Are You Trying To Do It All?

I know you will agree with me when I say 2020 was a very strange year. Many of us worked from home, some of us moved, many had to home school their kids, as well as take on many of the responsibilities and tasks that prior to the pandemic, were executed by someone else.

It was exhausting to say the least, but those times are over, at least for now. Our children will return to their classrooms, we can go into the office, and meeting in person has started once again.

Many of us became very resilient during Covid and took on things we might never have done before. We learned new skills and became more self-reliant, and that’s a good thing. What is not such a good thing is continuing to do it all, even when the circumstances do not call for it.

Trying to juggle everything means that at least a few of the things that you are juggling may fall to the floor. In a worst-case scenario, one of those balls may be mission-critical, dropped because you were doing something that someone else could possibly have executed for you.

Trying to do it all is a recipe for:

• Burnout and exhaustion
• Mistakes or problems with client deliverables
• Missed deadlines

Simply, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are three things that you can do that can help you to “get out of your own way” and stop trying to do everything yourself:

Delegate

For many businesspeople, delegating work is a seemingly impossible task. Firmly convinced that they’re the only person that can do pretty much everything that needs to be done, they find themselves burdened with tasks that can be easily taught and assigned to someone else. Effective delegation requires planning and identifying resources that are best suited for the task. Make certain that you provide comprehensive training for the person that will be taking on the job so that they have the requisite skills to be successful. This not only benefits you, but allows your staff to develop additional skills and capabilities that help them to find their position more fulfilling.

Outsource

Sole proprietors, as well as small businesses that do not have staff to whom work can be delegated, should consider outsourcing. Outsourced resources work for companies such as Upwork or Fiverr or run their own companies providing services in areas where support is needed. Screen and qualify your outsourced resources with care and make sure to get referrals, regardless of how and where you source the resource.

Hire Staff

If you come to the realization that you are understaffed and have ongoing work for a new employee, you may wish to hire someone on a full or part-time basis. Bringing on a new employee is a big responsibility. You must carefully consider the economics of the decision, make certain that you have enough consistent work and if not bring in a temp., create a training and onboarding program, and all of that must be done BEFORE the employee joins your company. Recruiting and hiring is a time-consuming process – you may want to work with a recruiter to help you identify the best candidates for the position.

Being a Type-A, “I can do it myself” type of person can lead to stress as well as undermine the quality of your work product. After all, you never signed on to be a juggler. Why not give a few of those balls to someone else?