How to Batch Create Catholic Content (Without Burning Out)
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” – Anonymous
Last week we talked about creating a monthly content calendar to keep track of what content you will post, when and where. In fact we created a calendar for June chuck full of great Catholic content ideas.
This week, let's take the next step: how to actually create that content without becoming overwhelmed. We're going to learn all about batching.
Batching saves time and helps you stay consistent. Some of you super organized types probably do this naturally. For the rest of us (🙋) batching can be a game-changing tool that increases focus, reduces stress and keeps your messaging mission-drivien.
What is Batching?
Asana, the popular project management tool, defines batching this way:
Batching is a productivity strategy that involves grouping similar tasks together to complete all at once. This technique can help you avoid multitasking and increase the amount of time you have to focus on tasks. Batching can increase productivity as well as producing quality work.
A simple example of batching is setting aside time to return all your phone calls or emails at once. But you can also use batching to create content for your parish and broader community.
Why Batching Works for Catholic Content
Batching:
Helps you stay consistent with your messaging.
Reduces the last-minute stress of figuring out what to post on your parish's social media.
Keeps your content aligned with the liturgical year.
Minimizes decision fatigue, since you are not constantly trying to decide what content to create.
What Can You Batch?
Here are a few content types that lend themselves well to batching:
✍️Social media posts.
📣Bulletin announcements.
🖥️Homepage and website updates.
🗓️Liturgical season highlights and reminders.
🎥Short videos or reels.
The Batching Process in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1 - Plan Ahead
Start by choosing a time, date and category.
It's easiest to work on one category at a time. In other words, don't try and work on social media posts and bulletin announcements at the same time even if they are related. It can get overwhelming very quickly - trust me I know! Pick one or the other. Use your content calendar as a guide.
Next decide when you will sit down and create. I suggest you give yourself at least one hour to start. By giving yourself an hour to start with you can get an idea of how much you can create within that time frame. You then know whether you need to do this weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Or maybe you want to do a half day twice a month rather than one hour a week.
Step 2 - Block Off Time
Once you have picked your date and time be sure to put it in your calendar as an appointment. When the day arrives you may be tempted to slough it off as being not as important as whatever has suddenly come up. Resist the urge to do that, because if not now, when?!
Be sure to have your content calendar available as well as access to any tools you might need such as a computer, Canva and the parish Facebook page. There is nothing worse than settling in only to realize you don't have the usernames and passwords for the parish accounts.
Eliminate distractions, which may mean moving to a different place. Set a timer and commit to working through it.
TIP: Don’t aim for perfection—done is better than perfect!
Step 3 - Schedule and Save
Once you have created your content, it's time to upload it into a scheduler, whether that is directly to the Facebook planner or a tool such as Hootsuite or Planoly.
Be sure to give your various pieces of content logical titles and then save them to relevant folders based on category, season or liturgical calendar. While this seems obvious to the really organized, it's a bit less so for some of us. Remember it does not take long before you have a decent amount of content so you want to be able to find it again.
Final Thoughts
If this your first time trying to batch create content give yourself grace. It may take a few tries to find your rhythm - but once you do, it's a game-changer.
Finally, remember that Batching + Content Calendar = Less Stress & More Mission!
See ya soon! 👋
