Hello,
6 Steps Toward Procrastination Freedom
- The phrase a founder hates to hear from his team? "I'll do it tomorrow."
- The phrase a founder lives to hear from his team? "I did it already."
But how do we get from A to B? Well, it's pretty simple. DELEGATE.
Delegate everything you don't truly need to do yourself — trust me, more things fit under that umbrella than you realize…no less than 90% of your day can be delegated to someone else.
Is delegation without its flaws? Absolutely not.
But those flaws are few and far between compared to the stress, disorganization, and overwhelm associated with "I'll do it tomorrow" procrastination.
Delegation can come in a variety of forms depending upon your situation. For me, delegation comes almost exclusively in the form of my team here at Less Doing.
They help me navigate around the common triggers of procrastination…
- Boredom
- Lack of motivation
- Distraction
- Overwhelm
- Uncertainty of success
…and help me get things done. Are those completed tasks always perfect? Not always, but at least they're a step in the right direction, a building block to something better.
If you refer to the above graphic, you'll get a good visual sense of the levels of delegation. There is not one optimal approach and the level at which you delegate will depend on the task.
A good way to begin using this strategy is by applying it to your inbox. Ask yourself, "Do I need to do this now? Can it wait? Can someone else handle it? Once you have determined those parameters, you can them figure out how involved you need to be in the process. If your work environment is built on mutual respect, and you're willing to give your ego a rest, you'll be amazed how little you actually have to oversee.
More importantly, when delegating all excess in my day, I'm creating the mental and physical space necessary to work on what I'm fantastic at — being a husband, father, and helping other people improve their lives.
As you start to get more comfortable with delegation, you'll slowly notice your schedule freeing up as your day becomes less mired in the tasks other people can do. You'll also notice that, as you prepare tasks for delegation, your focus will sharpen — you'll start thinking and working ON your business, rather than IN it.
You'll enjoy the headspace to honestly evaluate state of your business (or your life) and where you want to go next. When you're ready to make the leap from delegation amateur to delegation aficionado, be sure to employ tools that will increase your efficacy, including:
- Trello — the best workflow and project management tool out there
- Slack — a bastion of highly-effective asynchronous communication
- Evernote and Dropbox — cloud-based tools that allow you to store and share anything and everything surrounding your delegation
We operate at Level 6 delegation here at Less Doing.
More often than not, when I circle back around to see how one of my team members is doing on a particular project, I hear that wonderful, life affirming, getting shit done sentence,
"I did it already."
And there are few things better than hearing that.
Hey if you'd like to hear me talk about this and more, check me out at the COO Alliance, this week in Phoenix.
Ari
P.S. In the meantime, check out the four effective ways I can help you reclaim your time.
- Listen to the Less Doing Podcast. Every week, I offer advice on how to be more productive and overcome challenges such as managing your email, staying focused, and how to master the art of delegation. Find it here on iTunes.
- Join the Less Doing Labs on Facebook or Slack. It is a community of efficiency-minded entrepreneurs and industry leaders who want to 10x their productivity. Get expert tips, tricks, and tools to help you get more done, and join a monthly webinar with me where we dig into the top productivity challenges.
- Want even more tools, resources, and practical advice? Join the Less Doing Labs Premium on Slack, and get access to over 200 hours of exclusive resources to include our video library, Process Hacker Live webinars, and the members-only OAO podcast. This group is for those who are serious about applying the Optimize, Automate, Outsource methodology to their lives and business. Send us an email with "Premium" in the subject line for more information
- If you are really committed to taking your life and business to the next level, focusing only on your unique ability, and doing less so you can live more; the Less Doing Group Coaching program is for you. This allows you to dissect your processes to optimize, automate, and outsource your life and business alongside the Less Doing Team and other Less Doing trained and certified coaches. Get the accountability and expertise of our small expert group as well as exclusive resources like one-on-one calls with the team, member "hot seat" discussions, and twice-monthly roundtable discussions with me. If you think this group is for you, send us an email with "Coaching" in the subject line, and we'll get connected.
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