Batching

In the tenth episode of Blueprints for Life, Nicole Cutler and Peter C. Hayward dig into batching: grouping similar tasks so you pay the cost of starting and stopping once instead of ten times. They cover flow state, why a dishwasher is a batching machine, emailing on Mondays, queueing posts and books so a system does the regular releasing, overstocking the unfun things (clothes, dishes) so laundry can wait, a game-design cruise as a three-day batch, the limits of batching (friendship, sleep, fatigue), and why removing roadblocks between idea and execution makes you more productive. Plus follow-up on what a "giraffe person" is (and isn't), and a Rules Brain Corner about misremembering movie scenes.

 

Chapters

0:00 Intro and follow-up (giraffe people, "name three people you please")

3:47 Rules Brain Corner: the Ted Lasso video essay and false memories

5:36 What is batching, and why we now record two episodes a session

8:00 Flow state: laundry, prototyping, video games and social media

10:10 What we batch: dishes, social media, Patreon writing, scheduled releases

14:32 The Four Hour Work Week and emailing on Mondays

15:42 Short-term memory, Wave bookkeeping and why scale makes things cheaper

18:55 Handymen, assistants and the 32-hour work week

23:00 Overstocking clothes and dishes; "you can, but you won't, so you can't"

24:46 Batching careers, and the game-design cruise

29:47 Waiting mode, errands and consultants

31:09 The shared-car gas tank story

33:01 What doesn't batch: friendship, sleep, burnout

36:20 Meal prep

39:11 What to batch (and what not to) is personal

39:28 What's on our desks: LongPack dice and Heckadeck

41:26 Removing roadblocks: prototyping tools and fast tests

44:58 Obligations vs. working on what excites you

47:00 Quote of the day: Bojack Horseman

 

Links

What is a Giraffe Person? (episode 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bglnulOTqHA

How to be a Giraffe Person (episode 3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uuc5-gdTwk

Rules Brain (earlier episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXAuOrC9uhg

Scarcity Mode (earlier episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KTtxjGp_nI

Fun Problems (Peter's previous podcast): https://funproblems.podbean.com/

Critter Kitchen: https://cardboardalchemy.com/critter-kitchen/

Heckadeck: https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/heckadeck

Beasts by Clarence Simpson: https://pandasaurusgames.com/products/beasts

LongPack dice: https://www.longpackdice.com/

The 32-hour workweek proposal: https://takano.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/rep-takano-sen-sanders-reintroduce-32-hour-workweek-act

Peter's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@peterchayward

Peter's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PeterCHayward

Peter's Ted Lasso video essay, "Ted Lasso was Perfect. What happened?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JawSzLhKhgw

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/books/

TickTick (daily habit list): https://ticktick.com

Monarch (personal finance): https://www.monarchmoney.com

Wave (small-business accounting): https://www.waveapps.com

BoJack Horseman: https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800

 

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Question for us? Email life@blueprints.fm

 

Support the show: https://patreon.com/peterchayward

 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/BM3qDHf9FU

 

Logo by Rozie Pocket: https://www.tiktok.com/@cozyboardgames

 

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