I admit it. I can be a bit of a control freak. I like things done in a certain way. The upside to this is that my work is finished to a very high standard. The downside to this is that everything takes a long time, leaving me little time to do what I really enjoy doing...going for a run, playing with my daughter, hanging out with my husband.
So what's a professional gal to do? Outsource. I was introduced to this concept by Tim Ferris, the author of "The Four Hour Work Week". This book is full of lots of tips on how to focus on what's working and leave behind what's not working. The best thing I learned from this gem of a book is to outsource my work to a company such as Get Friday. I work with Sona at Get Friday and give her all kinds of work that I consider drudgery. For example, I need a spreadsheet of all management associations, their contact person and their annual conference dates, to help me market my new book "A Manager's Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best out of Your Employees", being published by the American Management Association (AMA) in spring 20008. Creating that spreadsheet could take me hours and bore me to tears. Instead I tell Sona what I need and in a few days I have a working document. Is it completed the way I would have done it? No. But I'd rather have something to work with than spend my own time creating a "perfect" document.
What else can you outsource? Updating your holiday card database, researching information for an upcoming talk, updating your contacts on Plaxo or Constant Contact. The list is endless once you start to think about all the work that needs to get done that you don't enjoy. So take a minute and think of some work that is required but not particularly interesting to you. Determine how you would train someone else to do it, write it down and contact Get Friday. You'll be glad you did. You may even get your Fridays back! TGIF!
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