Last year, I planned a 2.5-week trip to Japan.

I had 6 clients. No one covering for me (I have no team). And it’d be my first trip where I took time off 100%.

I quickly realized my system would fall apart if I didn’t find a way to make it more efficient. So I spent 2 months before the trip building a full month’s worth of content for every client, just to buy myself an actual vacation.

That constraint forced me to build something I should’ve built years earlier.

It unlocked Lvl 3 of how I do my content batching.

And lately, I’ve been testing Lvl 4.

Here’s how each level worked, and what’s different now.

Level 1: Batching one week at a time

The first version was simple. Every week: ideation, hooks, outlines, drafts, edits, visuals, submission. All in one go.

Worked fine with 2-3 clients. The moment I hit 4, it became unsustainable. There wasn’t enough time in a week to do the full cycle for everyone before the next week started unless I did late nights and weekends.

Level 2: Extending to 2-3 weeks batches per client

So I stretched the window. Booked myself longer writing blocks in my calendar. Roughly 4-5h per client.

Better. But each client took a full day or more, and by the time I finished it I’d be running on fumes. The work crept up to the weekends a lot. And I’d end up working 6-7 days per week and call it ‘normal’.

Level 3: Splitting the work across two days

This is when I should’ve realised working so much was starting to take a toll on me.

I hadn’t yet.

And this is where it got interesting. I split my process into 2 parts:

Day 1: ideation, hooks, outlines, and first drafts for everything.

Day 2: finishing drafts, visuals, editing, submitting.

Splitting the creative and the execution work changed the pace completely. I wasn’t context-switching mid-session anymore. Got me to 6 clients. Good times.

Level 4: Batching by topic

At this point, I’ll be honest, I was way more efficient, but I was now running on fumes from the start of the day.

I’d have a good, productive week. Then the following week, I’d take half of it off, forced to actually stop in the middle of the day, because I felt cognitively drained.

My coach told me my brain is always on. I’m overstimulated. And staring at screens too much.

It pushed me to refine my system even more.

I also noticed every client had repeating themes. My sustainable materials client, for example:

2 posts per week on denim insulation. 1 post per week repurposing from a 300+ piece archive. 1 post per week on Australian manufacturing. 1 post per week on company updates.

Once I saw that pattern, I stopped batching by “what’s due this week” and started batching by topic. Pick denim insulation. Create 4-6 weeks of content on that single theme in one session. Then move to Australian manufacturing. Same thing.

The difference is I could go deeper on one topic or theme. When you spend a full session on one topic, you go deeper, make better connections, and write faster because you’re not switching context mid-draft.

Then I combined this with a slight buffer:

Weeks 1-2: Create the standard 2-week batch as normal to give myself space. Weeks 3-4: With content already ahead, use the breathing room to do topic-based batching. By week 3: Almost a month of content is 80-90% done. Weeks 4-6: The cycle repeats. I’m drafting 1-2 months ahead with the same hours.

I’ve started testing this literally 2-3 weeks ago. And it’s been quite refreshing.

For example, I just wrote 12 posts (8 on one theme and 4 on another) in roughly 3h. This used to take me 5-7h and sometimes 2 days.

What this means if you’re a founder posting for yourself

I’m describing a system for managing 6 clients’ content. You’re probably trying to post consistently for one: yourself.

The principle is the same.

Most founders I work with post reactively. Something happens in the news, they write about it. They have a meeting, they share a thought after. It feels productive, but it’s exhausting and inconsistent.

Try this instead:

Pick one topic you could talk about for weeks: a technology you’re obsessed with, a problem in your sector nobody’s addressing, a framework you’ve developed over years. Create 4-6 posts on that single theme before you move on to the next one.

You’ll write faster, go deeper, and stop staring at a blank screen every time you sit down to post.