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Outsourcing might not be what you need right now …
You might not like what I’m about to say, but it needs to be said – outsourcing is not a hack for saving time. In fact, I’d say that MOST people are outsourcing for the wrong reasons. Will it save you time? Technically speaking – yes. But it won’t solve your time problems if you’re not actually at a place where you’re ready to outsource. And that’s the hard truth that most people don’t want to hear.
You’re listening to the Chasing Simple podcast, episode 066, and today I’m sharing why I’d encourage you to think twice about outsourcing, why outsourcing is actually more time consuming than you think, and what you should be doing instead. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. After you’ve tuned in, head on over to Instagram, and send me a DM! Do you totally disagree with me? Or are you re-thinking your time saving strategy? Let me know!
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Take the first lesson in Club Content Batching – for free!
- Learn more about my time management VIP Days
- This week’s action step: Sit down and write out your priorities in your business. What are you working towards? Then go through and pick 1-3 that are your top priorities NOW. For each of those, I want you to write down 3 action steps. 3 things you can do to truly move towards those priorities and treat them like priorities. Then, compare those action steps with what you’ve been marking off your to-do list. Are they aligned?
- This week’s book recommendation: Badass Habits by Jen Sincero
- Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield
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Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at hello@amandawarfield.com!
Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!
*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate.
You might not like what I’m about to say, but it needs to be said. Outsourcing is not a hack
for saving time. In fact, I’d say that most people are outsourcing for the wrong reasons. Will
it save you time? Technically speaking. Yes, but it won’t solve your time problems if you’re
not actually in a place where you’re ready to outsource.
And that’s the hard truth that most people don’t want to hear. You’re listening to the
Chasing Simple Podcast, Episode 66. And today I’m sharing what I’d encourage you to think
twice about outsourcing. Why outsourcing is actually more time-consuming than you think
and what you should be doing instead.
I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this after you’ve
tuned in head on over to Instagram and send me a DM I’m at Mrs. Amanda Warfield. Do you
totally disagree with me or are you mainly rethinking your time-saving strategy? Let me
know.
I know I’m ruffling a lot of feathers with this opinion. But outsourcing is not your magical
solution to getting more done. Here’s what I see over and over and over again, within this
online community. There’s two sides to this first. They’re the people that are pushing others
to outsource. The coaches that are saying, “oh, if you outsource, it’ll free up your time.” “oh,
if outsource, she’ll be able to take this off your plate” and service providers who are
encouraging you to outsource because duh, they’re marketing their services to you. They
want you to outsource. So they get a paycheck. But a lot of this advice and a lot of this
marketing is geared towards people who aren’t truly ready to outsource.
And then also there’s the other side of this. There are the people that I’m constantly seeing
these entrepreneurs inside of Facebook groups that are asking about outsourcing. And their
reasoning is always, they want to free up more time. If they could just outsource it would
save them so much time, so on and so forth.
Here’s why I don’t agree here is where this opinion is coming from. Outsourcing is great
when you’re ready for it. When you get to the point where, you know, I no longer want to do
this thing, or this is something that I truly could take off my plate in order to get this other
thing done. It’s great for that. And I’ll give an example in just a second. It’s great for
outsourcing when you’re truly ready. If time management is your actual issue, outsourcing
is not going to help you. You’re just going to end up replacing the time that you freed up by
outsourcing with another time suck if you’re not being really intentional with your time
management.
For example, I outsource all of my podcasts editing to my wonderful editor. I did not and
outsource my editing because I wanted to free up time. That was actually not my main
motivator at all. Did it free up time for me? Yes. It shortened my batch week by an entire
day.
But realistically that only outsourcing my editing only saves me about eight hours a month.
What it does save me is a ton a ton, a ton, a ton of mental energy. I hate editing with a
burning fiery passion. Like the Grinch going down, the address book. That’s me, all of it. Just
editing. I loath it. I loath it. The mental energy that outsourcing my editing freed up is worth
its weight in gold. And in fact today I was editing videos for club content batching, and my
husband walked by and he goes, “what are you doing? Are you recording?” I said, “no, I’m
just editing these videos”. And he said, “wait, don’t you have an editor for that?” I was like,
“Hmm, I wish I have to still do these videos myself. But my podcasts are what I get edited.”
And in that moment I wished so desperately that I had someone that would edit literally
everything I created, because it’s about the mental energy that it takes up. That’s how I
knew I was ready to outsource editing, not because I wanted to free up time. Although when
my husband and I were discussing it, because this was the first thing I’ve ever outsourced.
And if you listened to the last episode, I talked about the responsibility of making sure that I
have this income so that I can pay this other person, their income. It’s a big responsibility.
When we were talking about this, it wasn’t about the time. Although I did say, well, if I free
up this these eight hours a month, where I’m no longer editing, eight hours is a bit much,
probably a little less than that, but still all this time that I’m spending editing can be used to
create blog posts or work on SEO or something like that. That was part of the discussion, It
wasn’t simply, I want to take this off my plate to free up more time. If it had been, I likely
would have just filled the time with some other things. Some other times suck instead of
having clear cut boundaries on where my time was going and when having good timing. Not
to mention that outsourcing in and of itself is extremely time-consuming. So, so many
people want to do it simply so that they can save time. But outsourcing in and of itself is
very time consuming. Think about all of the steps that need to be taken in order to get
someone to do what it is that you’re doing.
First, you’ve got to decide what it is that you want to outsource, because that’s the other
thing, a lot of these questions are I want to free up some time. What should I outsource
first? It’s not about the task. It’s about the time. You got to decide what you want to
outsource. Then you’ve got to write up a description of what it is that you want and who
you’re looking for. You’ve got to create an application. You’ve got to promote that you’re
hiring. You’ve got to ask for referrals. You’ve got to get people to apply. Then you’ve got to
go through the applications, interview the decent applicants, at least once, maybe twice,
actually hire someone and go through all of that process, creating a contract, getting all of
your ducks in a row legally. Training them on what it is that you do and how you do it and
what you’re looking for. Then reviewing their work, sending feedback, et cetera. It’ll take
months before anyone that you hire or someone that you outsource to is really in the
groove of what you’ve wanted, unless you get a magical unicorn, like my editor and she was
easy in does an amazing job.
90% of the time, it is a very, very long process for figuring out from what you’re outsourcing
all the way to getting to a place for you. Don’t really have to think about that task at all
anymore. you’re not saving time for months and months and months. It is a long-term game
when you’re outsourcing something. If it’s simply for saving time, outsourcing isn’t a magic
pill. What can you do instead?
You can focus on your time management and your priorities. On aligned priorities are going
to lead you to work on things that aren’t moving you in the direction that you want to go.
Usually this shows up as you trying to work on a million different things and having a million
different things on your plate, instead of getting really clear on one thing. Usually this will
show up as you’ve got a massively long to-do list and you just throw a dart at it to see ,
where it lands, what are we going to work on today? What task feels right. Instead of having
a clear plan. It is a massive waste of time. Getting clear on what your priorities are and how
it is that you can work towards them is really key. If you can’t tell me the one thing that
you’re focused on this quarter, you probably aren’t clear on your priorities.
For example, my one thing right now that I’m working on my business, my one thing. Is Club
Content Batching. It is getting a major overhaul by the time this airs , the doors will be open
for months, it’s getting a major, major overhaul. It takes a lot of time and energy to do that.
That is the one thing that I’m working on is overhauling Club Content Batching so that I can
open the doors. If I wasn’t clear on what my priority was, I might say, well, I’m working on
Club Content, Batching, and I’m also working on getting some VIP day clients, and I’m also
working on, , maybe planning a retreat. I’m also thinking about maybe like that’s 1,000,001
tasks that I just said versus I’m working on this one thing. Knowing what your one priority is
in your business this quarter is going to help with your time management so much. Once
you know what you’re working towards, you’ve got to use that time wisely and efficiently.
And it’s a lot easier to use your time wisely and efficiently if you have a very narrowed and
focused on to-do list. You’re able to set up your days and your weeks and your months with
clear, but flexible expectations of where your time’s going to be going and what you’re
working on. When that helps you get focused, efficient, and it helps you actually make
moves instead of working constantly with nothing to show for it.
If you’re someone who feels like you’re working all day long, checking things off, doing this,
doing that, doing this, but you’re not actually seeing any growth that’s because you’re not
focused enough and you’re not focused enough not so much when you’re working, although
you could be distracted while you’re working as well, but more so you’re not focused
enough with that clear plan. You’ve got to have that clear plan so that you can use your time
wisely so that, you know, when you sit down on Mondays, this is what you’re working on.
When you sit down on Tuesday, this is your top three. When you sit down on Wednesday,
boom, that’s what you’re working on. Having a clear plan means that you’re able to get in
and get out and use your time wisely.
Once you have clear priorities. And once you have a firm grip on your time management,
then it is a great time to outsource and outsourcing is an amazing thing. Trust me. I can’t
recommend it enough, but it’s not the magic pill you’re looking for. If you’re just trying to
free up time.
So this week’s action step. I want you to sit down and I want you to write out what your
priorities are in your business right now. What are you working towards? What’s on your
plate? Then go through and pick one to three things that are your top priorities right now;
not a month down the road, not next year, not at the end of this year.
What are you doing right now? What is your priority? For each of those? I want you to write
down three action steps, three things that you can do to truly move towards those priorities
and treat them like actual priorities. Here’s the real work. Compare those action steps that
you just came up with, with what you already been marking off on your to-do list. Are those
action steps, things that you’re actually doing? When you sit down to work, are you actually
working towards those things? Or do you, you find that you’re hanging out in your inbox or
tweaking sales pages because they need to be prettier or are you hanging out on Instagram
with most of your time? Does what you’ve been doing, actually align with those action steps.
And that’s going to tell you a lot about how well your priorities are aligned and how well
you’re spending your time. So do that, get your priorities aligned.
If you need help with time
management, let’s chat. I have a few VIP days left for this year, and then once you’ve got a
handle on your time management, then it’s time to start thinking about outsourcing.
And this week’s book recommendation is Bad-ass Habits by Jen Sincero, which. I’m going to
be honest. I truly wasn’t expecting much from this book. I’ve read all of her books and
frankly, the past few haven’t impressed me. her original book, I loved the money. One I
thought was okay. I don’t even remember there, like two others that she’s put out that I
thought were just. Very mediocre personally. And a lot of people just, just love her. And I
think she’s great too, but I haven’t been as impressed. And so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot
out of this book. And also I read a lot about habits because it fascinates me, the psychology
behind it fascinates me. I’m a very habit driven person, so I didn’t expect a lot, I’m also a
completionist. So I’ve read all our other stuff. I’ve got to read this one, right?
I was actually really, truly impressed by this one. And she does indeed have different and
interesting takes on habits and how she explains habits. I thought it was really good. And if
you’re someone who does enjoy reading about habits. If you’ve read atomic habits, which is
another great one, or I can’t think of another one off the top of my head. If you love reading
about habits, if you’re very habit oriented, highly recommend Bad-ass Habits by Jen Sincero.
And until next time, I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your life and biz.
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