Delegate More
Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
At first delegating might seem like dumping your responsibilities to someone else. You may also be an avid do-it-yourselfer and prefer to complete your tasks by yourself. Or you could just be a penny pincher and think it doesn’t make financial sense to pay other people to do something you know how to do.
Those all seem like perfectly reasonable reasons to do-it-yourself but every time you take a step toward reducing your load you take a step toward realizing your real goals. Some tasks chew up valuable time, energy, and money and the truth is nobody is great at doing everything. Some things are better left to people who do them all the time.
A simple example is moving the lawn. It doesn’t take much training to mow a lawn. Depending on the size of the lawn it may not even take that much time or energy. But all chores like this can eat up time and require that you work it into your schedule.
Keep an eye out for tasks you don’t like doing and cost very little to have someone else do. Every time you delegate a task you buy back time literally because delegating often costs money. Simply weigh the cost against the benefit. If it makes sense to try it, give it a shot, you can always go back to doing it yourself.
Take Action
- Make a list of the regular tasks you do.
- Order the list by least favorite.
- Get some estimates from people who do that kind of work.
- Weigh the cost against the benefit in recaptured time and mental clarity.
- Give it a try, cancel the service at any time.
- Reevaluate that decision regularly.
