When was the last time you cleaned out and organized your pantry? Yes, that’s right, on my marketing blog, I’m talking to you about your pantry.

A well-organized pantry can help streamline your household. Think about it, when you know where to find things, and what you have on hand, it can really speed up your time with creating your grocery lists, putting them away when you get home and then cooking in the evening. When everything has it’s place, things just work more smoothly.

So why am I bringing this up now?

Batching content and creating systems in your business are important for saving you time, energy and creating the high-quality content you need.

So many times, I get pushback from clients and students regarding creating regular content. I hear things like, “I don’t have time for that,” or “Do I really need to do that?” Mostly, it’s an ineffective use of time or prioritizing activities that don’t allow you to get things done, and this doesn’t just pertain to marketing.

I do this in my personal and professional life – hence the pantry example.

Let’s start at the top.

Plan your weekly meals

If you’re anything like me, then you spend the weekend getting your dinners/lunches ready for the week. Saturdays I like to go to the store, and I have a list of all the things I need for dinners each week. If I don’t get things ready then we often find ourselves with nothing for dinner.  What's even better, is I put the recipes, with links, in my calendar so I always have easy access to what I need.

Planning for my marketing is similar.

On a monthly basis, I plan out the blog posts and content that I need to produce that month. Theming the months helps as well. It gives me the structure to what I want to talk about and allows me to dive deeper into certain topics and, hopefully, not overwhelm you.

I also schedule a day each month to write, record or create the necessary content for the month.  This helps save so much time because doing similar tasks in batches helps with efficiency.

Make your grocery list

Knowing what’s already in your pantry can make it much easier to get your grocery list together. When you have your canned goods, pastas, and snack foods all put together in their categories, it makes it much easier to see what you have and what you need.

My pantry is large, I'm very lucky!  And each shelf has a specific category; noodles, sauce, chips, snacks, canned goods, etc.  That way, when I make my list, I already know what I already have and what types of things I need to get at the store.

Think of your social media posts as the items in your pantry. Depending on the social media platforms you post on, and you don’t need to be on them all, you should be creating core categories that represent your business.

For us, it’s
* Behind the scenes of our business
* What’s up with my kids/family
* Motivational quotes
* Fact Fridays
* Articles
* My blog posts

We use Trello to manage our social calendar.  On our board, each list represents a category.  Throughout the month, my team and I put posts in as we see them and find them that represent that particular category.

When it comes time to create my monthly social media calendar, I can start by pulling from those lists.  Then the content I need to create takes less time.

Get your Groceries

You can't make your meals if you don't have the necessary ingredients!  I mean that goes without saying.  But if you're prepped and have a list, then you can save time at the store getting the specific things you need.

By knowing what you're needing to get done in the month, or week, you won't waste time on activities that aren't pushing your business forward.

Tell me if this has happened to you…

You get online to start researching for the blog post or podcast you need.  But you're not really sure what you want to write or talk about.  So all of the sudden, you've spent 2 hours surfing the internet and you've watched too many cat videos and Ellen Degeneres show clips.

Sticking to the plan you made earlier, will help you streamline your time and tasks!  It will also help direct you to the places you need to go for research, or the people you need to reach out to to accomplish your goals.

Meal Prep

Depending on the week, I might meal prep on Sunday.  This could look at making meals ahead of time, getting the veggies and fruits prepped for kids' lunches or even making a bunch of crock pot dump meals I can put in the freezer.

Take a look at your schedule and decide what works best for you.

Typically, I will schedule my posts on a weekly basis at the same time as I schedule my weekly emails that go out to my list.

I will also schedule client posts at the same time.

I like doing it this way because it ensures that the content is timely and relevant.

This could also be finding time each week to handle your financials, make client calls, write proposals, or whatever tasks you do repeatedly in the week.

It bears repeating, doing similar tasks at the same time, and doing them only 1 a week, will increase your efficiency dramatically.

Enjoy your Meals

At the end of the day, when you get home from work, and start your dinner, you breathe easier.  Why?  You already know what you're cooking, you already have the veggies prepped and the meat thawed in the fridge.

All that's left is to pour a glass of wine, and cook a healthy meal for your family!

Knowing what's coming, what's already been completed and what is still left to be done is huge.  And ending the day knowing that the main things you needed to get done are done and that the marketing tasks for the next week are completed, helps you free up that precious brain space for everythingn else that needs to get done.

Owning your business, and handling marketing doesn't have to be overwhelming.  It can, in fact, be FUN!

Did this article help you?  I'd love to hear what your biggest takeaway is here.  Share it, with a photo of YOUR pantry, on Facebook or Instagram with #ilovemypantry!