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How giving things up can help you get more out of life
By Ellen Linnemann
“If I don’t do it myself, it just won’t get done right.”
“It’s just faster and easier for me to do it on my own.”
“I have a hard time letting go of things.”
“I hate to give up control – I’ve always liked to be in control of things.”
If this sounds familiar, you’re far from alone. And if you find that your days are bogged down with a seemingly unending list of “tasks” that may or may not be impacting both your work life and your home life – and if you’ve found yourself spending too many evenings toiling away at your computer when you could have (and should have) been cheering your child on from the sidelines at his/her Little League game, you’re unfortunately not alone, either.
The key to freeing up your time, achieving that coveted work-life balance and making both your sales goals and the game? According to Jenna Spencer – the visionary behind the creation of the virtual assistant matching service AssistPro™(www.assistpro.com) — the key is to learn, and master, delegation. Unfortunately, though, delegation remains something that is underutilized by many people – from over-extended professionals struggling with getting out from under their own ”to do” lists, to over-scheduled parents trying to “do it all” at work and at home – each of whom could benefit from the power of effective delegation.
So why aren’t people delegating? And, more importantly, how can effective delegation help not only improve someone’s work-life balance, but improve their overall quality of life?
“I would say the main reason people don’t delegate is that it seems too hard, or they think it will take too long or, most commonly, they mistakenly believe that it’s just easier and faster to do it themselves,” said Jenna, who in addition to her role as AssistPro’s founder and CEO is also a busy mother of three. “But the problem with that is they never get in a position to grow like they want to, because all the things they could just do ‘faster and easier’ pile up, and now they have too much on their plate. Slowing down to hand things off the right way is the best use and investment of anyone’s time and energy if they want not only to grow their business but to enjoy a better work-life balance.”
With her passion for helping people learn how to delegate more effectively, Jenna has just launched an educational platform to help anyone master delegation. The program, Delegation Works™(delegationworks.com), provides a step-by-step process to attaining Delegation Mastery™ — and is based on the delegation techniques used by her hundreds of AssistPro clients not only to effectively master delegation but to significantly grow their businesses.
Through the delegation strategies and techniques she lays out (which she has seen work with countless clients who have mastered delegation), she is helping so many people attain that work-life balance, all with some simple delegation tools.
With the creation of the Delegation Works educational platform, Jenna is committed to helping others achieve the improved work-life balance that she has witnessed in so many of her clients. The first step, she stresses, is getting rid of your feelings of having to be “in control” of every task and see just how much time you can save by mastering delegation.
“Sometimes people find it hard to delegate because they don’t know how to delegate some things, or they feel like they can’t be delegated because they’re too big, or too involved, or too sensitive,” she said. “By learning the process, they not only can hand it off for good but do it in a way that is comfortable for them and for the long haul.”
For more information about Delegation Works, including a full description of the educational platform and program elements, visit delegationworks.com.
Key Takeaways
Whether at work or at home, effectively delegating the tasks that are weighing you down not only can free up your time but help you gain that all-important work-life balance that can improve your overall quality of life. Here are three of Jenna’s “tried and true” steps to taking those first steps towards delegating just about anything – and harnessing the power of delegation that she’s seen change lives.
Brain dump a list of items you’d like to get off your plate. Pick three that would have the biggest immediate impact to your schedule but not too difficult to hand off in 30 days.
Write the answer to this question: “What does it look like when this has been SUCCESSFULLY delegated to someone else?” Take your time and think about the details here.
Transfer this information to the person you are delegating to, answer their questions, and set a weekly meeting to review until you are confident they own the new items.