Batch related tasks to reduce overhead and minimize context switches

When you transition between tasks with different contexts, it creates emotional and mental costs that are considerable, but not necessarily consciously recognized. You can reduce the number of context switches incurred in a day by batching together tasks that are related in some way.

Batching is an effective way to accomplish the greatest number of tasks with the lowest context switching overhead. Batching consists of consecutively executing related tasks to avoid the mental energy required to context switch. The principle here is simple: organize like things together and execute them as a group. For example, suppose you are a university teacher. You could batch together the blocks of time you spend teaching, time you spend grading (or even grading the same question across all tests at the same time), research meetings with students, and time you spend responding to student emails.

Batching promotes the priority of less important tasks based on shared overhead with more important tasks. Every task has some sort of startup cost. Batching takes advantage of already paid startup costs, executing other activities that share that startup cost in order to minimize costs across tasks. A batching shopper would visit adjacent stores for lower priority purchases because she is already there. A batching woodworker would use the jig for other jobs that need it, even if they aren’t as high a priority as those that don’t.

Batching takes advantage of the fact that the net benefit of a certain action is a function of its cost. When a higher priority task necessitates at least some of the cost required for lower priority tasks, the net benefit of those tasks increases, and might become high enough to boost the priority to above the threshold of execution. This is frequently the case even when the lower priority item still has additional cost. In both examples provided above, the additional tasks require additional time, even though a great deal of the time they would take from scratch has been reduced by the higher priority task. It’s an easy calculation to make when you take the long-term view: Will the expense of slightly more now result in much less expense later? If so, do it.

Sometimes, batchable tasks will naturally exist and cluster in your process of generating a to do list. Most times, you will have to intentionally increase the occurrence of task batching through saving them up.

When you come across a low urgency task, think about whether there is a way to queue it for later in ways that can take advantage of the benefits of batching (items of similar context or overlapping overhead), or unexpected opportunities (so that you have something meaningful to do when surprised with unexpected delays). If any of these is the case, it is wise to save the low urgency task for a later date, and to move on in your to do list. For example, if you come across a book you would like to read, but that is not urgent, you could choose to store it in your car in anticipation of some unexpected delay, or save it for an upcoming plane trip.

Batching is one of many tactics for productivity that will cause you to act in ways that differ significantly from your peers. For example, if you batch your work emails, you will need to inform your colleagues that they should not expect immediate replies from you. While you can give them a maximum timeframe when they can expect a response (say, every 24 hours in a business day), you should give them another method of notifying you in the event they need your urgent reply (such as a phone call or knock on your office door).

Batching is a single technique that will result in such an immense gain in productivity that you will not believe it until you try it.¹