Delegation

About 60% of executives say they don’t have enough time to do what they want to achieve.
Some take cognitive-enhancing drugs to keep up and downplay health and social concerns.
However, the scientific evidence on the negative effects of long hours on our health is
daunting. But not only are we depriving ourselves of essential biochemical and
neurochemical recovery processes, also our relationships suffer.

And towards the end of our lives no one regrets not having worked more, but having cared less for others, as relationships are the central factor for our overall happiness.

To keep the work hours in check, higher levels of clarity and focus help us discern which tasks we can stop altogether and which tasks to cut and delegate. By focusing on the needle-moving high competence tasks we more easily enter flow state and achieve more with higher quality, which ultimately generates more and better results.

So which task should we delegate? Delegation means focusing primarily on the work only you can do by transferring everything else to others who are more passionate about the work or proficient in the tasks. To find the key activities only you can do, as well as those activities that others can do better, sort your tasks by the amount of passion you have for doing them and the skill and competence you have in getting them done. That way you’ll end up with four different categories of tasks.

Drudgery tasks: Tasks for which you have no passion and proficiency for are drudgery tasks. These are things you hate doing and aren’t good at doing. This work is a grind and the worst for you to do. Don’t feel guilty about handing off your mosthated chores to someone else because people differ in their preferences and talents you can find someone who enjoys what you hate

Disinterest tasks: The next tasks to load off are those that you can proficiently handle but have no passion for. You can do these tasks, but they drain your energy and you get bored doing them. We often get stuck in these tasks because we are good at them. However, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you should do it.

Distraction tasks: Distractions are tasks that you like doing, but with an honest assessment you have to admit that you are not highly proficient in completing. It can be harder for you to eliminate them. However, you also don’t want to waste your time or money doing subpar work when a more proficient professional could do the job ten times better.

Desired tasks: Once you’ve eliminated and delegated all tasks that you are either not proficient in or are passionate for, you are left with the work that you love, and you excel in. Now your world opens up. There’s only one reason to delegate any of these tasks, and that’s if you still have more work with the desired tasks on your plate than you can handle yourself. For high-achievers it is a high temptation not to delegate any of these tasks, but you can still work yourself to death doing what you love. To overcome this, examine what

you are most proficient at and what you enjoy the most and try to identify elements of your work that you can delegate.