Whew!  That’s a tough one.  I’ve always been a bit of a control freak, I like to have my hand in all pots, all the time.  I’m good at getting things done and as far as I was concerned, if you wanted something done right, do it yourself. Delegate?  Not me.

And then something interesting happened.  I crashed.  Hard.  I was exhausted all the time, and I wasn’t getting anything done the way it deserved to be done.  If I was working with a client, none of my marketing would get done.  If I was working on marketing, writing wouldn’t get done.  Ad infinitum. This was not a sustainable business plan and it wasn’t just my business plan, it was my life.  I was constantly afraid of missing something (AoMS) – I stayed up too late, worked too hard, and still I felt like I was spinning my wheels, not actually getting the things done that would make my life more enjoyable, add more abundance, and whatever other thing was on my growing list of goals.  Something had to give.

This Went on For Years

I had my first child in 1995, my second in 1998, I started my web development business in 1998 as well.  I had no household, or childcare help, not even an occasional sitter!  We moved to Florida that September, and didn’t even hire movers or packers (not that we could have afforded it!) – In 2002, I began a blog, which I wound up monetizing and in fact now had two businesses – I started homeschooling my children, shortly thereafter and even wrote my own curriculum.  A couple of years after that, I became very involved in whole food cooking, local, sustainable farming, and the blog quickly became a “food blog”.  That led to writing cookbooks and other ebooks and sharing whatever knowledge I had that I thought would be helpful to others.

I did quit writing the kids’ curriculum, but that was the only thing I gave up.  I was exhausted, I wasn’t taking care of myself, and it was really starting to show. I developed a thyroid condition that we’re still trying to regulate and the stress levels were through the roof.

Along the way, I had given the children age appropriate chores, but not many.  A neighbor with four children showed me through example that the kids were a lot more capable than I was allowing mine to be.  Her children took care of cleaning, caring for each other, even some cooking and shopping chores for the older kids.  I was astounded!

First Steps

That week I started to delegate certain chores to the children.  Since we homeschool, it was easy for us to work chore time into our schedule – and quite honestly, I haven’t done either of their laundry since that week!  I taught them how to make simple meals (eggs, pasta, rice, salads, etc.) and they ran with it. I was still probably taking too much on myself, but we’re looking for progress, not perfection, right?

 A Work in Progress

Still, my first inclination is to do it myself, but I find that when I surround myself with competent people, and I recognize and honor their skill set, it makes things much easier to delegate to them.  And the more these people show me that they’re doing great work, the more I find myself willing to delegate – eventually, they’ll probably need to delegate to others, the things I delegate to them.

So, what do you do if you’re not in a position to pay people?  Here’s some ideas:

• If you’re looking to delegate some household, or childcare try trading out with other parents that you know – maybe start a parent’s group.  Of course you’ll want to know people pretty well before entrusting them with your home, or especially your children (!) – If you don’t already, start building relationships with locals and help each other.
• If it’s a business issue, try checking out local networking groups (or start your own), if you’re great at marketing, but not as comfortable with web development, find a web developer to swap with.  This can also be good for article writing, social media, etc.
• Online business groups – there are a TON – especially for women entrepreneurs – do a Google, or Facebook search – you’ll find literally thousands of them.
• I’ve even thought about this for meal planning – take a group of locals, each agree to make a meal that can be frozen, for future use and swap them out.  Get seven families involved, you only make one very large meal per week.  (I may start this myself – or delegate it *wink*)

[Tweet “In the end it’s all about community.  Create a community or find one that’s already in place – the possibilities are endless.”]

In the end it’s all about community.  Create a community or find one that’s already in place – the possibilities are endless.  Start small – delegate one thing that just doesn’t do it for you.  Delegate to your child, your partner, (life or business), someone you’re mentoring, a friend who wants to help, a volunteer.  It just might save your sanity and it will definitely result in increased productivity for you!