How to delegate more in your personal life (and why you should)

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Tired of the housework-work-housework treadmill, but feel like there’s no escape? Find out how to delegate more in your personal life (and why you should).

If you had a nickel for every time you said “there’s just not enough time in the day,” you’d probably be a rich woman.

Keeping it all together and getting everything done can sometimes feel like running a marathon that never ends. Between juggling your household and managing your work, it can seem like there’s never enough time in the day to check everything off your mile-long to-do list.

While some experts say we simply perceive a lack of time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found why it often feels like you’re running on a treadmill:

  • 84% of women and 68% of men did household activities on an average day, including housework, cooking, or financial management.
  • On the days when they did these household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on them, while men spent 2.1 hours.
  • Parents with children under the age of six spent an average of 2.1 hours per day providing primary childcare to household children, with women spending 1.1 hours providing physical care, like a bath, while men spent 26 minutes.

It’s no wonder it can feel like there’s not enough time in the day, especially for women managing both a job and a life at home. That’s why it’s time to start delegating some of your personal tasks. You’ll lighten your load and even free up time to do things you enjoy, like meeting up with friends, reading your favorite book, or catching a movie.

How to delegate more in your personal life

We tend to delegate in the office, but less in our personal life because it means giving up control. Learning to let go and accept help, however, may be the key to helping you stay sane.

Find out how and what to delegate in your personal life so you can finally get off the never-ending hamster wheel.

1) Outsource meal planning and shopping

How many times a week do you go to the grocery store? If you’re like most adults, you probably take two to three trips to the store a week. Take those hours back by outsourcing your meal planning and food shopping. Meal delivery services, like Home Chef, HelloFresh and Blue Apron, deliver fresh meals straight to your doorstep.

All you have to do is follow the fool-proof cooking directions and you have a delicious, healthy meal for you and your family.

Besides eliminating trips to the grocery store, meal delivery services take the guesswork out of meal planning. No more looking up recipes and making sure you have all the ingredients. With meal delivery services, all of that is done for you.

If you’re not sure which one to try, check out this extensive review and comparison from Phi, owner of the SweetPhi blog.

2) Outsource your at-home chores

Luckily one of the most time-consuming tasks also happens to be the easiest to delegate—household chores. There are many available services that will can help you eliminate household chores once and for all.

Laundry is a perfect example. It takes 100 minutes to do a single load of laundry, according to Do It Yourself or Wash and Fold? —and that’s not counting the time it takes to get it to the laundry room or Laundromat, if you don’t have a washer and dryer in your apartment, or the time spent folding.

Rather than waste your time doing laundry, take advantage of a wash and fold laundry service. Not only does this save you the hours spent washing, drying and folding your clothes, but with same-day pick-up, you waste no time waiting. Drop off your clothes by 9am and pick them up at 5pm.

Another easy household chore to delegate is cleaning. Hourly cleaning service costs range from $50 to $90, and if you don’t want to spend a lot, you can have them come just once each month. This way, you get one deep clean each month and there’s less for you to do after the cleaning service comes.

Finally, don’t underestimate services like TaskRabbit, which you can use to delegate everything from phone calls to home repairs and furniture assembly.

3) Outsource travel planning

Are you planning a family vacation, a trip with your closest friends or your honeymoon? Organizing a vacation or trip can be time-consuming. It takes endless hours of research and preparation to find hotels and fun activities, as you comb through reviews and deal with booking reservations.

Luckily, there are services that can help you delegate this personal task. Gojourny.com, for example, is an online service that will custom-build your dream vacation. Users can choose from three planning options: Journy Lite, Journy Full and Destination Advice (free!).

Journy Lite is a travel plan that includes a dedicated expert trip designer, links to book all recommended activities, hotel booking assistance and more. Journy full includes custom daily travel plan, and expert trip designer, unlimited email and chat with your designer, restaurant reservations, tour bookings and more.

Start delegating in your personal life

Life can be stressful enough without adding on extra tasks to your to-do list. Use these tips and services to delegate personal tasks so that you can stop stressing about life and start enjoying it.

You can also find more helpful advice in these articles:

Jessica Thiefels is founder and CEO of Jessica Thiefels Consulting, an organic content marketing agency. She’s been writing for more than 10 years and has been featured in top publications like Reader’s Digest and AARP. She also regularly contributes to Business Insider, Homes.com, Glassdoor, and more. Follow her on Twitter @JThiefels and connect on LinkedIn.

Photo by Catt Liu