Thought Press.

It’s a GTD term, but really, it’s great for productivity if you know how to do it.

In essence, you entrust someone else to complete a task for you. We often are bogged down with to do lists and work and so many things on our mind. Once we have everything worrying us on paper we can either do it, delegate it, or defer it for another time. Let us focus on delegating.

This word has recently floated to the top of my conscious since my line of work often involves reassigning concierge requests and tasks to others, whether it is because I will not be in the office at the time the task needs to be complete or whether it is because the request is more complicated and involved. In your work there may be certain people that are the experts at something or you may speak to a vendor that can research and prepare some information better than you can. Make your life easier and delegate certain work to them. Pull together your resources. Call upon that expert or partner to do the work for you, while you focus on other things. It lightens the load.

I’ll give you an example. Say someone calls me for limo service options. I have two sources that I can call upon to research costs and email me options. I delegate that work to them while I work on other tasks I may have at hand. Where else can these delegating opportunities appear?

• Work partners/vendors
• Co-workers
• Friends and family (Does a friend want to take a trip? Ask them to research and email some options and pricing, then you can discuss.)
• A concierge service

I not only work as a concierge but I also use a concierge service. They are designed for delegating your tasks. Let them do research for you or make appointments. It knocks items off your to do list and saves you time.

This is not simply passing the buck or selfishly making someone else do your work. It’s utilizing your resources and including others in your work process, managing your work load. Some things only you can do. Others are easy enough to delegate. Delegating certain items reduces pressure on you, allowing you to have more time for other things!