The 4 Hour Work Week: 5 Things you Need To Know About Outsourcing

Aug 16, 2011Find joy today, Work Uncaged

Last weekend, I read The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. I wrote about it yesterday, and will spend today and tomorrow sifting through it, as this helps me process what I’ve read.

One thing that fascinated me about the book was Ferriss’ outsourcing. While I may not always agree with where he outsources his services to, I do like the idea of outsourcing things I need done (that I could do) but would free up time. How about you? Would you like some freed up time?

5 things you need to know about outsourcing.

  1. It costs money.  According to Ferriss, “This is a hurdle that is hard for most. If I can do it better than an assistant, why should I pay them at all? Because the goal is to free your time to focus on bigger and better things.” For me, the bottom line is why I’m not currently able to hire an assistant, though I’m looking into unpaid internships.
  2. It is a trade off. Often you can do things for free, or cheaper, but it makes for a busier, stressful life. Ferriss says, “It is absolutely necessary that you realize that you can always do something more cheaply yourself. This doesn’t mean you want to spend your time doing it.”
  3. When you pay someone less than what you make hourly to pick up the things that you can never seem to get to, it’s a win. Let’s say my hourly rate is $75. I’m joyfully ecstatic to pay a housekeeper $25 an hour to clean my home because it frees me to make $75 an hour.
  4. Eliminating fluff and tasks is the first goal. You don’t want to pay an assistant to do superfluous things. Better to streamline your life first.
  5. Hire out tasks that consume your time or make you angry. One thing that makes my head explode (literally, it’s not pretty) is creating databases for my influencer list. Stab me in the eye! This is the perfect thing to outsource.

I hope to outsource in the future. What about you? Not convinced? Ferriss has several testimonials on his site about the benefits of outsourcing.

Q4U:

What would you like to outsource?

 

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