Why I don't think solopreneurs should batch content creation

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If you are an online business owner and have learned about content creation in order to give value to your audience, then you've probably heard about batching content.

Today I want to talk about this concept, but with a little different spin than how most online business owners, or business entrepreneurs, talk about and encourage batching because most online entrepreneurs who teach the concept of batching have teams, usually of 2 to 5 to 10 or event 20 people!

For solopreneurs, batching is not the most effective or stress free way to produce the content for your audience since it's just you and yourself (or maybe 1 team member).

This is based on my own experiences and I AM willing to be challenged on this...

I'm challenging the traditional concept of batching because many of my listeners have a very small team, like 1 or 2 people, or they are solopreneurs like me. I want to make sure if that's you, that you're able to use your most valuable resource, your time, in the most effective way possible.

I don't want you to waste time. I don't want you to lose time with brain fatigue or mental exhaustion. I want to offer a new way to to produce your content that is different from content batching so that you don't get burned out on content creation.

Your audience would miss out on the great information, teaching, and the incredible value that you provide!

Let's make sure you don't lose steam or get super fatigued in creating your content, which is what I've experienced.

First of all, to make sure we're all on the same page, I want to make sure you know how I'm thinking about batching content.

What I've heard online entrepreneurs, online business owners, say the method for batching content is that you do each of the separate parts of producing content for several pieces, all at once for a set amount of time.

So for example, if you have a podcast, you record for five, maybe six episodes in a two day period and that "batch" of content is done for the content creator. They're done with their part of the production process.

Then that batch goes through the production process that might be something like:

• transcribe all 5-6 of those podcasts at once

• all 5-6 podcasts are uploaded and put on your website

• 5-6 emails are written for each podcast and scheduled.

• 5-6 social posts are created for each podcast and scheduled.

Each stage of a the production cycle is a batch.

The way batching is explained by most online entrepreneurs is that you would write all the emails for all 5-6 pieces of content, all at one time, and that seems like it would work. It does work if you have a team of people producing the content.

My experience however is as that as a solopreneur, YOU are responsible for all of those stages of production. And in that case, I don't think the traditional concept of batching content creation really works.

Here's why the traditional concept of batching for content creation does not work: context switching.

Have you heard of context switching? Context switching refers to the process of shifting focus focus from one task to another, which often involves moving between different types of work or even different mental states.

So when you're creating content for your audience and you try to batch create it as a solopreneur the way it's traditionally taught, you go through many context switches, because of all the different types of work. There's the recording, the writing, the editing. There are a lot of types of creative work you go through which means you go through content switches.

You also go through several content switches which is different than context switches. This is where I would describe different mental states within the content.

Writing an email to describe and deliver the content is very different from editing a video or podcast. Each requires different mental states within the content itself.

Context (and content) switching can lead to a loss of productivity as the brain takes time to adjust to the new tasks in a production process, which can lead to decreased efficiency and increased cognitive load. So it's like your brain is overloaded!

I don't want you to lose precious productivity time due to brain overload!

Remember, my purpose in sharing this with you is to help you maximize your time as a solopreneur. You may not have much time for your work, and so I want to make sure that I can help you maximize your content creation!

Here's how I discovered the consequences of context switching:

My first experience with context switching started as a virtual assistant back in 2012 or so when I started working online as a virtual assistant. At one point I had as many as four clients at a time, plus managing my family, our home, and our lives. I found it very difficult

First I tried working in short pockets of time like an hour here, an hour there, 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, and for me, it was very difficult to work in these fragmented chunks of time. I found it very difficult to get refocused on the work and remember where I was in a project, what I had been doing, or what needed to be done.

I also found it very difficult to be available to multiple clients at the same time because of that context switching. If I helped client A with something and in the next hour or two, I needed to help client B with something, there was this context switching about their businesses and it would be really hard to refocus on a project or task that I was trying to complete initially.

If I had to switch to something else in the middle, it was a mental strain. So I found that, putting boundaries or time blocks around each client worked a lot better. I could work for two hours for this client and then two hours for that client, and check in with the others later in the day for a brief check in. The clients knew what their time slot was with me and when I was definitely available which made it easier to have the boundaries that I needed in order to get the work done. I didn't have to switch contexts (or content) quite so often.

My second experience with context switching was when I was a yoga teacher.

I was a yoga teacher for about five years, from 2017 until about 2022 and during that time I was teaching online yoga and I was also teaching locally. When I was teaching online yoga I really tried to batch create content the way that the bigger online business owners were explaining.

I would record 3 or 4 video classes in one day. (There was one yoga teacher I heard of who would record like eight in a day! I never got past 4 videos in one batch time.) And it was exhausting! I had to think ahead and prepare classes to be recorded all at one time, to align with the theme I was creating, and for the music to align, plus imagine myself in the future!

I found it really hard to focus on what I was teaching in each of the four classes. I would record one class, and then when it was time to switch to the next class that I was going to record, I would have to take a good chunk of time to remember what what I was teaching. I would feel so confused and think "what am I teaching? Why am I teaching it? What's the music?"

I think if if I had just recorded each video class right after creating it, there wouldn't have been quite the mental load or mental strain.

Once that batch of video classes was recorded, each piece of content had to move through the production process to edit the video, upload it to YouTube, upload it to my website, move to writing an email to deliver it, and so on.

I would have to take more time to review the content and remember what I had recorded! I would have to take time to remember What did I say? Why was I teaching that? What do I need to say in the email? It really just seemed like I would take this one piece of content and I would have to revisit it, revisit it, and revisit it. And that just didn't make a good bit of sense to me. I wanted to figure out a better way.

Here's how I found a better way for solopreneurs to create content:

I remember years and years ago hearing an idea about processing paper. I probably heard this 20 years ago back when my children were in elementary school when teachers didn't have email or websites to communicate with parents. Back when my kids were in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and so on, email wasn't as common and there were lots and lots of papers that would come home!

We would get weekly newsletter papers, PTA announcement papers, worksheets that they needed to do, and info sheets for projects that were coming up. Everything was on a piece of paper back then, and there was just so much paper everywhere!

I remember hearing this idea when I was trying to figure out how to organize and manage all this paper to keep it under control. The idea was when you get your mail from your mailbox, you handle each piece of mail ONLY ONE time.

When you get your stack of mail, you sort it immediately for bills, trash, etc. Put the bills in the bill pay box and the trash right into the trash can immediately when you go through the mail. Then maybe there's a piece of mail that's a letter and you set it on the table because you're going to open it right away after you're done sorting. You take each piece of mail, sort it to where it needs to go, and you handle each piece only one time, except for maybe the bills. You put them in a stack until it's bill paying time anyway.

I decided this was how content creation could flow for solopreneurs and online business owner of a very small team!

Take that one piece of content, sort it and decide what you're going to do with it, and then be done with it.

Here's a better way for solopreneurs to create content:

I believe if you're a solopreneur, the fastest way to get your content out into the world, to your audience who needs it, is to manage one piece of content all the way through the production cycle until it's delivered.

That way you have less context or content switching, which means that you can be a faster copywriter, a faster editor, and a faster producer. It's easier on your brain!

There's no mental overload from context or content switching and you can produce one whole piece of content at a time and be done with it. You get this great sense of satisfaction by delivering that piece as well

If you wanted to work this process of batching cycles where you produce something like 3 to 5 pieces of content over the course of a week in order to get ahead, I would propose taking one piece all the way through the cycle per day. Each day you take a piece of content all the way through the production cycle and you could be done for the month! It might take you four days, maybe three hours each day, to take one piece of content all the way through but you would have all the pieces complete and ready for your audience!

Like I said previously, I think the traditional content batching method, where you batch writing all the emails or you batch editing all the videos, I think that works IF that's your only role on a team. I think it doesn't work when you have to switch content or context.

What are your thoughts on batching content? I'd love to hear!

1. Are you a batcher or are you a one-content-piece-at-a-time content producer? Why or why not?

Hearing your thoughts is great for other entrepreneurs too so they can determine what works best for them.

For now, for me, one-content-piece-at-a-time creation process is what works.

And tell me your feedback on this question:

2. Would a ClickUp content creation template be helpful for you?

I was thinking about putting together a free ClickUp project plan that would help you through a production process. It would help you create your content and move it all the way through the production cycle.

I would love to create that if it's something that you think would be helpful and save you time.

I hope this very tactical blog/vlog is helpful for you as an online business owner or solopreneur!