The trick to having more time is to do less. I know, you say, you want to do it all, but do you really? Do you really want to do the laundry, the grocery shopping, clean the toilet, stand in line for hours to take care of some errand? These are the low hanging fruit – hugely time consuming, often unfulfilling tasks that can often be delegated to someone else for a small fee. The easiest way to create more time for yourself is to hire someone else or train your children, if you have them, to do these time-consuming chores in exchange for an allowance.
At this point in the program, I sincerely hope you have, at the very least, hired a house cleaner once a week. If not, now is definitely the time! I remember asking my girlfriend why she didn’t have a cleaner given she and her husband both work full-time and could afford one. She said she wanted to set the right model for her children. Initially I accepted this, but since then, I’ve changed my mind. What message are you really sending to your children? That you don’t value your time enough to hire someone else to do tasks you’d rather not do? I prefer to model earning a sufficient income so that I can hire out unpleasant or tedious chores and use my time to do fun, enjoyable things on my own and with my children. What is so wonderful about modeling being exhausted after work and then having to cook and clean? Why not model self-care as being top priority?
She also said that she’d rather have the extra money and do the work herself. Now I suppose that makes a bit more sense, but again, you can always make more money, but time is the one thing you can’t get more of. So ask yourself, is it really worth my extremely precious time? If you didn’t have to spend five hours a week doing house cleaning and laundry, what could you use that time for instead?
In order to create time for the fun stuff, you really do need to carefully examine what you can let go of and what you can delegate. Now if you get real pleasure out of doing the laundry, go right ahead. One of my clients loved to iron and used it as a form of meditation. She hated doing her taxes though and delegated that to an accountant.
How do you choose what to delegate first? Pick the thing that gives you the most angst and delegate that first. (For me that was the taxes.) Then look at what buys you the most time and choose that (for me that was five hours of house cleaning a week). Keep going down your list until you’ve delegated all the unpleasant, but necessary tasks. Most people do this gradually as they realize they can afford it.
Homework:
This week, delegate one or more tasks that you are currently doing and would rather not. If you already have a housecleaner, maybe it is time to hire a gardener? An errand boy or girl to pick up the drycleaning and groceries? A bookkeeper or an accountant to do your taxes? Hire a food service to bring ready prepared healthy meals if you don’t enjoy cooking. Call a professional organizer if you haven’t had time to de-clutter or organize your home or office.
10 Minute Option:
Make a list of things you’d like to delegate. Pick up the phone and call a cleaning service today if you don’t already have one. If you do, good for you, now add another assistant to free up more time.
Enjoy your newfound time!
Talane
