Automate or Delegate – Freeing Up Time & Energy - Day 20

Ep. 154 - Automate or Delegate – Freeing Up Time & Energy, Day 20

Episode Summary: Feeling overwhelmed by repetitive tasks? In this episode, we’re diving into how automation and delegation can free up your time and mental energy. Learn how to identify time-draining tasks, implement simple automation strategies, and delegate effectively without stress. Whether you’re running a business, managing a household, or just looking to simplify your life, this episode will help you reclaim your time!

What You’ll Learn:

• How to identify repetitive tasks
• Easy automation strategies (email templates, scheduling tools, checklists)
• How to delegate effectively (SOPs, setting expectations, empowering others)
• A simple challenge to help you take action today

Resources Mentioned:

• Join The Village: Click here to connect with our community.
• Sign up for the Momentum Challenge: Click here to get started.

Resources & Links

• Follow Christina @christinaslaback
• Email us at hello@christinaslaback.com
• www.christinaslaback.com

Transcript

Day 20 - Simplify & Outsource

Christina: [00:00:00] So many of us will resist delegation because we think it's faster if I just do it myself or no one else will do it as well as I can or I don't want to burden someone else. But the truth is that delegation is an essential skill, and it becomes much easier when you approach it the right way. 

Welcome to Clear and On Purpose, the podcast designed to help you cut through the noise and get back to what matters most. If you're feeling stuck but need to take intentional action, you're in the right place. I'm Kristina Slaibach, homeschooling mom of two and life and business coach, helping you drop in and align with your values and create more space.

Each week I'll be sharing practical insights and simple, Actual steps to help you find clarity, boost your energy and design a life that balances ambition with. Let's dive in and get clear on purpose.

Welcome back to Momentum Month. [00:01:00] Today we're talking about one of the best ways to free up your time and energy through automation and delegation. If you felt like there are not enough hours in the day, this one's for you. Identify repetitive tasks. 

think about the things you've identified earlier in this challenge. What are the repetitive tasks that show up day after day, week after week? These can include answering the same client questions preparing for recurring meetings, scheduling appointments, household chores like laundry, dishes, meal planning, administrative tasks in your business.

The key here is to bring awareness to where your time is going. Once you identify the tasks, you can determine if they can be automated or delegated, automation is a powerful way to free up time without needing a lot of extra help. So here's some ways that you can automate everyday tasks.

Create email templates or set up an responder with an FAQ [00:02:00] section. Use scheduling tools like Calendly or Google Calendar to eliminate the back and forth scheduling. Recurring checklists and templates.

Instead of creating new documents or lists each time, have a standard checklist for tasks like meeting prep, content creation, or household routines. By creating checklists, you're actually going to be able to give yourself the opportunity to not have to remember every time when all the steps are. It makes you more efficient, and it also helps you.

to create that SLP for if you eventually bring that over to someone else. Any of your bill paying or financial management, when you can, setting up automatic payments and invoicings so you're not manually having to handle those finances each month, and then task batching. instead of handling all your emails or social media throughout the day, set aside specific time to focus on those tasks.

Studies show that task switching can [00:03:00] decrease productivity by up to 40%. You can also do this by days. So, for instance, on certain days of the week, I will have filming days. I'm actually doing a lot of these, recordings back to back right now in order to keep all of my time and resources focused on this one task.

I've created planned and prepped all the scripts and information ahead of time and then putting that out there and recording them. On another day I have all set up where I do all of my admin tasks.

On another day I'll do all of my content creation. So you're not constantly having to switch throughout the day and you're really being able to get deep and focused into the certain days that you're doing it.

By leveraging things like automation, task batching, you can actually cut down on the mental load of all of the daily tasks, and you can create more space in your schedule. This is really a great time, to look at some of your rhythms throughout the week, and setting aside or naming certain days.

A lot of our energy is actually spent on decision fatigue. It's [00:04:00] when we are constantly deciding what we need to do next and making those decisions of when we can put things off or when we need to handle something. By setting up regular rhythms and routines, you decrease that decision fatigue.

I know that every Sunday I wash the sheets so I don't have to think about when the last time I did it was, if I need to do it, if I need to do it now. If it's Sunday, that's the day I do that. You can do that for items in your business, like with content creation days 

you can do those with household tasks. on Fridays. I set up time to review all of our finances and go through all of my budgeting and address any of that stuff. But I have certain days set aside for that so that I just know that I don't have to worry about it before then. And I can just set up that certain time period where I know I'm going to look for it.

And I'm going to be in that frame of mind. The more that you can get clear on setting up these parameters for yourself and having that information, the less you have to task switch and the less that you have to worry about that decision [00:05:00] fatigues. And for tasks that can't be automated, the best option is to delegate.

So many of us will resist delegation because we think it's faster if I just do it myself or no one else will do it as well as I can or I don't want to burden someone else. But the truth is that delegation is an essential skill, and it becomes much easier when you approach it the right way. Here's how you can delegate effectively.

First you want to clearly define what success looks like. Be really specific about expectations. If you ask your kids to load the dishwasher, and in your mind that means wiping down the counters and starting the cycle, be clear about that up front. They may just think that putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher Is that is the completion of that task, but same thing applies to a business task.

So outline exactly what's expected and where the people that are doing that delegation have the decision making power. If you have an event coming up and you have somebody working on the marketing do they have the [00:06:00] ability to choose where the marketing budget dollars go?

Is that something they need to come back and ask you for? What is done look like? It's a really good way to clarify what the expectations are, what the standards are, and what you're expecting. Then create standard operating procedures. These don't have to be fancy.

So you can document how you complete a task, step by step. If there's something that you do repetitively, It takes a little bit more time up front to create the standard operating procedure, but once you outline what you do to complete the task, then when you have somebody that can do it, you have all the steps already outlined and they have a reference point 

it's also really good for that decision fatigue and keeping that mental checklist you can reference it while you're creating it or before you have somebody in place for that. So you create a document and detail each of the steps on what you're doing and that way you have a frame of reference 

so it makes it easier to train someone and it also ensures that [00:07:00] consistency and keeping that product the same every time and that process the same every time. Start small. If you're not used to delegating, start with one small task and build from there. You can hire a virtual assistant for just a few hours a week, or involve some family members in household tasks.

Look at opportunities for ways that you can start to get in the habit of delegating and giving other people more responsibility. And when you're looking at those standards that you create, Look at what your version is versus the good enough version. Sometimes especially at the start of a task, you can do something easier or more quickly yourself or create a higher caliber.

But by allowing somebody else in and being able to practice and improve their skills and the communication between the two of you, In the long run, it will actually create less work. It might be a little bit more work on the front end to train somebody and get somebody up to speed, but bringing them in and [00:08:00] and being able to offload those that's going to save you hours and hours of work in the future 

and by being really Clear with yourself on where and how you want to create your own standards. You may have a certain way that you load the dishwasher and maybe your partner is taking over doing the dishes, they may do it differently. But if the dishes are still getting cleaned and put away.

That's something that you could potentially let go of. Look at where there is a need for the certain way that you do it and make sure you're communicating that through your operating procedures and standards. Then look at where you can just let go of the certain way that you do it.

and allow someone in to help you.

So once you have a plan, once you can look at what are the ways that I can simplify and I can automate things, where can I improve my processes? This is one thing that I go through a lot with my clients One of the opportunities to really free up a lot of work is by looking at those things that you're [00:09:00] frequently doing and identifying those and making them automated or making them, take much less effort.

And then where can you delegate? For your goals what is one task that you do repetitively? What could you automate? Could you create a template? Can you set up a checklist? Can you use a scheduling tool? If you're sending out emails, is there a template you can create for that?

Is there a new client intake that you can create that has all of the information in one area that you can share with all new clients so you don't have to answer the same questions over and over? If you're scheduling a lot of meetings, is there a way to be able to use a tool like Calendly or Google Calendar where you can just give them certain time periods and your calendar is available?

Then schedule them yourself so you eliminate that back and forth. And if it can't be automated, how can you delegate it and write up clear instructions or [00:10:00] some of the process before you get to the point of being able to hire somebody in or bringing somebody in to help out, start to identify those areas where you can write down checklists and operating procedures.

It's only going to help you out more and you'll be ready to win that new team member comes on and then take action. So automate or delegate at least one task. So look at your to do list and look at one task where you can either automate or you can delegate to someone else. And if this episode resonated with you, let me know.

Share what you're automating or delegating this week, and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next Momentum Month episode.

Thank you for tuning in to Clear and On Purpose. If you're ready to take intentional steps toward a more fulfilling life and want to customize the approach, I'd love to work with you. Visit www. christinaslayback. com to schedule a free consultation or explore current [00:11:00] offers designed to help you gain clarity and reclaim your energy.

And don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with a friend if you found it helpful. It helps others find the show and grow our community.