Effective Tech: Outsource your Inner Source
In our tech series so far, we’ve talked about tangible steps that take you from disorganized and scattered to organized, tech savvy, and efficient. If you use discipline as your firm foundation, and learn how to effectively organize your tasks, it’s much easier to locate and integrate technology that works best for you, whatever that may be. With these principles in place, constantly regarding technology as a tool to help you achieve less stress and more productivity, you can now begin to outsource tasks to your increasingly efficient employee, aka technological tools. Because here’s the honest truth: everyone has the same 24-hours in a day. You’ve got the same amount of time as any multi-millionaire does. It’s about using that time to the best of your ability, not frittering it away on small tasks that can easily be handled by a third party. Don’t fall back onto the BS excuse of “I didn’t have enough time”. Instead, organize your priorities and
GET. IT. DONE.
Paradoxically, the way to achieve more is often to do less. What?!? Let’s unpack that a bit. The most successful and efficient sales professionals are the ones most proficient at outsourcing and whittling down their to-do lists. How?!? By discerning what’s most important for them to do personally and what can be effectively outsourced.
When it comes to outsourcing, there’s two ways to approach it. Outsourcing tasks directly to technology or outsourcing to other human labor through technological means.
Direct to Tech
We’ve already spoken about ways to choose tech that works best for you. Now that you’ve started integrating these principles into your workflow, you should be gaining time for yourself to focus on more high level tasks instead of re-writing that same email for the third time. And with this sliver of extra time, it’s paramount to begin to structure your personal resources accordingly in order to meet your goals. Your most important tool here is your calendar. Anything that will take you longer than 15 minutes should be scheduled so you can start to understand where your time goes and how you spend it each day.
We use that word “spend” pretty often when we speak of time. And it’s true, time is valuable, a finite resource, and we should spend it wisely. Budgeting time is just as important as budgeting finances, you’ll always have 24-hours in a day no matter what. So get that calendar out, and get scheduling, and be accountable for how, where, and what you spend your time on. This will require you to invest time up front in organizing that calendar, but will reward you by showing where your time goes and, most importantly, where it’s used inefficiently.
After a few weeks of intentional time tracking, take stock. Circle or note a few things on the calendar that aren’t in service of your ultimate goal or could easily be reduced or outsourced. Consider the best way to outsource -- could you use tech to make your workflow more efficient? Or, should you start looking elsewhere?
Human Partners
And “elsewhere” is where we find help in other humans. We don’t all have the same skill sets. A simple fact. I’m quite proficient at things that may be difficult for some, and others are far better than me at many things. There’s no need for you to learn, for example, digital marketing. It may not be an efficient use of your time. Perhaps it’s better to close million dollar deals with clients around the globe and use some of that commission to hire a digital marketing expert for a project you’re working on. Take this website -- This Sales Life is a dream of mine to create quality free and paid content for sales professionals to up their game, crush their careers, and take control of their lives. It’s a passion project and I love it. But no WAY did I make it happen on my own. I couldn’t have. I found the people I needed. The assistant, the graphic designer, the writer, and the coach to help make my dream a reality.
Your career goals are likely different, unique, and all yours. Whatever they are, don’t go it alone. Use the collective human creativity and power you have available in order to achieve those goals faster and more enjoyably.
And, thanks to technology, you’re not limited in where and how you find this extra help. It could be that you’ve got a perfect partner already on your team in the same office where you currently work. Or it could be that you’ve got to do a little internet digging to find a collaborator. The world is your oyster. Leave no stone unturned to find the help you need to succeed.
Because ultimately, nothing is new under the sun. There are people who’ve done something similar to what you want to create before. Find them. Use them. Pay them for their expertise. Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
Feed that Inner-Source
Now that you’ve successfully outsourced, you’ll gain back a few of your precious 24-hours for your inner source, YOU. Use it wisely. Use it well. It may be that you need extra time in order to catch up on some work tasks, get on top of client research, or think strategically about your career. Or, perhaps you’re better served to use your new time to do non-work related things. This is good for you and, contrary to the American “work harder until you drop” mentality. Taking care of yourself is a mental, physical and financial investment in your future. Utilizing and perfecting the skill of outsourcing is one way to make that investment. Work smarter, not harder.
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As we wrap up our series on effective tech, I’d like to pause a moment to look backward on what we’ve discussed and look forward towards what’s next. To a large degree, taking that adjustment time to integrate tech successfully into our workflow is what makes it effective.