Say you have an assistant. She runs errands, does light cooking, makes phone calls, places orders, and will water the plants if needed. You are happy with her work. She’d like more hours, and you have paperwork tasks that you’d like to delegate. Sounds like a solution is at hand.

Except…. that she doesn’t take to that paperwork stuff too well. “No matter,” you think, “it’s not hard. She’ll catch on and it makes such perfect sense!” You wouldn’t have to look for or get to know anyone else. Besides, you don’t really know where to look for another person.

No matter how much “sense” your brain tries to convince you of, remember to get the right person for the job. The wrong person means:

• more explanation = more time (which is what you are trying to get more of by delegating!)
• more disorganization and errors occur because when someone is unclear on the concept and just following specific directions
• more checking-in to get it right = more time (see above)
• more avoidance of the tough tasks which leaves you wondering if something delegated ever got done
• more frustration, a big factor in job dissatisfaction!

When you aren’t sure if your tasks are being completed, whatever space that was freed up by delegating is replaced by concern that stuff isn’t getting done, needless worrying about where in the process something is, or worse, excessive micro-managing.

On the contrary, getting the right person for the job provides relief, satisfaction, and a job well done in a timely manner.

I understand this puts the self-employed person in a bit of a predicament. You want someone for half a day a week but this doesn’t seem to warrant the effort of going through a full job search.

Besides, experienced and skilled assistants probably want more than half a day of work a week, right? A couple of options are available.

• ask colleagues if they have a part time person who might like to pick up some hours
• if your colleagues, instead, say, “let me know if you find someone!” you could join forces to be able to guarantee 15-20 hours a week
• temp agency
• Project Simplify is putting together a freelance assistant program which will be a great resource for finding that local skilled someone who is willing to assist half to one day a week for you. Coming soon…

Make it easy on yourself by playing to your assistant’s strengths!

The thirty-fifth issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
Pass it on!
2. Our Featured Quote
by Norman Vincent Peale
3. Article: Problem Solving vs. Solution Creation
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
Wrangling Your Wild Todos
5. In the News
The lost art of time management, Organizing your entertainment, and Time Management = Boss Management
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
Our NC Biz Links page
7. Keep Smiling
Amazing Handimal Paintings

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.

[posted by Lance]

So my goal to post daily just hasn’t been happening (busted!) There are 101 “reasons” why this has’nt been the case. Here are 3:

• my hairdrier has been broken (I don’t use one)
• there haven’t been mangos at the grocery store
• I think there has been a raccoon rifling through the garbage at night

Ok. For real now. I have had a lot going on in different realms of my life lately, home-wise, emotionally, physically, plus some new adventures in the business realm. While in the midst of an unrelated activity I think, “oh! I need to post today!” but then nothing will be in my mind so that thought is quickly followed by, “not now!” Which, after two days of no posting, leads me to think that I have nothing else to write about. The cycle spiral downwards from there.

Enter an interesting book by James Adams called The Care and Feeding of Ideas: A Guide to Encouraging Creativity. Published in 1986/7, it is based on understanding the mechanics of the creative process so that you can work with that understanding. [Love it!]

The first chapter provided a jewel of great magnitude for me. He writes, “List-making works by forcing the mind to dwell upon the alternatives to a greater extent than it normally would.” Whoa, back up there, girl. Let me preface with 2 items. 1. This sentence was prefaced by another several paragraphs earlier, “If you are a follower of the type of creativity techniques that are oriented toward producing alternate concepts (ideas), you probably have noticed that many of them call for the expenditure of mental effort.” and 2. I immediately replaced “list-making” with “writing” for my understanding, therefore, “Writing works by forcing the mind to dwell upon the alternatives to a greater extent than it normally would.”

KA-CHUNG! Several huge mental gears just clicked into alignment.

This explains why I like to write. This explains why writing was such a pivotal factor in my development in college. Got it!

What it also explains is the importance of sitting down to write. Project Simplify’s own “tech guy” Lance Brown is a writer in his own right. During a conversation in which I was most likely lamenting my lack of writing time, he mentioned that one of the most effective ways to break through writer’s block is to just Write!

By sitting down to write and focusing on the task at hand, all my other “distractions” are pushed to the periphery. And as James Adams writes, I am “forcing alternative thinking”. I know from my own experience that following an idea in my head, say about a potential post, goes as far as, maybe, two sentences in my head. Yet writing, well, you’ve seen what is on this website + speeches + business development materials etc.

Writing often feels like fun and exploratory meandering through the mental terrain for me. It is a creative process and this brain likes new adventures.