Delegating Distractions
In order to escape the busy trap, you need to start delegating distractions.
Because one of the most common frustrations we hear from business owners is “busy”. Busy with noise, busy working in the weeds, busy working IN their business. These distractions hold us back from our primary goals of increasing profitability, and getting your time back.
The solution? Start by delegating distractions.
“Because I’m so busy being hands-on in my business and actually doing so much of the day-to-day I find it hard to step back. I don’t have time to work on the business itself.”
[excerpt from discovery call questionnaire]
Being ‘busy’, and the stress that comes with it, seems to have become the norm. But even more than that, busy has become a reason why many entrepreneurs aren’t sustainably growing their businesses.
Why are you so busy?
- Habit: you are so used to doing ‘all the things’ that this is your default
- You don’t have help: if you don’t have anyone else on the team to do the work, it stays on your plate
- It’s a comfort zone thing: doing what you know is easy and safe
Every level of growth is a new challenge. That’s one of the most amazing things about business, it is the ultimate personal growth journey.
Every level of growth means doing something differently. In order to grow, you have to let go of something at each stage along the way.
When you keep yourself too busy it keeps your business small. Busy means you don’t have to do the things you are afraid to do, the things that stretch you, the things you fear.
We understand. For all of us it is very easy to keep ourselves stuck doing the things that we know we are good at. The things that are simple, fun and easy. It’s easy to keep ourselves distracted from doing the things we know we need to do in order to take whatever it is to the next level.
There is however a better way. Invest in delegation to create efficient operations from which you can scale, and free your time, so you’re spending time on tasks that will impact your revenue. Time working in your zone of genius.
As businesses gear themselves up to be more resilient, expect a trend toward leaner operations and more automation.
Source: Small Business Trends 2023
Our challenge to you is this: Delegate your distractions.
“Before I started working with my VBM, I was SO LOST! I was over-engineering simple things and wasting so much time manually handling every process in my business. I was so overwhelmed by the various systems I used. After working with her my feeling of overwhelm became a feeling of excitement about how smoothly things could run!”
Look at your plate and be honest with yourself. What are the things on your plate that you know are distractions?
They may be distractions that are just a waste of time and don’t need to be done at all. There are also distractions that are necessary. Things that do need to get done happen in order for you to serve clients, serve your team, and continue to grow and expand. But as long as they are on your plate, you aren’t able to do the things you need to do to grow.
The secondary piece of the solution is this: You need to be willing to do the things that scare you, the work you’ve been resisting. As you delegate, be clear that you’re moving distractions off your plate so that you can make the best use of your time doing the things that lead to growth.
This is how you’ll escape the busy trap.
Don’t have anyone to delegate to?
Or maybe you do, but every time you delegate they need help or have questions and you become the bottleneck.
If either scenario sounds familiar, we’d love to connect and talk through your delegation plan.
In researching this article I came across this post, “How to Escape the Busy Trap”. Scroll down to the section on the Consequences of Perpetual Busyness. It’s worth a read!
