Whether you’re a solopreneur or part of a large organization, there will always be a task or two that you don’t specialize in or simply don’t like to do. Lately, I’ve been listening to webinars and reading articles that all seem to chant “outsource and your life will be easy”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of outsourcing and delegating but what happens if there’s no one to delegate to and simply no budget to hire or contract services? You still have to get the work done; how do you cope?
Normally, it’s not just one task that you dread but a number of related tasks or a process. If you have a to-do list you probably have things like: pay bills, design flyers, filing and a number of items that begin with the word call. When you get to the point where you begin one of these tasks, you will likely find that there are several steps to it. Let’s use design flyers as an example. This to-do isn’t as easy as just designing a flyer. You need to consider your message, the layout, how many, which printer, the due date etc.
One popular coping method I’ve noticed is avoidance. I’ve even been a big subscriber to this tactic, until I found myself spending hours sorting and recording receipts at year end. I suppose its human nature to try to avoid things that are unpleasant to us but I’ve learned that avoidance usually doesn’t serve you well.
So, what have we got so far? You can’t outsource, can’t delegate and avoidance doesn’t work. What can you do?
- Keep it simple.
- Make time for it.
You want to create a process or checklist to ensure you don’t skip any steps and to make the job as simple and quickly repeatable as possible. The creation of a process will also simplify the handoff of work to someone else when you are able to pass it on. Often we create processes that are more complicated than they really need to be. That may not be so bad if it’s a task you like to do, but I suggest you stick to the basics when it’s a task you just need to get through.
The easiest way to ensure work gets done is to schedule it. For me, it’s unrealistic to schedule administrative duties like filing and bookkeeping as daily occurrences. I really like doing my filing every Friday because it helps me flag any unfinished tasks and sets me up for starting fresh on Monday. When I first started scheduling tasks, I needed to put most of them on my planner. Now, things like filing and bookkeeping are just part of my weekly and bi-weekly routine. You may need to keep your phonecalls, reporting and accounting tasks on a schedule because they can be quite time sensitive.
If you need help organizing your time or your work into manageable, sustainable processes you can visit my website for more information.
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