Recent studies have shown that multitasking isn’t just bad for your productivity, but also your intelligence. A study at the University of London found that IQ drops of 15 points for multitasking men lowered their scores to the average range of an 8-year-old child.
In other words, every time you send an email whilst on a conference call, you’re severely damaging your cognitive ability. If there’s ever been an excuse to start doing less, this is it. It’s better for you and better for your business.
Here are eight tasks you should be delegating:
1. Diary Management
Anyone who leads a hectic lifestyle will know that the only way to succeed and remain sane is to have a well organised diary, but that takes time and careful consideration. It’s not just a case of packing every hour of every day with meetings and phone calls, you need to factor in travelling time, preparation time, level of importance and personal considerations. Handing over your diary to a personal assistant is instantly more efficient and stress-relieving.
2. Research
Research can be interesting and important, but few entrepreneurs have the time to wade through all the irrelevant information that clogs up the web. Asking someone to help out with preliminary research filters out anything unnecessary so that you receive and read only the best bits. Plus you can assign someone to keep tabs on a particular industry development so that you stay informed on what’s happening without having to do the leg work.
3. Social Media
Social media is an all-consuming job. To stay on top of all the different platforms, latest trends, updates and customer interaction, you need to be constantly active and innovative. Most small businesses lack the expertise to do social media really well, which results in an ineffective and even damaging strategy. Considering that social media is probably the largest influencer now on customers and potential clients, it’s worth investing in the help of a professional. Plus it means you don’t have to keep constantly racking your brains for something original to post on Instagram.
4. Accounting
Keeping a company’s or your own personal accounts in order is absolutely vital, but requires patience and again, time. Plus if you’re not clued up on numbers and the most recent regulations or you’re rushing through to get it finished, you risk doing it wrong and facing stiff consequences. You’re much better to hand over the burden to someone else, who can handle the day to day dealings and can keep you advised on anything important that’s going on.
5. Event Planning
Whether a new product launch, office drinks, wedding or children’s birthday party, event planning is one of the most stressful tasks we handle professionally and personally, especially if we’re trying to squeeze it in around everything else that’s going on in our lives. Delegating doesn’t have to mean relinquishing all control, it just means allowing someone else to chase the caterers, book the venue and post the invitations. When it’s a roaring success, you reap the glory.
6. Personal Admin
This includes pretty much anything that’s necessary to keep your life on track from finding a babysitter, booking a gym class, a restaurant, a hotel, a massage, returning an item of clothing, sending flowers or doing the online weekly shop. Essentially all the things that put a pause on the momentum of our day. Imagine if you never had to do all that reserving, calling and emailing but for once, you got to just enjoy yourself instead?
7. Formatting
We waste hours playing around with the formatting of a document, presentation or booklet to make it look vaguely presentable when we could just be sending the information across to someone else who can make it look amazing in half the time. It will save you the frustration and could dramatically improve your’s and your company’s image.
8. Filing
Filing seems like such a small task to handle, but actually takes up a huge amount of your time, particularly if you’re the kind of person who pushes it all to one side “to do later”. Delegate to someone who can stay on top of it; you’ll thank yourself later.
Featured photo credit: Damien Zaleski via unsplash.com
