On the virtues of outsourcing
“Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your hourly rate, ignore it. If outsourcing a task will cost less than your hourly rate, outsource it.” — @naval.
Over the last couple of months, since working on my own, I have noticed one thing which keeps bogging me down, over and over again. I’m a perfectionist. I like to get things right. And that usually means thinking it’s best if I do them myself.
Most of the time this works, as I am a good jack of all trades and I usually excel at mastering new skills quickly. The biggest limiting factor, however, is my time. I just never seem to have enough of it. It’s like battling a hydra — I slay one head off my to-do list and three more grow back.
I’ve realized this last time I was managing a team and I’m re-learning it once again — as Naval Ravikant said — ‘You’re not going to get rich renting out your time.’ You need to leverage the resources of others, to extend your reach and capture more value. Amen to that. It’s a truth advocated loudly by other productivity pioneers such as Tim Ferris, in his famous 4-Hour Workweek, yet few truly live by this.
In order to push myself to free up more of my time by leveraging others, I will take a minute to ponder on three areas where I have already started to implement this.
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1. Cleaner
I pay about $60 every two weeks for a cleaner to come to my house and do a routine clean. It takes about 3 hours to do that, meaning it saves up to 4-5 hours of my time, as I am less efficient. It’s much more than that though — by saving a couple of hours every other weekend, I get to spend more time on active relaxation, meaning I get to start the week much more refreshed. Definitely worth the investment and I should have started outsourcing this sooner.
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2. Personal trainer
This one is a bit more expensive — costing me about $60 per session, twice a week. My primary aim is to gain weight and build muscle mass (see my other article). I could do this on my own but it’s not so easy — I have a fast metabolism and am an extremely hard gainer when it comes to weight. On top of this, I have got mild scoliosis and am already experiencing back aches. I am in danger of making my posture severely worse, if not engaging my muscles in the right way.
Were I to do this on my own, it would take me hours of research to figure out what to eat and how to exercise, and then weeks more of trial and error to implement this the right way. Trust me, I have tried, to no avail. The case is different to the cleaner — here I am not outsourcing the labour but the acquisition of knowledge and mastery of skill. Once I have advanced enough over a couple of months, I should be able to continue and maintain the routine, on my own.
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3. Virtual assistant
Perhaps one of the most obvious and oft recommended ones, yet there seem to be countless reasons for kicking the bucket down the road, when it comes to contracting a VA. Where do I find a good one? Will they do a good enough job? Is it worth the money? Will I just waste my time? I think the answer could be — find one that’s just good enough and then find tasks that are suited for them to handle.
I have just started experimenting with my first Philippines-based VA this month — so far it looks promising. The cost is just $10/hour, which is about half the price I’m paying my cleaner (!) If I can outsource just half a day’s worth of my menial / admin work per week, and free that time up for other work tasks, excercise, or relaxation, then this is definitely worth it. Over the coming weeks, I am likely to be experimenting more with different types of tasks for them to handle, and will likely be posting more about this journey. Stay tuned!
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In conclusion
The experiment is ongoing but upon just a brief reflection, it is clear to me that, wherever I managed to implement it so far, outsourcing has been working to my benefit. I need to keep looking for additional ways to employ this technique, along with automation of tasks, which is obviously even more preferable, where circumstances allow.
