Increase Your Productivity By Knowing When and What to Delegate

Most people know when they have more to do in a week than what’s humanly possible. However, it doesn’t always cross their mind that they need to get help with their responsibilities. It’s one thing when you have a few busy weeks, but when you find it’s been months and you’re still running on your coattails, it’s time to make a change. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about knowing when and what to delegate to increase your productivity. 

We’ve talked about this before, but when you get behind on your task list, it’s easy to fall into a guilt spiral. The further behind you get, the further behind you will get and it’s hard to catch up or pull out of it. Your productivity tanks because you’re spending every day of your week just putting out fires. The best way to increase your productivity is to get help with your responsibilities. 

1. Know When to Hand Off Work

When you get to the end of the week and you have just as many things on your to-do list as when you started, it’s time to get help. Of course, there are going to be busy seasons, but if you’re good at what you do, those seasons are going to turn into a full year. It’s only natural that your workload will grow as you get better at what you do. 

Just as a reminder, do not feel guilty if you can’t do it all. We weren’t designed to do everything ourselves. We were created for community and reliance on each other. Not only that, your overload of work can be a blessing to other people. It’s a talent to be able to secure work, and not everyone is skilled in that area. So use your overload of work as a way to bless someone else that could use additional income or learn a new skill. 

2. Make a List of All of Your Responsibilities

This list should include your personal and business responsibilities. Delegating parts of your job may not be an option, so that means you have to find help with other parts of life. 

Look at the list and determine: 

• What items are on this list that only I can do? 
• What items on the list can I teach someone else to do? 
• What items on the list do I need to pay a professional? 
• Who can I get to help me? 

3. Start Small and Off Load a Portion of Your Tasks

It can be scary to hand off work, because there’s a fine balance of getting help and giving away too much of your workload. Not only that, when you hand off a task, you have to trust the person you give it to and know they won’t work on your timeline. 

• Start off by handing off small parts of your responsibilities. 
• Tell the person how long you want them to spend on a task or how long to expect it to take.
• Give them a deadline. 
• Check-in one time, but don’t micromanage. 

4. Focus on Building Relationships With The People You Delegate To

The best way to effectively delegate tasks at home or work life is to develop a relationship with the people around you. It allows you to get a sense of their interests and what they may be good at. Not only that, it keeps the communication open between you if they are given something they can’t do. 

5. Develop a Team Mindset 

We have a team mindset in our family. Our kids know that if we can knock out our work and they can pick up things around the house, we have more time to give them to do things. With our team, we have worked to unite them as a group, which is tough to do when your team is fully remote. 

With Your Kids

So many people don’t see their kids as a part of the household team. They can and should pick up chores and responsibilities around the house. Learning how to balance their schoolwork load with the household workload is a valuable skill that they will carry into their adult life. 

Teach your children that being a team as a family is a benefit to them as well. When you work together, you have more fun, develop closer relationships, and have more time to do the things you enjoy. 

With Your Contractors

At one time, I used to pit my contractors against each other in healthy competition. And, with certain types of tasks, that was helpful. However, as our tasks varied and the team grew, this was no longer a good approach. It’s been much more effective than I develop a team mindset so I can get the help when I need it and they know they can get help when they need it. 

When You Have The Right Amount of Work You Will Increase Your Productivity 

Having the right amount of work to do each week will help you to increase your productivity. Next week, we’re going to talk about what the right amount of workload looks like for your personality and what to do when you don’t have enough on your plate. 

Contact us To Help Take Tasks Off Your Plate

Here at R5 Website Management, we offer a lot of services to small businesses. We help you increase your online presence, manage your website, send out newsletters, post on social media, and more. All of these things are important to running a successful business, but that doesn’t mean you have time for it. We are a company that works with many freelancers, contractors, and companies that need an outsource team. 

Contact us today and we’ll be happy to discuss your project.