The Art Of Delegating

A common piece of home organizing advice I often read and hear is delegate, delegate, delegate, but as most mothers and wives know, this can backfire and leave you with an even bigger mess to deal with.

I think delegating is an art in itself and can require a lot of patience and good communication skills. Good delegation means you often need to get organized and get thinking first in terms of outcomes and then in how to achieve them.

For most people delegating tasks means you have to remind, supervise and often complete the job so the act of delegating becomes more time consuming and stressful and can even spiral out into a bout of complaining and resentment. Delegating can create procrastination and so many mothers I know have just given up.

So how do you delegate so you can be taken out of the picture, get the tasks done the way you would do it and minimize your input so you can really reduce your workload enough to give you the free time you deserve while getting the help you need. Here are five organizing tips to help you with the art of delegation and take you closer to getting the outcomes you want.

Get crystal clear on what you are asking and make sure you make a request and not a complaint. Getting calm and clear is a respectful approach and is more likely to get you the help you need. If you are at the stressful complaining stage you are already in overwhelm. Take a break, sit down, have a cup a tea and write down what you need to delegate for the week and then ask. Don’t give up if it takes a couple of requests to get the delegated task done. The more you do it the quicker your family will respond. This may just be a new habit to get used to.

Give detail. Requesting the car be cleaned can mean two completely different things to two different people. Usually giving broad instructions doesn’t work very well. Giving an outline of what exactly needs to be done will maintain your quality control and eliminate you doing the task again. Take a minute to make a checklist so the person you are delegating to knows exactly what to do. This eliminates any confusion, sloppy jobs and the fall out from having to do the task a second time.

Make an agreement. Members of your family have their own agendas and being asked to do a household task when you are halfway out the door to do something fun never goes down well. Agree when the task will be completed. What is urgent to one person may not be important to the other. Delegating tasks without agreements can lead to misunderstanding and friction.

Delegate one task at a time and hold back on any more until it is completed. Slowing down and focusing on completion is stepping into the clutter free mind set and can often be more efficient, productive and less stressful than doing too many things at once poorly. Getting in the habit of competing tasks reduces stress and increases satisfaction.

Do you find yourself delegating the same tasks over and over again? This may mean you need to declutter, do some organizing or instead of delegating establish some regular chore routines so you can reduce your workload and stress while your family takes over some simple daily household tasks.

Home organizing includes the art of delegating. Getting organized so you can be crystal clear on what you want done, give detail in the form of a checklist, make an agreement when it will be done, let the delegated task be completed and decide if some delegated tasks need to made into regular chores

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