Last week, a friend of mine took a work trip to visit a new client—a badass lady-boss who runs 5 fitness studios in Boston. I asked my friend how the trip went. She was gushing with excitement about her new client. She told me:
“My client is so inspiring. Get this. Every month or so, she makes a giant To Do list. She writes down EVERYTHING that needs to get completed—from hiring decisions to painting her daughter’s bedroom to grocery shopping. Then she ‘assigns’ each task to somebody else. She literally writes someone else’s name next to each item on her list, one by one, delegating as many things as she possibly can. When she’s done, she’s left with just a handle of items that she needs to handle by herself.”
I was like, “UM, that is GENIUS.”
Also: “I need to meet this woman. I’m already obsessed with her.”
I love this idea so much.
Ladies (and a few gents)… we ALL need to do this.
Right now, do a big brain-dump. Write down everything you’re hoping to achieve in the next week or month. Career stuff. Personal stuff. Food prep. Shopping. Cleaning. Everything you can think of.
Then, next to each item, write down someone’s name. “Assign” the task to somebody else, just like you’re the CEO of a business.
If you’re thinking, “But I don’t have an assistant! I don’t have any employees! Nobody can help me!”… that’s not true. You have plenty of people who could help out. 
You could assign a task to…
– Your kid.
– Your partner or spouse.
– A sibling who wants to earn a little extra cash.
– An intern, apprentice, or mentoree. (There’s probably someone in your city who’d love to be mentored by you.)
– A coworker.
– A helper that you find through a website / app. (For example, you can use TaskRabbit to find people who’ll do random household chores, and you can use Postmates to get food and groceries delivered.)
Use your imagination. Be resourceful. You can probably “re-assign” a lot more tasks than you initially think. And of course, you can also DELETE certain tasks from your To Do list all together. That’s an option, too.
So many people—especially women, and double-especially working moms—overload themselves with a ridiculous, unfair, and imbalanced number of responsibilities. It’s no wonder we’re constantly so stressed!
It’s time to stop that pattern. It’s time to re-assign pieces of your To Do list to other people. It’s smart, it’s fair, and it will free up so much time and energy for you to focus on the priorities that really matter.
I’m literally dashing off to do this right now…
Doesn’t your week feel so much better already?
