Time Flies: 4 Ways to Make Sure You are the Pilot

Journey with me. You are standing, it is hot, you are sweating and you are waiting. You are with a friend, a significant other, or your entire family. Time is passing and you have been standing here for almost an hour. You can hear the screams and laughter of people enjoying the thrill of the ride. They are many twists and turns ahead of you. You stand with anticipation talking to your party….waiting on your turn to ride the latest and greatest roller coaster at Six Flags, Disney’s or some other large amusement park.

This past summer I had one of the best experiences at an amusement park ever. My husband, Ethan, decided that we would pay a bit more and get Universal Express Pass when we went to Universal Orlando. We decided to go all out. Stay on property and purchase this additional fast pass benefit which allows for early access to some of the most popular rides and to skip the line of many others. We got in more ride time and ALOT less wait time.

This experience got me to thinking about how else I have fast passed my life. I love being an entrepreneur and over the past 20 years, I have learned a lot about how to effectively and efficiently use my time.

Now there is always room for improvement but I will share with you my methodology to make the most of my time each day. I have created an acronym...DOTS to make it easier to remember.

Delegate - I have delegated many of the things I have to do in my life and business. Early on, especially after having our first child, I had to decide what was important to me. I decided these are the things I would delegate:

• Household chores. I found that household assistance can be more affordable than I initially thought. I have a college student that comes in 4 days per week. She does laundry, folds clothes and puts them away for the entire family, cooks and spruce up around the house. She makes sure trash bags are in the trash cans, paper towels and tissue are refilled, etc. Spending time with my kids and playing with them was way more important than me folding clothes while they ran around me.

• Cleaning. We have a cleaning service that comes in once a month to do the heavy lifting…the deep cleaning. They scrub down the showers, mop, clean the baseboards and more.

• Lawn care. My husband does not find joy in doing the yard. I enjoy planting some flowers occasionally, but finding a lawn maintenance company that comes every couple of weeks was imperative.

As a small business owner, we of course wear many hats, but once kids entered the picture, I simply could no longer wear all of the hats. We thought about a nanny or someone to pickup the kids from school, but I found picking up the kids from school ranked very high on my mommy list so instead I delegated the work that I would normally be doing at the office and hired a team member.

We now have a small team that handles much of the day-to-day tasks at the office.

Outsource - Outsource and delegating are very similar, but I think of outsourcing giving a task to someone that I may or may not know. Where as delegating is hiring someone to take some thing off of my plate or giving a tasks to someone within my office.

Ways that I have chosen to outsource: