How Outsourcing is a Surprisingly Easy Step for Lowering Stress
How Does Outsourcing Help?
We can’t do it all… the end. Kidding, kidding. But all joking aside, we only have so much energy to give and so many hours in any given day. Ideally we’d want to spend our time on what we value, like spending time with family, friends, creating a project that we’re passionate about, or getting caught up at work. We literally just don’t have time to do EVERYTHING anymore. What we choose to do with our time matters and we tend to have more choices than we think. Sometimes we get on autopilot and just go through the motions. This is your chance to take a look at your days and rethink some things. Every time you say yes to one thing, something else has to give. So there is always an opportunity cost to consider. A great question to ask yourself is whether you are saying “yes” to the right opportunities.
“What we choose to do with our time matters and we have more choices than we think.” - Erin Harings
I often see people in my office burnt out and overwhelmed from juggling too many responsibilities. Sadly the things that end up being dead last on their to do list are the most important things, like taking care of their own health (mental and physical), relationships with kids, spouse, friends etc. Or even just pushing out all the joy in their life because who has time for that? I remember when I had my first baby and I felt incredibly torn between being a new mom, going back to work, taking care of a house and still being a decent partner. Eventually, I had to admit that I just couldn’t do it all and I needed to rethink how I spent my time. I had to prioritize what I wanted to spend my time on. I often help clients do the same thing and come up with a plan to work smarter, not harder, so they can have energy for the important things. Like sleep and relationships.
Outsourcing can help in so many different ways:
Decreases stress
Saves time
Prevents resentment and bitterness towards others
Helps with feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed
Allows us to focus on more important things
It’s Not Too Expensive
I think we don’t get services we could really benefit from by thinking it’s a luxury or it will cost too much. I’d like to prove you wrong on this logic. Take my local grocery delivery for example. It charges $6.95 for a delivery fee. I picked a time with a $1.00 off discount, meaning I paid $5.95 for someone to spend time shopping for everything on my list, driving it to my house and carrying it inside. I, of course, saved at least an hour of my time, gas driving to and from the grocery store, and saved money on all the impulse buys that would have caught my eye walking up and down the aisles. Do I even have to mention the stress this saved me from of having young kids in tow at a grocery store?! I think when consider different factors, outsourcing is cheaper than you think and will save you time and money.
Ideas Of What To Outsource
You could outsource anything these days. These are all ways I personally use to outsource my to-do list and spend my energy elsewhere:
FOOD
Food is one of my favorite things to outsource and there are so many options! I’ve used both meal delivery subscriptions and grocery delivery.
Hello Fresh ($40 off) A meal delivery service that ships you meals you choose from the menu to make.
Freshly ($40 off) A meal delivery service with already freshly pre-made meals you just need to heat up.
Local Grocery Delivery
InstaCart - Food and Store Delivery Service
UberEats - Food Delivery Service
GrubHub - Food Delivery Service
CLEANING PRODUCTS/ BEAUTY ITEMS / DIAPERS
Honest Company - Clean and safe products from diaper bundles, cleaning products, make-up and skin care.
Hello Bello ($15 off) Clean and safe products from diaper bundles, vitamins, home care and personal care.
Young Living - I love their Thieves cleaning products! They are clean and safe and really work. Young Living also has pure essential oils, make-up, and personal care products.
CLOTHES
StitchFix ($25 off) I don’t enjoy shopping, so this one is a no-brainer! You fill out some questionnaires and figure out your style and a stylist picks out clothes for you and ships them to you. Then you try them on and only keep what you want.
Laundry Services - I haven’t done this one in a while, but many businesses allow you to drop off your clothes and they wash, dry and fold them for you! I recently saw an ad where a business picks them up from your house and delivers them back, all clean and folded!
UPDATE: I started using HappyNest for our laundry. Even better, they come to my door and pick up my laundry one day a week and return my clean folded laundry the next day! I also was able to choose my preferences such as like no fragrance for the detergent and wool balls for drying. Use this promo code: ZYUXGTBH for $25 off.
FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Upwork - Here you can hire people from virtual assistance, graphic designers, web developers, billing professionals, and much more.
Canva - A place you can design anything, because who has time to create it all from scratch?!
SimplePractice (first month free) - This one is for those looking for an electronic health record. I can’t speak more highly about it. It helps run my business smoothly.
Virtual Assistant
Hire Help
Cleaning your house
Babysitting or daycare
Dog walking or doggy daycare
Lawn-care
Car Detailing - We recently hired a company that came to our house with all their equipment and detailed our vehicles in our driveway. So nice and convenient when you have kids.