Batching your content creation is THE BEST way to save you hours of time every week. Most creative entrepreneurs spend 5x as long as they should creating new content for their blogs, podcasts, and social media accounts. When you batch your content creation you not only save yourself hours of time, but you also save yourself so many headaches from constantly having to be on the content creation hamster wheel. Trust me, you’ll want to read this post – you can thank me later!

5 Easy Steps to Batch Your Content Creation:

1. PLAN out WHEN you are going to do your batch weekend

Take a close look at your calendar over the next month — when do you have a free weekend (or 2 consecutive dates) where you can sit down, get in the zone, and really focus on content creation? On days when I know I need to be in creation mode, ideally I try not to schedule any other priorities. I like to give myself the whole day to get comfortable, put on my favorite music, and let my brain just GO. Don’t wait until last minute to schedule it either, try to plan this at least 1-2 weeks in advance so you can make sure you set aside the time that you’ll need.

2. Let yourself brainstorm

This can be done on your batching day, but I sometimes like to plan a separate brainstorm session before my batch weekend. I do this for two reasons: 1) I don’t have the pressure of going from brainstorm to creation in the same day & 2) Once I’ve brainstormed some ideas, I like to give them a few days to marinate in my brain and see what else I can come up with. Whether you brainstorm beforehand or on your first batch day, give yourself at least a few hours to get clear around what exactly you need to create content for (website, blog, social media, podcast, etc.) Once you know which platforms you need to create content for, you can then allow yourself to start brainstorming what topics will resonate the most with your audience.

3. Create your outlines

For me, I START my batch day with this part since I’ve already completed the brainstorming on an earlier date – but you can also do them on the same day if you find that works better for you! After you’ve let yourself freely brainstorm topic ideas, it’s time to create your outlines for the actual content. Some of the questions I like to ask myself during this stage to get the creative juices flowing are:

• What story can I tell around this topic (that I’ve experienced or that someone I know has experienced)?
• Are there questions that my audience likely has around this topic? What do they struggle with when it comes to this topic?
• How can I put my own unique spin on this topic? What do I have to offer that someone else may not have?

This is usually when I end my first day!

4. Record/Write the first draft of your content

Depending on how many different platforms you’re creating for, you might want to break this part down into two days. If you’re recording four 20 minute podcasts episodes for the month, you can easily do that in a day. If you’re adding in social media posts or additional blog posts for the month, you might want to split some of the recording/writing into an additional day.

I like to record all of my monthly podcast episodes back-to-back because I get into a recording flow. I also like to create my monthly social media posts in one sitting because then I can make sure I am writing unique content for each day and not repeating too many of the same topics/ideas.

5. Edit/Finalize/Schedule your content

Now that everything has been recorded/written, this is where you get to edit and finalize everything! For your podcasts, this is where you take the time to edit, upload your audio file to your hosting site, and schedule your release date. I like to do this in a batch way as well (I.E. I edit all of the episodes back-to-back, upload them back-to-back and then schedule them back-to-back) — that way I can get into a flow of doing similar tasks instead of switching back and forth for each episode.

For your blog posts and social media posts, this is where you’ll want to do a final spell check, review, and upload them / schedule when they will post. If you feel overwhelmed by this last part, this is a great place to hire a virtual assistant! These are tasks that can easily be delegated to someone else if you need even more time back in your day.