The ability to work hard is one huge key to success, but the ability to leverage your time while working hard is irreplaceable. Having a strong support team gives you the reach to achieving your goals and multiplying their value. Fostering healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with those who assist you – sooner, rather than later – is something you won’t regret.
However, before you begin delegating tasks, there are 4 key factors you should consider first:
1. KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR HOUR IS WORTH
Establishing a number for how much an hour of your time is “worth” can save a lot of headaches when it comes to deciding how to spend your time. I find most people short-sale what their time is worth and spend time on things that are low-value uses of their time. They aren’t willing to spend money to help them get better at leveraging their time to accomplish more.
You can calculate what your time is worth in several ways – how much you’re capable of making in a year divided by the hours it takes to earn that; or, you can simply start with the value you place on your time. When you’re considering spending time investing in important relationships in your life, it’s difficult to put a dollar value on that, but it can be priceless. When you do, there will be times you discover that spending that hour working is not worth what you missed spending time with your family and others. I encourage you to re-evaluate how much your hour is worth at least once a year.
2. KNOW WHERE YOUR TIME IS GOING
For a couple of decades, I did something that may seem crazy to some: I used an Excel spreadsheet to track where every single one of my hours went. You can see an example of this in the handout titled Monthly Time Summary. It only took me three minutes each day to log my hours, and at the end of the year I logged those hours on to my Annual Time Summary. When I wanted to see how my time was spent during any given time period I was interested in, I was able to look at the report and compare those numbers to my values. If I said that my marriage was one of the most important things in my life, I could look at these 2 numbers and face the facts: what percentage of my time was spent with my wife? How much time was I spending working, volunteering, or investing in family relationships? I encourage you to take on this practice, even if it’s just for a limited amount of time. If you’ve already calculated what your hour is “worth”, you’re then able to look at where the hours were “spent” and make sure you’re on track to meeting your personal and professional goals.
3. PRIORITIZE. PRIORITIZE. PRIORITIZE
Beware the “tyranny of the urgent.” It can be easy to waste half a day on something that seems urgent but isn’t a top priority. In business, make sure you’ve built prioritization into your routine and you’re spending time on the most important items first. Ensure anyone else who is supporting and assisting you is equipped to do the same. I prioritize everything in my life by using an A, B, C, D system; whereby A needs to get done today, B within the week, C within the month and D when there is time. I require my assistants to use the same system and once a month we review the project list.
Take some time to determine if a project list software would be a good investment to train yourself and your team on in order to make sure you’re always on the same page about what’s most important. Neglecting this is a huge risk when it comes to the valuable resource of time.
4. DON’T DO THINGS OTHERS CAN DO
If somebody else can do it, don’t do it.
Successful people value hard work, but really successful people realize that they can’t do it all themselves. Trying to maintain 100% control will burn you out quickly, not to mention the detriment it will have on your team. Don’t expect them to be you but help them be the best they can be to serve your common mission.
Consider bringing on an assistant earlier than you think is necessary – it will be a lot easier than you think to move things off your plate and free you up to move in the direction you’re trying to go.
Whether employed or in business, there are many useful tools available today that can help with making the most of your time. For example, you can dictate emails and hire someone to type them up or use software that supports projects you’re working on. There are plenty of services and software available to support you.
Focus on only doing the jobs you are best at or those that nobody else can do. Your team would rather you do something yourself because they believe you can do it better, but that’s a trap. Strong leadership in business knows what, where, when, and who to delegate to. Take a look at my handout five steps to effective delegating that gives more details on how to effectively delegate.
ACTION STEPS
+ Calculate how much your hour is “worth” based on a method that makes sense to you.
+ Make a list of items you routinely take care of that someone else could realistically do. Next to those items, write some ideas for who could take those things off your plate.
+ As you look at your business or personal goals, think ahead to needs you’ll want to delegate in the future. Start thinking about a plan to delegate when it comes up.
This post is the second of a three-part series on time stewardship. The first post covered why time stewardship is important, and I’ll share some simple tips and tricks to greater time stewardship in the final installment.
This blog post mobilized me to execute on the idea I have had for months – hire a personal assistant. This article pushed me over the edge! I am NOT running a large business, but I work for myself and have grown to a scale where demands for my time have increased. I have already been calculating my time allocations for the past three years. I have calculated my effective hourly rate. I realized “an hour is an hour” – whether spent on high value add tasks or errands. Thus, I decided to hire a part-time assistant to handle tasks that were taking time and not adding value. I feel confident about the timing arbitrate for such tasks – even if completed 70% to my desired preferences. I look forward to implementing the strategy throughout 2022 to calibrate my time to its high and best use – spiritually, soulfully, relationally, and financially!