Once you start to delegate personal tasks, you’ll quickly see how much more productive, present and balanced you can be.
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The Delegation Quadrant
If you’ve read our other articles, you know we talk a lot about outsourcing and delegating. Our go-to tool for determining what you should outsource is the Delegation Quadrant (we explain it, step by step, in our book and in our guide “Ready, Set, Scale“).
Basically, it goes like this. For two to three weeks, you record every task you do on sticky notes and categorize them according to whether:
- You need to keep it because you’re uniquely qualified to do it.
- Someone else could do it, and you hate doing it (delegate these things first).
- Someone else could do it, but you like doing it (delegate these next).
- No one should be doing it (stop doing these things!).
Then, start delegating.
This Delegation Strategy Gets You Out of the Grind and Into Your Power Zone
You can spend more time doing the work you’re uniquely qualified to do, the work you love, and the work that adds the most value to the firm.
But what if your weeks are filled with hours of errands, groceries and laundry … not just work?
The hours you spend grocery shopping, managing household logistics, or waiting on hold with service providers are hours you could be using to focus on client work, grow your firm or — just as importantly — rest and recharge.
When you strategically delegate personal tasks, you can reclaim not only time but also mental and emotional bandwidth. You can create more space for decision-making, better client service and a more balanced life.
5 Ways to Delegate Personal Tasks
Here are five ways to outsource the personal tasks that are quietly (or not so quietly!) draining your time and energy.
1. Delegate Household Management Services
When you’re buried in strategic thinking or preparing for trial, the last thing you need to worry about is scheduling appliance repairs or assembling furniture. Household management services, sometimes called “household managers” or “home concierges,” act like personal project managers for your home. They can:
- Coordinate maintenance and repairs.
- Supervise contractors or deliveries.
- Manage utility accounts or home insurance renewals.
- Keep a running schedule of seasonal tasks (e.g., gutter cleaning, HVAC servicing).
Instead of juggling logistics over lunch, you can focus entirely on your practice while your home runs smoothly in the background. And when you’re home, you’re free to do the things that energize you and fill you with joy … not dread.
2. Delegate Meal Planning and Prep
Long days at work often lead to takeout dinners and skipped lunches, which can negatively impact your energy, your focus, and your health. Outsourcing your meals can be a game-changer.
Consider:
- Meal prep delivery services that drop off a week’s worth of pre-made, nutritious meals and even kids’ school lunches!
- Personal chefs who cook and stock your fridge weekly.
- Grocery shopping services that handle weekly shopping lists and pantry stocking.
One of our friends, Jake, has a whole system for meal planning that generates a randomized meal plan for a month at a time. He also has an automation that uploads his shopping list to his local online grocery store. Jake does the cooking himself, but he never has to ask, “What am I going to make for dinner?” The ingredients are always in his kitchen.
Outsourcing food-related activities will save you hours every week. You’ll eat better, feel better, and have one less set of decisions to make every day.
You can watch the video about Jake’s system here, and get the spreadsheet here. Learn more about Jake and his Brain Friction assessment here.
3. Outsource Micro-Tasks to Errand-Running Services
Errands can overwhelm your schedule. Services like TaskRabbit or local concierge companies can take on everything from dry cleaning runs to post office trips.
One lawyer in our reSET coaching program hired a VA to take over office administrative work, but quickly retasked her to personal work. She picks up the dry cleaning, schedules the kids’ activities, books travel, ensures our lawyer has time every week to work out, reminds the family of important appointments and events, and more.
By outsourcing these “micro-tasks,” you avoid interruptions to your workday and return home to a completed to-do list.
4. Delegate Family Support and Childcare Logistics
If you’re a parent, coordinating childcare, extracurricular activities, and school communications can feel like a second job. Consider outsourcing after-school transportation and using a virtual assistant to handle school forms, registrations and activity sign-ups.
For many parents, homework is a huge source of friction and frustration. By the time you’re finished work, you and your kids are exhausted. No one is interested in homework. Hiring a tutor or homework helper to work with your children before you get home can take the evening academic load off your shoulders, eliminate tears and stress, and ensure you have time and energy for the fun stuff.
5. Outsource Travel Planning and Reservations
The rise of online booking has shifted travel planning back onto us and away from traditional travel agents. Whether you’re planning a business trip or a family vacation, researching flights, hotels, and activities is time-consuming. A travel agent or virtual assistant can:
- Book flights and negotiate upgrades.
- Arrange airport transfers and lounge access.
- Create itineraries tailored to your schedule. (AI does this really well!)
- Manage loyalty points and travel memberships.
For me, travel planning was a category 3: someone else could do it, but I liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that it often became a huge distraction. And then I outsourced the tickets and scheduling to an agent and the first draft of my itinerary to ChatGPT. It saved me hours of time. I’ll never go back!
Bonus: 3 More Things You Can Outsource
- Managing your subscriptions. From Netflix to that gym membership you haven’t used in six months, get an assistant to review what you’re paying for and unsubscribe from everything you’re not using.
- Personal styling and wardrobe decisions. Yes, you can outsource decisions about your clothes. Personal assistants can select outfits for speaking engagements, court appearances and networking events; coordinate seasonal wardrobe updates; and handle returns and tailoring appointments.
- Pet care. It’s not just for dog walking! If you’ve got pets, you know how hard it is to get them to the vet or the groomer, pick up food, and make boarding arrangements. Just Google “pet concierge near me” and knock pet-related tasks off your to-do list.
Delegating Personal Tasks Is a Necessity, Not an Indulgence
Outsourcing personal tasks may seem like an expensive luxury, but do the math. The true value lies in what you get back:
- Time to focus on client work or business development.
- Mental clarity from removing low-value decisions.
- Energy to bring your best self to home and work.
- Quality of life improvements that reduce stress and burnout.
If you bill $350 per hour and spend three hours a week running errands, that’s over $1,000 worth of time lost, time that could generate revenue or give you a much-needed break.
Start small. Pick one or two tasks that create the most friction and outsource them for a month. You’ll quickly see how much more productive, present and balanced you can be.
Get the Power Zone Playbook for Lawyers
By Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner
Get out of the grind and into your power zone! Learn to align the work you do with the work you love, finding the sweet spot where your expertise, passion, and client needs intersect. It’s here, in your Power Zone, that you will discover the secret to a thriving practice.
Everything you need is in your Playbook.
More Process Improvement Tips for Your Law Practice
- Mastering Delegation in Legal Work: 7 Tips to Scale Your Practice
- 5 Tips to Make Time Entry Less Painful for Lawyers
- Law Firm Intake: 3 Tips to Save Time and Convert More Clients
- New Client Onboarding: 5 Tips to Win Over New Clients
- Time to Build Your Team: 5 Steps to Improve Your Hiring Process
- From Hire to Higher: 6 Ways to Improve Employee Onboarding
- Dread the Law Firm Annual Planning Process? 5 Ways to Make It Easier and More Fun
- Lawyer Conflict Checks: 5 Tips to Tune Up Your Process
- Want to Get Paid Faster? 5 Ways to Fix Law Firm Invoicing
- Who’s Answering Your Phones? 3 Tips to Improve Your Law Firm’s Call-Answer Process
Tired of the ‘feast or famine’ cycle?
Download “Ready, Set, Scale” and learn how to set up the systems you need to grow.
* Create processes and SOPS
* Automate key workflows
* Learn what to delegate and to whom
Featured Image licensed under the Unsplash licence.
Image © iStockPhoto.com.
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