Today, we want to talk about delegating unwanted tasks and ADD. And I'll tell you right now what we are not going to do is say that everybody should "just hire it out." We realize that while that is kind of the nirvana of delegation, it still requires certain skill sets and certain ways of managing those hired out people. So we're not going to tell you to just go and spend a bunch of money and make it happen. We're going to actually come up with some really, really quick-acting, fast-working ways that you can get rid of all that crap on your plate that you just don't want to do, or you're not good at, and will work great for people with ADD.
What we're going to be doing is really going over the streamlining process, how to plug it all in and move forward as quickly as humanly possible, which suits the ADD personality very well.
So here's the thing: nobody starts out delegating by hiring the whole thing out. It never, ever works that way. You build up to that. And the process tends to work like this:
You're frustrated, you're overwhelmed, you have a million, thousand things to do, and it's health-related and it's work-related and it's business-related and it's kids-related and it's spouse-related and so on. Your ADD just has you frazzled. Some of this stuff is things that people with ADD just hate to do.
And then as you're trying to deal with all of these things, eventually you say, "Wait a minute. I can't do all of this." And so you come to the realization that not only can you not manage everything, you don't want to manage everything, either. Boring jobs are things that ADD people really hate, and when they try to complete them, ADD kicks in, they get distracted and frustrated and it starts all over again.
You need to ease some of that frustration by finding a way to get someone else to do what you don't like to do.
But what is it? Focus your ADD on exactly what it is that you don't want to do.
Let's say you're a doctor. When people come into your office, would it be helpful if they walked into your office and said, "I hurt," and that was it? Okay, where do they hurt? Do you have to ask the question, do you have to figure it out? "I hurt, figure it out," doesn't give you much to go on.
And it's the exact same way with delegation. "I just wish all this would go away." Well what is THIS? You've got to be definitive about what it is. And this is sometimes really hard for people with ADD because the overwhelm leads to frustration, and you just get so frustrated that you just go, "Why can't anybody do the job but me?" This is common for people with ADD.
So step number one, in any kind of delegation, is to sit down and make a list of everything that you're doing. Go someplace quiet for ten minutes. Set some kind of alarm for ten minutes, and write down every task that you do or that you've been doing, let's say this week.
If it's Wednesday, for example, think about everything you've been doing from Monday through Wednesday, including answering emails, swishing in the toilets, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, anything outside in your house, in your work, in your business, with your relationships � what are all the things that you've been doing?
You're going to take a look at that list and go, "Oh my gosh."
All we want right here is just a big old fat brain dump. Everything that you do is generally related to one of four different categories--household or business, which breaks down into three categories: administrative, production, or sales and marketing.
Step two, then, is to categorize each one of those tasks. So as you go through, figure out is this a household thing, an administrative thing, production, or a sales and marketing thing? Put an A beside the task for administrative, an H for household, and so on.
You will immediately get a picture of what it is that's dragging you down, where you're spending a good portion of your time. You see, all this needs to be done before you can even think about delegation. Because without this knowledge, without this information, basically you're going to hire someone, you're going to trade with someone, you're going to work with someone, whatever it is � and they will just stand there because you can't explain what you want.
Don't let that happen. Focus your ADD brain on exactly what you need and/or want, and then move on to the next step...
Tellman Knudson, certified Hypnotherapist and ADD driven, is CEO of Overcome Everything, Inc. Stephanie Frank, also an ADD person, is an internationally known speaker, entrepreneur and author of "The Accidental Millionaire." instantaddsuccess.comTake the ADD test at InstantADDSuccess.com.