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People are fond of telling you that there are things money can’t buy. Things like love, and time. It’s true you can never ‘buy back’ the time you’ve wasted in the past, but in many ways time is one of the easiest things to buy. Every time you outsource something that you would otherwise be spending time on, you’re effectively buying time.
Recent developments in technology have made it easier than ever to outsource affordably, but many of us have ended up outsourcing the wrong kind of tasks.
As author Joanna Maciejewska has famously stated:
“I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”
When deciding what to outsource you want to be thinking in terms of return on investment, opportunity costs, and your own quality of life. You don’t want to be spending time doing something that you could outsource for $10 an hour, if you are able to bill your own time at $100 an hour. Or do you?
Generally speaking, if the hourly rate you’re paying someone else is less that your own average hourly earning rate, it’s worth outsourcing, but sometimes it isn’t. Because that can lead you to outsourcing things you love in order to spend time on things you hate.
Think twice about outsourcing any task that:
- You really love doing
- Has other benefits attached to it
The most obvious things in this category are things like childcare or walking your dog. If you love doing those, want a great relationship with your kids and are much more physically and mentally healthy when you’re walking 10,000 steps a day, think twice about outsourcing them.
Only you know what you want to buy in and what you don’t. But here are some common things you can outsource in your everyday life
House and Yard Work
Perhaps the most obvious ones, and it’s incredibly easy to pay for a house cleaning or gardening service. But even then, think strategically. Are there chores you actually enjoy, or ones that can be easily outsourced to technology? Maybe you don’t need to pay for those.
If you’ve invested in a great dishwasher and a Rumba, maybe you don’t need to be paying someone to wash dishes and vacuum. If you love communing with nature while tending your vegetable garden, don’t outsource that. It’s fine to pay someone to do specific tasks you don’t want to do.
Transport
Any time you pay to be transported from one place to another, you’re buying yourself time to do something else on the journey.
If letting the taxi or Uber driver do the driving lets you finish off a report or focus on the meeting you’re preparing for, it can be time well spent. If it lets you relax or read a book, it can also be time well spent.
If you happen to love driving, find it relaxing, and like to listen to audio books or podcasts while you do it, you won’t benefit from outsourcing it.
Most families won’t stretch to a personal chef, but when you decide on how often you’ll eat out and order takeout, you’re effectively outsourcing this. Another way to partially outsource it is with meal delivery services like Hello Fresh, or simply by shopping for groceries online.
Love cooking, but only when you have time? Factor this in when making your outsourcing plan. Maybe this is something that needs to be outsourced all week, but not on the weekends.
Anything Where You Can Use an Agent or Broker
Booking a trip, selling a car, or renting an apartment? Anything that can be done through any kind of agent or broker means you’re outsourcing part of the process.
Consider how much time you’ll save and how much more you’ll pay (or lose in commission) every time you’re making a decision to use one.
Admin
Both business and personal admin can be outsourced to a virtual assistant, and these days often to an app, AI program, or other automated system.
Whether you use a human or truly virtual assistant, the training or set up can be time consuming, but can result in a lot of boring business or household admin being taken off your plate.
Need more time? Buy it in. But do it strategically. Consider making a list of absolutely everything that you could pay someone else to do, and then work out:
- Which tasks you actually want to outsource
- Whether there are other benefits to doing them yourself
- If they can be partially outsourced
- What’s the most efficient way to get them off your plate
Time is one of the most important things you can buy, so make sure you’re doing it right.
Karen Banes is a freelance writer specializing in entrepreneurship, parenting and lifestyle. She writes articles, website content, ebooks and the occasional award winning short story. Her work has appeared in a range of publications both online and off, including The Washington Post, Life Info Magazine, Transitions Abroad, Brave New Traveler, Natural Parenting Group, and Copia Magazine. Learn More About Karen
