Partner Up for a Productivity Boost

We all have so much to do - and it always seems like there's no time to get anything done. And it's true - when you try to do everything yourself, it can be challenging to complete all your personal or business tasks. But what's also true is that there are often opportunities to spread work around and share responsibilities with other people - thereby lessening your load. But you have to do it right. Here's how to get started: Find partners. What parts of your work (or your life) could you use some help with? If you find yourself overwhelmed with particular tasks, especially ongoing ones, partnering with someone who can help can be a great way for both of you to benefit. For example, one of my clients in the remodeling industry was spending a good chunk of his time helping clients choose tile colors and other design elements for their remodeling projects. This element of the work wasn't particularly interesting to him, didn't bring in any revenue as he offered it to clients for free, and it also ate up his valuable time. This just wasn't the right task for him to doing. But to an interior designer looking for new clients, this would be an ideal situation, as they would get face time with a new potential client and have the chance to show off their skills. He has since recruited several designers that he can now share this task with. Everybody wins - his time is freed up, the interior designer gets to meet a potential client, and the client gets experts working on each portion of their project. Make agreements. In order for any partnership to work, both partners need to be clear on what the roles and responsibilities of each person are. To avoid any problems down the line, discuss expectations, tasks, and outcomes with your partner, and write them down. This is equally true both at home and at work. Getting everyone clear on who is doing what and why is as important for household chores as it is for sharing tasks on a work project. Without clear agreements, it's impossible for everyone to know what they're responsible for doing. Keep track. For each one of your partners, you'll want a place to record your agreement, along with any notes you have about them and/or your work or projects together. Create a shared notebook in Evernote for each person, and within there make several notes - one for your agreement, one for meeting notes, and one for project updates. If you are sharing any reference documents or files with each other, you can also keep them in this notebook as well. Having all of these disparate parts collected in one spot will make it easier to keep track of your relationships and projects with each partner. Of course, it does take some time to create these partnerships and agreements. But by doing so, you'll ideally be able to focus your time a bit better while simultaneously getting more tasks completed overall.