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As business owners, we have a lot on our minds and on our plates. Deciding what work to focus on and what to delegate can feel overwhelming and difficult—especially when everything feels important. We’re reluctant to hand things over to someone because what if they mess it up…Today, I’ll share how I help my clients decide what work to keep doing and what to delegate, whether by outsourcing it or hiring internally.

We usually start the process with tracking their time for three to five days. And we do this for a couple of reasons.

1. It gives them awareness about where their time is really going. And how long they’re spending on those things.

2. It gives them some quick wins by showing them what activities they can stop doing (activities we can trash) or at least do less of (activities we can trim) which means they immediately free up time…actual hours in their week.

3. It shows them which activities they can delegate off their plates and which ones to keep.

4. It also shows them how much time someone else might need to take over these activities which helps them decide whether it’s something they can outsource, whether they need a part time employee or someone full time.

And this is really helpful because so many business owners hire someone full time and then they don’t have enough work for them to justify the full time expense.

So once we’ve tracked their time…and trashed and trimmed some of the activities, we can take everything that is left and categorise it into three buckets:

1. Work you don’t enjoy doing and you’re not good at.

2. Work you don’t enjoy but you are good at it.

3. Work you enjoy doing and you’re good at doing.

1. Work you don’t enjoy doing and that you’re not good at doing.

This is the work we want to delegate first. One, because it’s draining your energy and pulling you away from activities that could be more beneficial for your business. It’s what I call “the soul-killing work”. Two, because you don’t do it well! Your business cannot be the best that it can be if you’re doing mediocre work. Three, it’s also killing your efficiency because the fact that you hate doing it and you aren’t good at it either means it’s probably also taking you a ton of time to do it.

The good news is, there is someone out there who is really really good at doing this work and the LOVE doing it as well. So they can do it faster, 100 times better, AND have fun while doing it.

Your job is to find that person and delegate those tasks to them.

I have a client, who was struggling with her social media management. She found it tedious and time-consuming, and it took her away from her core business activities. We found a social media manager who thrived on creating content and engaging with followers. Not only did my client free up hours each week, her social media presence improved significantly because it was now handled by someone passionate and skilled in that area, more importantly…it freed up space in her mind…she could focus on her zone of genius and do what her clients pay her to do.

2. Work you’re good at doing but don’t actually enjoy.

This category is a bit harder to let go of because our ego often gets in the way. We think we’re the best at it and that no one can do it better. We also think that because we can do it, we should. That spending money on outsourcing or hiring in would be more expensive or a waste of money. 

And this is why it is important to actually know what an hour of your time is worth. Every time I sit down with a client to look at the numbers, we almost always decide to outsource it because they as the business owner is too expensive to do this work. We misjudge the cost of us doing the work because we’re clouded by the fact that we can do it well. 

Imagine for a moment the impact it would have on your business and on you if you are only spending the majority of your time on your zone of genius. 

I have a client who is is excellent at customer service. He just has a way to diffuse a situation and find a way forward that works for everyone but didn’t enjoy it. He felt that his personal touch was irreplaceable. However, this work was consuming his time and preventing him from focusing on strategic planning and business development, which he loved. By training and delegating customer service to a team member, he was able to focus on growing his business, resulting in two new major projects.

3. Work you’re good at AND enjoy doing.

The final category of work is the work you are good at and enjoy doing. This is where you want to spend the majority of your time. These tasks light you up, give you purpose, and energy. 

I have another client who runs a consultancy business. She loves working closely with her clients and creating new programs for them. When she offloaded administrative tasks and client follow-ups to her assistant, she was able to spend more time on client work and program development, areas where she is at her best.

So, once you’ve categorised your activities into these three buckets, you want to delegate the tasks you don’t enjoy and aren’t good at first,  then move on to tasks you’re good at but don’t enjoy.

It is amazing to get to a place where you’re spending most of your time on the things you enjoy and are really good at. But if you want to design a business that can run without you, you need to take it one step further and that is find someone who can do the things you are really good at and also enjoy doing inside your business.

Once you’ve replaced that role it means your business works even when you don’t.

This is what we work towards inside my program, the effortless ceo. 

For all of my clients, delegating is hard and it’s because it requires us to let go of control, to trust. It also requires us to do work on the business. It takes us out of the work we are often most comfortable in and it asks us to step into a new role. The role of the CEO and visionary leader. And it doesn’t matter whether you have no team or a team of 50. Every business can benefit from this work because it creates a business that is independent from its owner. And even if you do decide to always work in your business…it will be your choice to do so…and you will always have the option to choose otherwise. Which feels a lot better than not having the freedom to choose.

If you would like to learn more about the effortless ceo program, head over to ilonkarascoaching.com/effortless. 

Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode. I will see you again next week!

You can watch this weeks podcast video HERE

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