Overview
Do you wait until the end of the month to do laundry? I sure hope not…you’d likely run out of the essentials. It would also be a massive undertaking that would kill your whole weekend. Much of my career has been in accounting, where so much work is done at the end of the month. Why do we take that approach with our accounting close but not our laundry clothes 😉? Because that’s what most people are used to.
Laundry is a great example, because it’s one of those things that most people learn at an early age to do somewhat continuously. What if you took that approach with other tasks? You might think you’re saving time but letting everything stack up and attacking it all at once, but that’s not always the best approach. In this article, we’ll look at why to take a continuous approach, why to use a batch approach, and why to use a hybrid approach.
Why use a continuous approach
A continuous approach to your tasks has several benefits. We’ll stick with the laundry theme because it’s so relatable.
It’s easier to keep up with
Have you ever come back from a long trip and spent all day doing laundry? It’s not fun. It’s much easier to keep up with if you attack it throughout the week. The same can be said about all kinds of chores and other tasks. In accounting, I see people get behind because they wait for so much work to pile up, and the puzzle becomes more complex to figure out.
You’re always ready
Let’s say you get invited to a concert, sports game, wedding, etc. out of town at the last minute. If you do laundry frequently, you’ve probably got the clean clothes you need. If not, you’re either scrambling, wearing dirty clothes, or missing out on a fun opportunity. In accounting, a continuous process helps you become always audit-ready, especially when things are well structured, organized, and supported.
It helps you shift work to when it’s more convenient
Let’s say you only did laundry once a month on the last weekend. What happens if you have activities that weekend and forget to adjust? Again, you might run out of clothes if you haven’t already. In accounting, the month-end close period (the week or two after the reporting period actually ends) is usually quite stressful. By breaking down that work and shifting it to happen more continuously, it’s much less stressful and can reduce that close period and reduce the overtime. Keeping with the picture at the top with the hangers, it’s often a matter of taking a small amount of time now or a large amount of time later.
It’s less daunting
The bigger the mountain (of clothes, perhaps), the tougher it is to get motivated to climb it. We go into flight mode and don’t want to deal with it. Smooth that mountain out, and it’s much easier to deal with it. This is a great approach to take with cleaning the house and other chores. Make a list, schedule, and routine, and turn it into a habit. It won’t be something you dread doing.
It allows you to address issues more timely
Have you ever gotten a nasty stain on your favorite shirt? If you waited a few weeks to clean it, the stain might not come out. In accounting, I’ve seen way too many times where issues arise at the end of the month that could have been addressed within a day or two. Sometimes too much time goes by, no one knows the answer, and there’s a write-off. Addressing issues in a timely manner can save a lot of time and money.
Why use a batch approach
While it may seem like doing everything somewhat continuously makes sense, there are situations where a batch approach might be better. We’ll use cooking as an example for most of these.
There’s a lot of prep/setup time
If you’ve ever made a casserole, you know that a lot can go into it between buying the ingredients, mixing them together, and baking, frying, boiling, etc. The more prep time there is, the more it makes sense to batch it together – make several batches of that same casserole in one session. You’ll save money by buying the ingredients in bulk (and in one trip), and you’ll save time by doing the steps in bulk too. We often do this and freeze an extra 2-3 batches or trade them with friends!
There’s a lot of tear-down time
Cooking also comes with a lot of dishes to clean up. Would you rather clean them once or several times? The more tear-down or clean-up time there is, the more it makes sense to take a batch approach, very much like the prep time above. You won’t just save time, you’ll be less frustrated – no one likes to clean up endlessly!
There’s a lot of mental effort to switch between tasks
There’s a reason restaurants usually have people focus on one area during a shift – you wouldn’t see someone bounce between meat, sides, salads, and desserts with any sort of volume – among other things, it’s mentally taxing. Yet so many people jump from one thing to another all day at work and claim to be great at multi-tasking. It just doesn’t work. It takes a lot more time to mentally switch from one task to another than most people realize, especially in a world where we’re all so distracted. Batching related tasks is a great way to save time, save brainpower, and reduce mistakes because you get into a groove where momentum plays a key role.
Why use a hybrid approach
Often there are benefits to blending both a continuous and batch approach together.
Continuous batches give you frequent momentum
Frequent small batches let you benefit from the momentum of batching similar tasks together on an ongoing basis. That could be weekly, daily, or even hourly. That’s really what you do with tasks like laundry if you think about it. You wouldn’t wash just one sock at a time – you’d wait until you have a fairly full load – a small batch.
Continuous batches help you build a routine
Even though it’s not always full, we generally run the dishwasher almost every day. Our kids share the responsibility of unloading it. Part of the reason we do it even though it’s not full is so they keep up the habit of unloading it! We also don’t want to run out of key items or have many leftover items that won’t fit in the dishwasher.
Continuous batches keep the backlog low
Many accounting departments only pay their vendors once a week. While it works for the most part, it often creates issues when there are rush payment requests, invoices to pay are received late, or if the payment day falls on a holiday. It’s also sometimes unpredictable how many invoices there will be to process, which can result in a backlog or overtime. If that weekly process was converted to a daily or every-other-day process, those issues could be avoided. To help make that change, any other related processes (such as the payment review, posting to systems, etc.) should be optimized or automated.
Summary
There’s a time for doing things continuously, a time for batching, and a time for a little bit of both. Usually, a little bit at a time (or at least more frequently than you’re doing a task now) is the best approach to improve it. Whatever approach you take, give it some thought, and don’t just settle for the way you’ve always done it. Complacency is not the way to grow!
What approach do you usually take with your tasks – continuous, heavily batched, or a nice blend? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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