To batch content, split the work into three phases: a prep week where you pick topics and write scripts, one filming day of three to five hours run in timed blocks, and a wrap-up hour where you label clips, write editor notes, and schedule posts. The filming day gets all the attention, but the prep week decides whether you leave with 14 videos or 4. This guide covers all three phases in order.
If you're still deciding whether batching is right for you, start with what is a batch content day and come back. This post assumes you're in and want the plan.
The prep week: how to batch content before you hit record
Everything that goes wrong on batch day was skipped during prep. Here's the five day plan I give people, about 30 to 45 minutes per day:
- Monday: pick your pillars. Open your analytics and find the videos with above-average shares and saves over the last two months. The topics behind those winners are your pillars, and every script this batch should belong to one. If you've never defined pillars, content pillars explained shows you how.
- Tuesday: draft your topic list. Write 15 one-line video ideas across your pillars. You'll only film 10 to 12, and the extras let you drop weak ones without falling short.
- Wednesday and Thursday: write the scripts. Each script needs a spoken hook, an on-screen text hook, three or four beats, and a closing line. Keep each one under 120 words, which lands around the 30 to 45 second mark when spoken.
- Friday: build the shot list and stage the room. Print a one-page list with each script's name and hook. Pick your filming spot near a window, set out two outfit options, and put your tripod and mic where you'll see them.
- Friday night: charge everything. Phone to 100 percent, mic batteries fresh or charged, at least 20 GB of phone storage free. Cheap insurance against the most common batch day killers.
That prep is also the slowest part to do by hand, mostly the script writing on Wednesday and Thursday. It's the exact piece Batchly automates: upload your analytics export and it scores your videos by shares and saves, builds the pillars, and writes the scripts with both hooks, which collapses the prep week into about twenty minutes of review.
How should you structure the filming day?
Run the day in blocks with hard edges. Open-ended filming sessions expand to fill whatever time you have and produce fewer clips. Here's the structure for a four hour morning:
- First 30 minutes: setup and test. Tripod at eye level, window in front of you, mic clipped six inches below your chin. Film 20 seconds and watch it back with headphones. Fix problems now, not at clip eight.
- Next 15 minutes: warm-up. Film your two easiest scripts knowing you may reshoot them. Your delivery in minute one and your delivery in minute twenty are different people, and the second one is better.
- Block one, about 75 minutes: film four to six scripts. Cap yourself at three takes per script. If take three isn't right, mark it on the shot list and move on; you can circle back at the end with fresh eyes.
- Break, 15 minutes: leave the room. Water, snack, daylight. Do not review footage during the break, because you will start hating takes that are fine.
- Block two, about 75 minutes: change your top, then film the remaining scripts. The outfit change makes the batch read as multiple days once posted.
- Final 30 minutes: revisit anything you marked, then stop. A marked script that still won't land after two more takes is a script problem, and no amount of performing fixes writing.
Batch day is an execution day, and every decision you make during it should have been made the week before.
Check off each script on the paper shot list as you go. The list is what tells you you're done, which sounds trivial until you're two hours in and can't remember whether you filmed script six or just thought about it.
What do you do after filming?
The wrap-up hour is the difference between a folder of usable content and a folder of mystery files named IMG_4302. Three tasks, in order, before you leave the room:
First, label every clip. Rename each file to its script name plus take number, like "pricing-myth-t2". Do it from the shot list while your memory is fresh. This takes ten minutes now or a demoralizing hour next Tuesday.
Second, write editor notes, even if the editor is you. One line per script: which take to use, where the on-screen hook text goes, anything to trim. If you outsource editing, this note is the whole handoff.
Third, schedule the posts. Load the first two weeks into your platform's scheduler or your calendar with specific dates. Unscheduled clips have a way of dying in the camera roll, and scheduling while motivated protects the work from the future version of you who is busy.
A worked example: Andre's first planned batch
A financial advisor I'll call Andre tried batching twice. His first attempt skipped prep entirely: he sat down on a Sunday with no scripts, spent 90 minutes deciding what to film, recorded four rambling clips, and posted one of them.
His second attempt followed the plan above. Prep week produced 12 scripts across three pillars, roughly three hours of total effort. On Saturday he set up in 25 minutes, filmed 11 of the 12 scripts in two blocks, and cut one that read worse out loud than on paper. His wrap-up hour left him with 11 labeled clips, notes for his editor, and two weeks of posts scheduled. Total investment: about eight hours for a month of content. His first attempt had cost him a Sunday for a single post.
Same person, same phone, same spare time. The plan was the only variable.
Do this next
Put two things on your calendar right now: a 45 minute prep session this week to pull your analytics and pick pillars, and a four hour filming block within the next two weeks. If you'd rather skip the manual prep, Batchly turns your analytics upload into pillars, ready-to-film scripts, and a Batch Day checklist, so your prep week becomes a review session.