Say you’re earning £50 per hour. Any time you spend doing a task which you could pay someone less than £50 per hour for is money lost. Every job has these tasks - especially for the self employed.

So you pay an assistant £10 per hour to do the work. You have just made £40 profit on that hour, and have one extra hour you didn’t have before.

You can use this extra hour to earn at £50 per hour.

Let’s break down what’s happened:

+ £50 income from the outsourced hour
+ £50 income from the extra hour you saved
- £10 paying the assistant
—————————————-
+ £90 income per hour

Your income has just increased by 80%.

Economists amongst you will recognise this as a demonstration of opportunity cost.

Clearly you’re not going to be able to outsource ALL your work, but in every job there is work that simply does not need you to do it. And if you keep doing it you’re wasting money.

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. — Theodore Roosevelt

Lacking time, money, or something.

If you believe in what you’re doing, the chances are this is a delaying tactic. We all do it, and I’ve still not really come up with a satisfactory reason why. We know what our goals are, we know what needs to be done to achieve them, but for some reason we still find it necessary to spend time doing things that do not directly move us in the direction we wish to go.

The best reason I can find is fear of having to deal with what comes next. Which is silly, really, because you WANT to deal with whatever comes next. And it’s not like it’s going to add to your to-do list, because by the time it happens you’ll have done whatever is on your list already.

I don’t have any magic tips for dealing with this strange, self destructive behaviour other than to recognise it for what it is, then stop it. Just find a way of doing what needs to be done, then do it. And if you don’t know how…

Get a mentor.

Other people can help you. More over they actually really WANT to help you because being asked for help is a form of tremendous flattery. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. See also the foot in the door technique. You can get some of your best advocates by asking favours.

Attitude.

Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right — Henry Ford.

Enough said.

Poorly defined goals.

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else. — Yogi Berra

It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating: make your goals SMART.

• S - specific, significant
• M - measurable, meaningful, motivational
• A - achievable, action-oriented
• R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding (for you), results-oriented
• T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

Information overload.

You’ve been reviewing so much information you’re now swamped and not entirely sure what to do next. You’re in for a treat. This is the one time when it really serves your purposes to do nothing at all. Go to a film, go get some exercise and take a stroll outside, have a nap. Whatever you do, remove yourself from more related stimuli.

Your brain has a wonderful way of processing and ordering this stuff in the background whilst you get on and do something else entirely.

When you do get an idea, though, write it down. Don’t think that you’ll rememeber it, because you won’t. Your brain is making sense of so many ideas that it really doesn’t have the resources to remember the ideas it creates. Additionally once you’ve thought of the idea it will immediately change and be built upon with still more new ideas. This is not always a good thing. So write down the first idea immediately. You can always cross it out if a better one comes up.

Whether it’s remembering that you’re due to make a dental appointment, or remembering to book a train, or look into legislation around something, the only way to deal with all the stuff in your head is to get it off your mind.

To handle these ideas, thoughts, and tasks more effectively, turn each into an actionable task. So “Oh I must make a dental appointment” becomes “Call Dr.Pullen on 0207 123 4567 and book an appointment on the next available Friday”. This will help you get it done by making it real and tangible.

Now you have made it actionable, ask yourself “Could someone else do this for me?”

With your online personal assistant just an email, SMS, or form away, you can look forward to a life with less hassle and more time for concentrating on the important things.