The Art of Delegating

If I could give a few tips to my younger self, the list would start with these:

• Drink more water
• Go for a facial and a massage once a month
• Hire people to help out with your daily routine

The first two are, I think, fairly self-explanatory! However I want to elaborate on the third point…

I used to think that it’s more beneficial if I clean my own house, cook my own food, work in my garden and organise trips myself. In this way I can control how things are done and can ensure they are done exactly how I want it. If you have stable income such as through a full-time job, it is a great way to save some money. However the situation is drastically different if you have a side business, or you are a full-time entrepreneur working on your own thing where your time is, quite literally, money.

When your time is so valuable then doing everything yourself is not only waste of time, it also is waste of money. Unless you are a chef, a gardener, find housework relaxing or organising itineraries is your thing, then you are probably spending your time on tasks that are better spent on your own ventures and you are better off hiring some help to save some money.

Now you might be thinking, since when is spending money on hiring people actually saving money?

Let’s run through two scenarios…

Cleaning and Cooking

Scenario 1: Doing it yourself

You are busy with work, travelling during the week and then back home Friday evening. During the week you did not have time to clean at all, nor was it on your mind. On Saturday, you are so tired from the previous week at work that you are recovering until the afternoon. In the afternoon, you want to catch up with people who are important to you such as your family, friends or both. Suddenly it’s already Sunday. Sunday is the one day you have left before it’s Monday again and back to work.

Do you then spend this day on housework such as cleaning, doing the washing and ironing? Let’s say that’s what you do on Sunday. Instead of taking some time off to relax and recharge the batteries, you are back to work on Monday feeling exhausted. Your thinking is less sharp, your decisions less accurate and ultimately your work or business suffers. This goes on and on and with a battery-recharge potentially not happening for weeks, months and years. Eventually you will hit a limit and burn-out or break-down.

Scenario 2: Someone else does it

In this scenario, we’ll take the same demanding work life as before. You come back Friday evening after a hectic week of work and/or travel. On Saturday, you have a cleaner coming in for say 3 hours. The cleaner is followed by a cook who prepares meals for the weekend and any weeknights you’re going to be in. While they do their thing Saturday morning, you can rest from the exhausting week and the late Friday night arrival. Come Saturday afternoon, like before, you catch up with the important people in your life.

Suddenly it’s already Sunday. And here is where the big difference can be found. Instead of doing the cleaning, the cooking or whatever other chore needs to be done, instead you can catch up on news, read your favourite magazines, go online shopping, or rest further with a bath, spa or salon visit. Of course you can spend this time catching up on work or doing your side-thing, without the exhaustion of doing housework, or guilt of not doing it.

In this way, you have gained two days and the weekend is truly yours. Monday comes and you are welcoming it because you are rested and ready for any challenges. Your mind is sharp and your decisions are good. During the week, the house is clean and depending on your arrangement with the cook, maybe you have a few dinners in your freezer ready to go. Your quality of life has been immediately improved.

Low Versus High Value Tasks

To help make the most of your life, you should take stock of what you consider to be a high-value task – something that rewards you, rests you or increases your income, compared to a low-value task – something that drains you and has a cost (emotional or financial) but must be done. In this, we are all different as what one person finds rewarding, another finds exhausting.

Identify the low-value tasks in your life and see if there is someone out there who can do them for you, be they a cleaner, a cook, a virtual assistant or other. Compare the financial cost for these services to what you are gaining by doing high-value tasks in their place. I think you’ll be surprised at just how much money you can save, and make, by doing this.