Dotty Scott discusses time management and delegation with a partner, sharing experiences building websites and hiring a virtual assistant. They explore how to identify your "zone of genius" and focus on income-producing work instead of getting stuck in technical tasks that drain your time.
I did my website, my first one I did on Wix, and I was so proud of what I created. And it took me a lot longer than it would have taken you. But then every time I added something, or anytime anything broke, or anytime I wanted to fix something, it was not very user-friendly, and it would take me hours on tech support to get to the right person that would figure out what I did wrong or what needed to be fixed. That was not a good use of my time. You would have done it in like 10 minutes and I spent like 5 hours.
This is true. But now there's also things like hiring a VA, and I think a lot of us, uh, in the Business Divas group right now are kind of in the same spot where, do I do it myself because I know how Or do I hire a VA who I may have to train and teach how to do this? But ultimately, now if she does it or he does it, I have more time to do income-producing activities. A lot of us get stuck there.
Yes. So, and even like, as you're getting ready for that, because I totally can relate and understand So even before I was ready to hire somebody, I started writing down what I was doing. So one, I was, I was writing down what, how I wanted it done, how I was doing it. So I have training materials in advance for that person. So I started like, as I was doing things, I started my checklist. This is what I'm going to want you to do. And so what's important—
serve two purposes, right? To where, one, it became your training materials for whoever you would teach in the future. But did it also help you realize exactly how much time you were putting into whatever the project was and help you, um, in your mind figure out that maybe there's someone else better to do this?
Yes, and it also helps when you're paying attention to the time because there were a couple of things that I didn't put time into it. I just put the task and how I wanted it done. But when I started to pay attention to how much time, one, it's, is it really worth my time? Should I be— am I the one that should be doing that? But it's also the expectation so that when you do pass it off to somebody else and it takes them a certain— however long it takes, you know if that's taking them too long or like the right amount. Like, you know, all right, if it took me 2 hours to do this, is it really a 2-hour task or is it just because it's not my zone of genius? I've been really good at noticing now what's my zone of genius, what are the things that I'm great at, like the things that really I am the one to be doing it. Mm-hmm. The things that light me up and the things that frustrate me. Like when I had problems with my website on a Sunday, I had a workday with a coworking day with my friend. We like to get together and work together separately so that, and we could not for the life of us, and she's been on WordPress more than me, but I was so frustrated. I'm screaming through the parking lot. This is not my zone of genius and this is I had sent an email like to somebody to help me, but it's Sunday. I wasn't expecting an immediate response, but I'm like, this is not what I'm supposed to be doing. I could figure it out, but me spending twice as long trying to figure it out and getting frustrated. I am very happy to say, can you please do this for me? Update this page, do this.
