Break Your Tasks Into Chunks

It beats bouncing back and forth

It took me a long time to figure out that I was wasting time on Twitter.

It’s a fantastic platform for networking, but like any social media platform, if you don’t use it efficiently, you won’t get a return on the time you spend there no matter how many cool opportunities come up.

A couple of years ago I started experimenting with doing certain tasks for my freelancing in chunks of time instead of sporadically throughout the day. It was only then that it became clear when the time I spent on my social media marketing was not justified by the result if there even was one.

My basic key performance indicator before this revelation was to get engagements from people in my target audience. I didn’t track overall goals, just that simple objective. It seems silly now, even though I was reaching my target communities well and making myself discoverable to my target audience, too.

Once I started chunkifying my time on social media, I realized that I would spend an hour a day on social media, but not pay myself back for that time I spent. Networking is often valuable in the long-term, but I didn’t make sure it paid off in the short-term, which it should if you do it right!

If I’d continued doing my social media marketing sporadically throughout the day, I never would have realized I wasn’t getting a return on my efforts. In other words, I’d be continuing to not pay myself for that time.

This revelation also prompted me to adjust both my objectives and my key performance indicators to assess if I was meeting them. Now I don’t Tweet as much and I often only do it with specific personas and under certain messaging. (I make exceptions when there’s a social cause I’d like to support.)

Here are a few other benefits to allotting specific blocks of time to specific tasks:

You can identify and rectify silos

Like a lot of businesses, I was doing my business development activities and marketing activities totally separately. When I started separating tasks and goals into chunks, I could see how I could connect them together to make sure there was synergy. Now my marketing and business development are inextricably linked.

Once the silo is gone, you can ensure the different things work hand in hand. Daniel Hopper shares how to bridge sales and marketing with a funnel to track your results and scale them.

You can make continuous tweaks to improve your result as you get to understand the process better.

It’s much easier to take a break or do something else

Breaking things into small chunks means you don’t have to stop in the middle of something, come back and forget where you left off, so there’s no guilt and it’s more efficient. You can just finish that chunk and then do the other thing. Once I started this approach, I found it easier to get the task off my mind while I was off doing something else.

The task or goal for each chunk feels far less daunting when you break it up

Richard White wrote this fantastic post about how to read more. One of his main messages is that you ought to have objectives for reading and ensure that they are manageable and pleasurable.

Reading 10 pages is very quick, and it’s a small enough number that it doesn’t feel like much of a commitment. If you do feel daunted by it, break it up — read 5 pages in 2 sessions.

You can cut out things that just don’t work

Sometimes chunkifying makes losses really prominent. I’ve canceled subscriptions, abandoned tactics, even cut out relationships because I could now see that they were taking more from me than I was getting in return. What’s the point of that?

Sometimes it’s a case of modifying the thing. Other times you see it’s just draining your time and energy with no real benefit and should be scrapped altogether.

Breaking things into chunks means I have more time; I’m wasting less money and I’m identifying better opportunities. I’m happier and more confident about my business skills.

How do you block tasks or goals into blocks in your calendar?