Prepping for something is also work, don't do it more than you need to.
There is a very fine line between switching up your tasks so you don't get bored, and just being uneffective at organizing your day.
Batching is one of my favorite productivity tasks. This is crucial when it comes to planning your day. Everything that you do requires you to prepare for it: set up your space, get yourself mindset for it, dress appropriately, bring all your materials, and put that all back in their perfectly labeled box when you are done. Sometimes prepping takes no time and other it takes so much time that doing twice in one day, one week, one month even is a waste of time.
Lets take this very obvious example: Filming a Youtube Video
Getting ready: Video notes, doing my make up, picking an outfit, picking jewelry, doing my hair, setting up my space, setting up the video gear, adjusting camera frame and settings, inserting a charged battery pack and a clean memory card. (2 hours)
Filming: record video using video notes
Picking Up: Taking down all the gear, resetting my space to neutral, downloading videos, clearing memory card, removing my make up, organizing all files, recharging batteries, put away all camera gear in a perfectly labeled box. (1 hour)
Now imagine I want to produce I video a week, what makes more sense:
A) Getting ready and picking up every week (4 times a month) - 12 hours total
B) Getting ready once, filming 4 video content, picking up once. - 3 hours total
Of course option B! No doubt about it. I just gained 9 hours! I understand that there are times where this kind of batching is not possible and that is okay, you gotta do what you gotta do what you gotta do, but when it is possible, why on Earth are you not doing it?
This principle of setting up and picking can be applied to almost anything and while 10 minutes seems insignificant, they add up.. so much more than you imagine, do the math.. I dare you!
This is where batching comes handy: Group similar activities, to-do's tasks, and plan to get them done back to back in one "sitting." I promise you it will save you so much time!