{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "Learn how to automate, delegate, or eliminate tasks so you can focus on what matters most in your consulting business.",
  "path": "/resources/the-solo-consultants-and-freelancers-guide-to-delegating-your-to-do-list/",
  "publishedAt": "2023-04-08T22:45:50.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:jznynyzgerlqmdbbj33o7wfs/site.standard.publication/3mnll3icujb2z",
  "textContent": "Table of Contents\n\nWhat to expect from this guide\nThe Three Paths: Automation, Delegation, or Elimination\n80/20 Delegation\nChapter 1: Delegation 101\nChapter 2: Getting Started\nChapter 3: Project Management by Delegation\nChapter 4: Advanced Delegation Tactics\n\nWhat to expect from this guide\n\nYou’re reading this because you’re asking one very important question: how do I get more things off my to-do list?\n\nAs a freelancer or consultant, time is your most precious resource. If you bill hourly, there is a literal cost to every hour you spend on a non-billable task. If you bill by the day, week, or project, you want to minimize the time it takes to get your client to the outcome they desire.\n\nThis guide boils down everything you need to know to get started delegating projects off of your to-do list. When you finish reading, you’ll have a firm understanding of:\n\nWhy delegating projects is one of the three ways you can take projects off of your to-do list\nWhat types of projects you can identify and delegate (and what you should refrain from delegating)\nWhat to do to get started delegating tasks and projects\n\nThe Three Paths\n\nWhen you have a project on your to-do list, you have three options:\n\nAutomate it using a tool like Zapier\nDelegate it to a virtual assistant or team member\nEliminate it entirely — will anyone be hurt if this doesn’t get done? If not, just don’t do it.\n\nOn the path to learning how to automate, delegate, or eliminate tasks, I discovered virtual assistant services that let you hand off repeating tasks:\n\nMonthly: Call my barbershop and book an appointment for any open Friday on my calendar\nOne-off: Call Home Depot, check the price for plywood, and ask about delivery fees\n\nWhy delegate?\n\nAs your business grows, the projects you used to spend your time on just aren’t the projects you need to focus on now. When you level up as a business owner, you’re left with more projects competing for your scarce attention.\n\nTime and time again, I’ve found delegation to be a ‘secret weapon’ for my business. If I can delegate a project to someone else, I can get the results without investing my time.\n\nHow do you build that delegation muscle?\n\nPractice creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs or checklists) for your business tasks\nHand off the SOPs to someone else — a junior member or a virtual assistant — to execute on your behalf\n\nIt might take you as long to create the SOP and train someone as it would to do the task yourself. But once you’ve set up the process, you’ve dramatically reduced future time investment.\n\nI hired my assistant to replace me and told my assistant her #1 priority is to replace herself with a robot (Zapier).\n\nWhat types of projects should you delegate?\n\nStart small. Delegate discrete tasks with a fixed scope:\n\nCall Home Depot and check the price for plywood\nEmail my colleague and ask if these dates work for a meeting\nCall the plumber and reschedule for any available time this week\n\nThen, over time, expand to larger projects:\n\nLog the podcasts that a specific person appears on\nWeekly, pull data from my email program and report subscriber counts\nWhen I send a newsletter, repost it to my site as an article\n\nAs you knock out smaller items, you make space to recognize the larger ones and delegate those too.\n\n80/20 Delegation\n\nHow can you get the most impact for the smallest investment?\n\nWhen it comes to delegation, there are several cost centers:\n\nThe direct cost of retaining the employee or assistant\nThe time spent training them\nThe cost of tasks done incorrectly the first time\n\nTwo optimizations to start:\n\nUse a 3rd-party service to vet your virtual assistant for you\nStart by delegating small, discrete tasks (~20 minutes) that aren’t mission critical — use these to refine your delegation system\n\nWhat you’ll learn in this guide\n\nRecommendations for services to help you find a Virtual Assistant\nHow to use delegation to better manage your projects\nThe specific language you can use to delegate tasks, projects, and assignments\nSpecific examples of tasks and projects (and word-for-word email scripts) you can use to start delegating today\n\nChapter 1 — Delegation 101\n\nA Virtual Assistant is like a personal assistant: they manage tasks, schedule appointments, make calls, and handle research. The difference? Your assistant could be anywhere.\n\nWhen you sign up for a VA service, you can start submitting tasks right away — no waiting, just working.\n\nWhat a VA service is\n\nAn assistant that’s just an email away. You can request tasks by email, phone, or web, from anywhere.\nA quick way to take care of tasks. Great for those 5–20 minute tasks like making reservations, doing light research, or scheduling appointments.\nSupport that helps you focus. Any task that a smart, Internet-savvy person with a phone could accomplish, your VA can handle for you.\n\nWhat a VA service is not\n\nNot a dedicated, full-time, 24/7 assistant. You may work with different assistants from a pool.\nNot an employee for long-term projects. For ongoing engagements, look at Upwork or Freelancer.com.\nNot a replacement for doing your job. They support you by handling small tasks so you can focus on what matters.\n\nChapter 2 — Getting Started with Delegation\n\nSubmitting your tasks\n\nSubmit tasks through the VA service’s website, phone line, or by email.\n\nSmall tasks (find a price, check availability) — completed in 10–30 minutes\nLarger tasks (book a hotel, research options) — your VA may email follow-up questions, then complete within a few hours\n\nWriting your request\n\nThere are 3 essential components to every request:\n\nSubject line — Specific and descriptive. Start with an action verb: ‘Call,’ ‘Find,’ ‘Research,’ or ‘Email.’\nTask description — Draft in bullet-point form, breaking down the steps one-by-one. Visualize the steps you’d take yourself and include all that information.\nDeliverable — What will have changed when the task is done? An appointment scheduled? A spreadsheet delivered? A purchase made? Clearly describe the expected outcome.\n\nWhat if you goof up?\n\nSimply reply and clarify. All VAs are experienced professionals — mistakes happen, and they’re happy to work with you.\n\nExample tasks\n\nSchedule an appointment: Include your account number, available times, and any information the office will need. Specify what your VA should do if no times are available.\n\nFind a service provider: Use your VA to research, get quotes, and set up interviews for housekeepers, repair workers, movers, etc. Specify where to search (Google, Yelp, Craigslist) and what factors matter (price, ratings, location).\n\nResearch trip costs: Specify your criteria (cost, destination, travel dates) and your VA can compare flights, hotels, or put together an itinerary.\n\nFind restaurants in a new city: Indicate the area, target rating, cost range, and any dietary restrictions. Ask your VA to include a link to each restaurant’s menu.\n\nChapter 3 — Project Management by Delegation\n\nBy now you’re comfortable with the basics. Let’s go deeper: how do you identify large projects on your to-do list and break them into delegatable tasks?\n\nThree questions to delegate any project\n\n1. What does success look like? Define the outcome, then backtrack to where you are now.\n\n2. Can you delegate the tasks? Is there knowledge only you have? Can you capture it in a document and delegate both the document and the project?\n\n3. How will you know when it’s complete? What specific, tangible thing will exist that doesn’t exist now?\n\nIs your to-do list covered in ‘rot’?\n\nLarge projects without a clear next action sit on your list for months. This is list rot — projects so stalled that you’re afraid to open your to-do list.\n\nTo fix it, triage your projects with these questions:\n\nIs this something I honestly want to work on?\nWhat’s the most exciting part? The skills and connections you’re interested in might apply to other projects too.\nWould I feel better if I didn’t have to think about this? Kill it. It’s perfectly normal.\nHow will I know when it’s complete?\nWhat’s the deadline? Without one, other projects with deadlines will always win.\nWhat questions do I have? Capturing the questions is more important than immediately having answers.\n\nExample: Breaking a project into tasks\n\nProject: Start skydiving lessons.\n\nAfter walking through the questions above, here are the tasks:\n\nResearch skydiving certification requirements\nMake a list of schools within 30 miles\nResearch how many classes each school requires\nGet price quotes from each school\nResearch what equipment I need\nSchedule my first lesson\nAdd lessons to my calendar\nAttend lessons\n\nOut of 8 tasks, 7 can be delegated. The one that’s left is the thing you actually wanted to do: taking the lessons.\n\nHow to delegate a project\n\nOrganize tasks — Put them in logical, sequential order\nUnpack dependencies — Identify what needs to happen before each task can start\nDelegate — Send each task to your VA with a clear subject line and thorough description\n\nChapter 4 — Advanced Delegation Tactics\n\nExplaining tasks clearly\n\nWrite instructions as if you were explaining to an intelligent, capable person who speaks English as a second language:\n\nExplain all acronyms\nAvoid abbreviations\nInclude all relevant background information\nUse bullet points for sequential steps\nDescribe the expected deliverable\n\nStart tasks with action verbs\n\nWhen you write a task, start with a physical action verb: Call, Find, Research, Email, Buy, Print, Draft.\n\nMerlin Mann of 43Folders explains the distinction between project verbs (Finalize, Resolve, Handle, Implement) and next action verbs (Call, Email, Find, Print). Project verbs describe multi-step projects. Next action verbs describe single physical actions.\n\nStarting with a next action verb ensures you’ve thought through the task to a point where you can envision exactly how it needs to be done.\n\nSpecify your desired outcome\n\nBefore clicking ‘Send,’ have a clear understanding of what will have changed in the world once the task is complete. Then write that down as part of your instructions.\n\nMaximize research projects\n\nAsk your VA to create a Google Doc to collect all findings, then share it with you when complete. This makes it easy to review and share with team members.\n\nUnderstand task time limits\n\nMost VA services spend 10–20 minutes per task. If yours will take longer, break it into smaller tasks before submitting.\n\nGet delegating\n\nThis guide is here to help you get more things done and focus on what you want to do.\n\nThe key takeaway: for every project on your to-do list, ask yourself — can I automate it, delegate it, or eliminate it? Then act accordingly.\n\nWho wrote this?\n\nMy name is Kai Davis. I’m a marketing consultant and entrepreneur living in Oregon. You can read more about me here.",
  "title": "The Solo Consultant's Guide to Delegating Your To-Do List"
}