Second Cup: When you outsource, you're still a resource

Celebrate reducing your workload, rather than lamenting the small amount you still have to do

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that when you outsource, you're still a resource.
You can't check something entirely off your list. Even if

(00:25):
you hire someone else to do it, you still have
to do a little management and supervision. So it's best
to focus on how you are saving ninety percent of
the time you would have spent on a task, rather
than get frustrated about the ten percent that likely won't

(00:45):
go away. Longtime listeners know that I advocate outsourcing lots
of things. Often a manageable amount of money can free
up a good bit of time. Than spending your weekends
cleaning or running errands, you can spend them hanging out
with your family at work rather than handling every detail.

(01:10):
You hire a team to specialize, and you provide direction.
Even for folks who work for themselves, having an in
person or virtual assistant can be quite helpful. Here's the thing, though,
When you outsource a task that would otherwise fall to
you and that actually needs to get done, you won't

(01:33):
be able to let it go completely. You will need
to have some level of involvement it will just be
way less involvement than when you are handling the task directly.
People are much happier when they focus on the reduction
rather than the small amount of lingering mental load. So,

(01:57):
for instance, you might like to imagine that hoving house
cleaners come every week means that you won't ever have
to spend time cleaning your house again, but that is
not entirely true. At the beginning, you will need to
show the cleaners around the house and let them know
how you like things. Some weeks you might need to

(02:18):
ask for some area to get extra attention, really spiffing
up the guest room, for instance, Because company is coming,
you'll probably wind up picking up things before the cleaners come,
so anything small and important does an inadvertently get put
in the wrong spot. You will need to tell the
cleaners when you are canceling a week because you are

(02:39):
on vacation or moving the time because you're having a
party at the exact moment the cleaners usually come. If
you get the same team every week, my guess is
you will want to build a relationship with these people
to the extent that it is possible, so they will
tell you if they see anything out of the ordinary.
Now you know about that's leak in the bathroom a

(03:02):
week earlier than you would have. And of course, if
the cleaners are cleaning your kitchen on Wednesday, that really
just doesn't do your dishes on Saturday. So even if
your house cleaners do almost everything, you can't check house
cleaning off your list completely. You will be a lot
less annoyed by the little things you have to do

(03:24):
when you remember that fact. Likewise, as convenient as grocery
delivery can be, someone still has to order and put
away the groceries. You might also want to check your
bags to ensure you received what you ordered. That means
fewer unpleasant surprises when it's time to cook dinner. And
if you're hiring a full time staff member at work,

(03:46):
you probably can't just hand this person a job description
and assume everything listed will get done exactly as you
want without you lifting a finger. If you hire a
direct report to support your work and take on some
things you've done yourself, you still need to be a resource.
You may not have to perform the work yourself anymore,

(04:09):
but supervising and supporting your direct reports does require time
and attention. Nothing else you want to keep these people happy.
This concept of still needing to do some work, even
if you have offloaded a lot even comes into play
with the idea of passive income. You probably can't get

(04:32):
any category of work in your life down to absolute zero.
I maintain that there aren't a whole lot of truly
passive forms of income out there. I get royalty checks
from books I wrote fifteen years ago, but that is
because I am still out here in the world talking
about time management all the time. Even dividends and interest

(04:56):
require bookkeeping and making sure your accountant has the right forms.
Most forms of so called passive income require way more
work than that. If you have a rental property, even
if you use a property management company, you will need
to make sure that they get paid, and you'll need
to check in occasionally to see that they are doing

(05:19):
a good job. If you've got a website where people
can pay for virtual courses, even if you've already made
the courses, you'll need to check that the websitet is
still working as it's supposed to, And if the search
engines change their algorithms, you will need to update things too.
So it goes If you are hoping to spend one

(05:41):
hundred percent of your hours on leisure. This would all
be really annoying, but when you recognize that the reduction
in time is large, you can choose to focus on that.
There is no free lunch. There are very few instances
in life where you can get something done and have

(06:03):
nothing required of you. So when a little bit is
required of you and a lot is done by someone else,
best not to resent the little you have to do.
If you have made wise choices and train people well,
it probably will be just a little after a while,

(06:25):
which is a lovely thing. Indeed, what have you outsourced successfully?
You can let me know at Laura at Laura vandercam
dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

(06:52):
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Vancam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

(07:14):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.