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What tasks do you stop?
The framework to delegate like a US president
Read time: 2 min, 27 secs
Hey there - it's Brian 👋
Are you working long hours?
But feel like the business isn’t moving like you want it to?
You get more things on the calendar.
You work as fast
But the business bank account isn’t growing like you told everyone it would
Then, you’re probably spending your time on the wrong things.
But how do you figure out what the right things are? And what things you kill?
And most importantly… what you delegate?
Today, I’ll get you your time back.
I’ll give you a tool to make sure you’re spending time on what actually matters.
Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇
Different people have different strengths
So this week I got back to Medellin (Colombia).
What I love the most about it: Everyone around me is building something different.
Which means we send each other work. Because everyone has different strengths.
We delegate.
That way we get our time back and focus on what we do best.
So how do you know which tasks you should delegate?
Here’s the framework: 👇
At the co-work in Medellin (with 40+ founders/marketers)
Enter the Eisenhower Matrix
I’m guessing you’re not a history buff.
I wish I was. The great business strategists I know are obsessed with history.
Munger. Ray Dalio. The Deloitte partners I respected etc.
But I’m not… So I’m going to step out of my lane for a sec and quote some stuff from Wikipedia.
Dwight Eisenhower was a rockstar:
• US President from 1953 - 1961
• Five-star general during WWII
• Ended the Korean war
And did that while playing a lot of golf.
So this guy knows how to prioritize and delegate.
But none of that matters.
What really matters is how useful the framework he built on how to delegate.
Conveniently called:
The Eisenhower Matrix.
Here’s what it is (& how you use it):
Dwight Eisenhower
So you mark every task in two ways:
1) How urgent is it (low/high)?
Can it wait? Or does it have to be done NOW?
2) How important is it (low/high)?
How close does it bring you towards YOUR goalpost?
That creates 4 buckets:
Important + urgent? Do it now.
Important + not urgent: Schedule for later
Not important + urgent: Delegate
Not important + not urgent: Delete
Eisenhower decision matrix
🧔🏻♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
Deciding what’s urgent is easy. Now or later?
But deciding what’s important is hard.
Because “important” will be completely different depending on the goals for your business.
What’s important in getting you closer to your goalposts, will be unimportant to someone else.
Be very clear on where the goalposts are for your business.
If you need a cheatsheet, here’s some things that are universally important:
Building leverage (people. media. processes)
Finding bottlenecks (putting out fires)
Building strategy
Making sure the business is on track (keeping an eye on financials).
For everything else, you’ll want to create repeatable processes.
Then hand them to someone else to run your new processes.
Let’s get your time back.
If you don’t delegate you’ll never have leverage.
So here’s your homework:
Re-frame today’s task list. Pick one task that you need to delegate.
Just one.
And instead of asking “how do I solve this problem?” ask “WHO do I get to solve this problem?”
It’ll feel incredible to have your time back.
If you need resources to delegate to, reply “talent” to this email.
I’ll get you set up with rockstar marketers who will get you your time back.
See you next Thursday 👋
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