How I Batch & Schedule my Work Week as a Small Business Owner
Running a small business means wearing a lot of different hats.
There’s the actual work you do for your clients or customers, but then there’s also emails, marketing, social media, blog posts, admin, accounting, planning… and approximately 100 other things that somehow end up on the list.
It can get overwhelming pretty quickly!
One of the biggest things that has helped me stay on top of everything is batching and scheduling my work instead of jumping between tasks all day.
Batching is a working method that is pretty self explanatory. It involves working on one area of your business for an extended period of time, to schedule ahead. For example, every Monday I plan out my Instagram feed for at least 1 week. So instead of thinking of something to post every morning, I only have to think about it once per week (and then don’t have to think about it again until next week!).
It works well because it keeps you focused on the task at hand. If I didn’t batch/plan out my Instagram posts, then every morning I would struggle to think of things to post and it would take so much more time editing the posts day by day. But because I do them all at once, my attention is completely focused on creating for Instagram, and I can easily create a weeks worth of content in an hour.
This method is really the best way to make the most of your time.
As a creative (like many of you, I’m sure) I find it really hard to focus on one thing at a time. I get distracted so easily, I usually have about 100 tabs open and my brain is just jumping back and forth between ideas. But when I schedule it in and plan to batch something, I completely get into it.
I give myself a goal of how much I want/need to batch and how long it will take me, e.g. I need to batch 1 weeks worth of Instagram in the next hour. This motivates me to get it done. It majorly helps if you turn off all distractions too, like, turn off your phone, close all of the extra tabs, put your headphones in etc.
It doesn’t always go perfectly, obviously, but having a plan makes it so much easier to actually get things done!
What I Batch & Schedule
Social Media Content
Social media is probably one of the easiest places to start batching because creating posts one-by-one every day can eat up a surprising amount of time.
I like to plan several posts at once so I can think about the overall mix of content rather than trying to come up with something on the spot every morning.
You might batch:
Post ideas
Captions
Graphics
Reels or videos
Stories
Pinterest content
Then schedule as much as you can ahead of time.
You definitely don’t need to plan three months of content in one sitting either. Even getting one week ahead makes such a difference.
👉 How to Attract Clients and Grow your Business on Instagram
👉 How to Manage Multiple Social Media Accounts (with less stress!)
👉 How to design kick-ass Pinterest graphics that are optimized to get clicks
👉 How to Make Your Instagram Reels go Viral
Blog Posts
Blogging is another thing I love to batch.
Coming up with an idea, researching it, writing it, formatting it and publishing it all require slightly different headspaces, so I find it much easier to group similar stages together.
For example, I might:
Brainstorm several blog post ideas at once.
Outline them together.
Set aside another block of time to write.
Format and schedule them in Squarespace afterwards.
Squarespace has a built-in scheduling feature, so once the post is finished you can choose exactly when you want it to go live.
Getting ahead with blog content also gives you a little breathing room when business gets busy, you’re travelling (I might need an emergency holiday to the Bahamas… or something), or you simply don’t feel like writing that week.
👉 How to Turn Blog Readers Into Email Subscribers, Leads & Customers
👉 How to Start a Blog with Squarespace
👉 How to Add a Blog Sidebar to Your Squarespace Site (7.1 and 7.0)
Pinterest Scheduling
Pinterest is another great platform to schedule ahead rather than manually posting every day.
I’ve used Tailwind for Pinterest scheduling because it lets you plan a batch of content at once and then have it publish automatically over time.
The main goal here is the same: spend one focused chunk of time getting everything ready, then let the scheduler do the repetitive part for you.
👉 How to use Pinterest for your business in 2022: Profile set up and optimization
👉 How to create an organic Pinterest marketing strategy for your biz
👉 How to add Pinterest board covers to brand your Pinterest account
Accounting & Analytics
I do this religiously once per month, on the first of the month (for the previous month). I track and record all of my income and expenses and I also track and record all of my website, social media and general business analytics. Though I will add that I do check this at least weekly on a casual basis to see where I’m aiming for the month.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a mix of batching and scheduling.
If you send regular newsletters, you can set aside one block of time to brainstorm topics, draft several emails or plan your upcoming sends.
Then schedule them to go out when you want.
Even if you prefer writing emails closer to the send date, having a regular day and time allocated to your newsletter can make it much easier to stay consistent.
👉 Why Every Business Needs an Email List (And How to Start One)
👉 How to add an Email Sign-up Form to your Squarespace Website
👉 Flodesk vs Squarespace Email Campaigns: Which Is Best for Your Business?
👉 How to get started with email marketing: a simple guide for beginners
Freebies, Resources & Other Content
If you regularly create freebies, lead magnets, tutorials or other resources, these can be batched too.
Instead of waiting until you suddenly realize “Oh, I need something new to promote!”, keep a running list of ideas and create a few at once when you’re already in that creative mode.
The same goes for updating existing content.
You could even have a monthly batch session dedicated to:
Updating old blog posts
Refreshing website copy
Creating new opt-ins
Updating portfolio projects
Improving SEO
Not everything has to be new content to be useful.
👉 Everything You Need to Know to Create Freebies That (actually) Grow Your Email List
👉 Squarespace SEO: Boosting Your Site's Visibility with our go-to SEO Checklist
👉 How to Showcase Your Work with Squarespace Portfolio Pages
How far Ahead Should you Batch?
There’s definitely no magic number here.
Some people love having an entire month planned in advance. Other people feel trapped if they’ve scheduled anything further than next Tuesday.
The best system is the one you’ll actually stick to.
If you’re new to batching, I’d start small:
Social media: 1 week ahead
Blog content: 1–2 posts ahead
Email marketing: 1–2 emails ahead
Admin: monthly
Longer-term planning: monthly or quarterly
Once that feels easy, you can always work further ahead.
The goal isn’t to schedule every second of your life. It’s simply to remove some of those repeated decisions from your week.
Tools That Make Batching & Scheduling Easier
You really don’t need a complicated setup to make batching work, but having a few good tools in place can really help!
Here are a few of our favorites:
ClickUp
Great for planning out your week, keeping track of recurring tasks, managing content ideas, and seeing what’s coming up. You can create lists, calendars, deadlines, and workflows all in one place, which is super handy if your brain likes having everything written down somewhere.
If you want something a little simpler, Google Calendar is still a great option for blocking out time and giving certain tasks a spot in your week.
Kit
We love Kit for email marketing! You can draft emails ahead of time, schedule broadcasts, build automations, and keep your email marketing running without needing to manually send everything as you go.
Later
A really handy option for planning and scheduling Instagram content in advance, especially if you like seeing how everything will look visually before it goes live.
Tailwind
If Pinterest is part of your marketing strategy, Tailwind makes it so much easier to batch your pins and schedule them out ahead of time instead of posting manually every day.
Squarespace Scheduling Tools
And don’t forget the tools already built into Squarespace! Blog posts, products, and emails can be scheduled to publish automatically, which means you can batch a few at once and let Squarespace take care of the rest.
👉 Our Go-to Tools & Techniques for Scheduling Content
👉 The Best Free and Affordable Tools for Small Business Owners
What my Week Looks Like
So with that said, this is what my week typically looks like:
Monday
Mondays are a great day to get business tasks done because I’m located in New Zealand and, for most people, it’s still Sunday so I don’t usually get any emails or disturbances!
Plan the week
Batch at least 1 week of Instagram
Write at least 1-2 Blog posts
Publish 1 Blog Post
Tuesday
Schedule Pins for at least one weeks worth of auto-pilot pinning (thanks Tailwind)
Wednesday
Write at least 1 Blog post
Publish 1 Blog Post
Thursday
No scheduled business tasks on Thursday, usually it’s my “stuff that didn’t get done earlier in the week” day.
Friday
Create 1-2 Freebies
Publish 1 Freebie
The rest of my hours are completely jam packed with client work, emails, calls (and some Netflix here and there).
Scheduling your week is really important when you work from home (like I do) and there are so many distractions. If you have a schedule of things you need to do that day, you’re much more likely to get stuff done.
Scheduling and batching is the best use of your time and will help you get so much more done! More time = more money (or more Netflix, the choice is yours).
Want more small business tips? Check out these posts:
My Complete Client Brand Design Process (Step by Step)
An Unconventional Guide to Naming Your New Business
8 Pages you Should Have on Your Website as a Small Business Owner
7 Website Mistakes That Could be Costing you Clients
Top 10 FREE Stock Image Websites
