If you had told me a year ago or even a few months ago, that I would be putting scissors to my own hair I would have said “You’re bloody mad”.
But guess what? 2 weeks ago I did just that. I got so fed up with my hair, I had left it as long (excuse the pun) as I could, it had to be done – it needed to be done.
So, numerous YouTube videos later I find myself standing in front of the mirror with my hair in ponytails and scissors in my hand. Thinking “am I mad?”
Here goes – 1… 2… 3… Chop – one ponytail, gone. Can’t stop now and Chop – the second ponytail, gone. I can feel my heart racing as I begin to take the bobbins from my hair and let it fall down. Actually, do you know what, that’s not bad, my god it could have been a lot worse.
So while I am standing there quite proud of my achievement I hear a comment “have you seen the back?” No, I haven’t seen the back, but what I can see is the front and it looks OK, 😊 Happy days.
And I’m not the only one who has taken the plunge into being their own hairdresser or cutting their family’s hair. Some turning out ok and some complete disasters but needs must.
How home haircuts relate to your business
So why am I rambling on about the day I became a budget Nicky Clarke? Well just like cutting your own hair there are tasks in your business that you would rather not have to do yourself.
These are always the tasks that have been left on the long finger but now they really need to be done. Tasks that have gone from important to urgent because you keep saying I’ll do it tomorrow.
These items from your to-do list are usually the ones that you have very little interest in doing. Take a look at your to-do list for today. How many tasks are there that you would rather not have to do, but you know you have to? How many of them are on today’s to-do list because you didn’t tick them off the previous day’s lists? How many of them are you likely to postpone to tomorrows to-do list? I would also guarantee there are a few tasks on your to-do list that are not a very good use of your time.
Here’s one for you, you have 1,784 unread emails in your inbox, you know you need to clear it out, you know you could be missing important emails because you are all clogged up with messages from lists that you subscribed to in 2018, you don’t even read anymore. And like the feeling I got every time I looked in the mirror at my hair, this bulging inbox is causing you stress. But it doesn’t have to be done today, it’s not urgent so let’s do it tomorrow….. or maybe the next day!
Or that big box of receipts that you have sitting underneath your desk/bed/stairs – you know it needs to be organised, you know they need to be scanned so that your accountant can decipher the holy mess that it currently is. This needs to be done but how many of us want to do it, how many of us will just close our eyes and shove more in. And just like the back of my hair, out of sight out of mind, right. But it will get to a point that this is urgent and then you will be frantically scanning like your life depends on it wishing you had just kept on top of it throughout the year.
How to decide what to outsource
Here’s a quick exercise to do. From the items that you have to do this week ask yourself about each:
Do I want to do this?
Do I understand how to do this?
Is this a good use of my time?
That last question is crucial. We’re all familiar with the clichés about how precious our time is. We only have a set amount of it to spend with people we love, doing things that we love. But there’s a business case for outsourcing too. Your time at work is most valuable when you can use it to help your clients or create new products to sell to them. Putting together a slide deck on PowerPoint, or managing your own diary is important too. But is it the most valuable use of your time?
I can tell you for certain that there is no budding hairdresser in me, so the answer to all those three questions for me, when I was standing in front of the mirror with the scissors in my hand, was most definitely NO. But I had to get it done, so I did it. Will I be doing it again? I hope not. I hope the next time I feel like my hair needs a chop I can outsource that to my hairdresser.
The same goes for business tasks, if the answer is no to most of these questions then you should outsource them from your business.
We have lots of distractions to deal with at the moment so spend your day doing what excites you in your business, doing what drives your business forward and doing what you love. If you’d like to have a chat about what tasks your business can outsource drop me a line. I’m happy to arrange a Zoom meeting where you can judge my haircutting skills for yourself. My administrative skills are even better, I promise!
