You can focus on doing one type of task at a time, without having to get out of your flow state as frequently. It also cuts down time spent on opening and closing programs, switching tabs and dealing with distractions. 

For a single blog post, your to-do list might look something like this:

1. brainstorm ideas
2. do SEO research
3. make a grocery list
4. shop for props
5. develop recipes
6. plan or sketch photoshoots
7. get out all your props
8. prep ingredients
9. set up photo equipment
10. take photos and videos
11. edit photos
12. edit videos
13. upload photos and videos
14. write alt text
15. write blog posts
16. load posts into the blog editor
17. format posts
18. add links
19. create social graphics
20. schedule social media
21. track traffic
22. add inbound links to the new post(s)

And every single one of these tasks can be batched and bundled with multiple blog posts so that you are working on several at once, moving them through all the processes.

How to Get More Content from Batching

We’ve talked a lot about how to get more from your existing content, but this goes for new ideas too. You can plan recipes with similar ingredients at the same time. You can even combine reshoots of old posts with the new ideas.

When the posts you are working on are related, you can do one photo shoot to produce several pieces of content. Let me show you.

Let’s say you want to make a cake, a frosting and a filling. You can fit them all into one photoshoot. If you make an extra batch of cake batter, you can make cupcakes too. And then you’ll have:

1. one layer cake recipe (cake, filling and frosting)
2. one cupcake recipe (same flavor cake & frosting)
3. one filling recipe
4. one frosting recipe

But really you’re only making one big recipe with multiple parts. The layer cake with filling and frosting plus the cupcakes are just another way to use the same batter and frosting. You’ll spend less time taking extra process shots than you will a whole other recipe.

The lighting for all of these posts will be similar, which makes editing easier. (Hello, Lightroom presets!) Then you could write them all (or a couple) in one sitting, and you’ll be able to interlink them for better SEO.

You can probably squeeze even more posts out of that single photo shoot, if you want. Maybe you make two frostings and wind up with two different flavors of cupcakes — that’s two more posts (one for the second frosting, one for the second flavor of assembled cupcakes). You could also create roundups of all your cake and cupcake recipes — that’s another two posts. And maybe you can use the photos in a guide to decorating a cake or the best piping tips for cupcakes.

So now we’re up to… 4, 6, 8, 10 posts. 1 photo shoot. Are you hooked on batching yet?!

The Best Recipes to Batch

Batching works for all kinds of recipes. Here are a few examples of photo shoots you could batch to spark some ideas:

• cake / filling / frosting / cupcakes
• marinade / protein / salad / dressing
• brownies / same brownies with frosting / frosting
• pizza dough / pizza sauce / pizzas with two sets of toppings
• protein / seasoning / dipping sauce / side dish
• simple syrup / cocktail / mocktail

You can switch up the plating, backgrounds and props, but you also don’t have to. Most people won’t be looking at all of these recipes separately, wondering why you did it that way! (And even if they did, I think they’d get it!)

Besides, now you’ll have all these posts that work together and link together, making a more helpful experience for your readers to build every aspect of the dish or meal.

More helpfulness will show your readers and the search engines that you’re an expert, setting you up for better E-E-A-T — in a lot less time. And, that, my friends, is why we batch.

I’d love to know if you’ve tried batching and how it worked for you!

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