To insource or outsource a task is a classic dilemma.
Learn how to do something yourself, grow, upskill, get it how you want it and save money.
OR
Spend the time else where and get someone who knows what they are doing to do it.
This is always going to be a dilemma for tasks. I try to value my time, keep an eye on what my end game is and the decisions are slightly easier.
I’d like to offer an alternative which has worked for me on problem solving or creative endeavours in 2018 and I am going improve for 2019.
Outsourcing to my subconscious
As soon as I hit a wall or a lull I consciously outsource it to my subconscious and while I take a break and do something else.
The internet says your subconscious mind is 30,000 more powerful than your conscious one. That’s a lot.
Trust in it. Be aware of it. Use it. Practice using it. Learn from it.
It costs nothing, you grow & learn, it’s cheap, you can take all the credit and your subconscious knows you quite well.
WARNING TO ANYONE LIKE ME: If you are great and starting and crap at finishing, make sure you’re set yourself a deadline for a decisions or publishing. Your subconscious won’t.
Applications…
Look at something in advance so you can let your subconscious mull it over.
Ask people what a meeting or future project is about as far in advance as possible. You’d be amazed on what connections your subconscious can make in the interim period.
This can also be useful with other humans. Plant seeds with people. Mention something you want to talk about with them the day before. Give people time to mull things over.
I drafted this article yesterday morning. I hit a rut, so left it. During my jog I made the connection that mindfulness practice, which I am learning more about in 2019, might well be a great tool to help utilise the power of my subconscious. Thanks for the connection subconscious.
Dropping good little ideas because they are taking to much time to implement. Not getting hung up on how to deliver the detail. Not wasting time shoehorning ‘good ideas’ in. Appreciating the creative process needs disruption. Appreciating that the thing you ‘micro drop’ has played and important part in the the process by being dropped.
If you hit a wall, is their some mirco detail that you can drop? Are you being blind to a bit of detail that was a great idea at the time but it now slowing progress?
The end goal is important, how you get their isn’t.
Your pathway should be littered with jettisoned good ideas.
I was so fed up, I did not set an alarm, didn’t write a job list and didn’t really care what I did.
It worked. I had a great day.
I then retrospectively thought of it as an expectation detox
What it is an Expectation Detox?
Doing an activity with zero expectations of the output. Going into it happy that you might get nothing out of it. Reseting ever increasing and unrealistic expectations you put on yourself.
The process…
Notice when you are overwhelmed and identify specifically what activity is causing it — sometimes harder than you think.
Think about the expectation you are placing on yourself. Would you expect that of others? Are they reasonable? Where did they come from? What do other people think?
Do an Expectation Detox
A few examples…
Adventure
Go away for the weekend not caring what mountain you climb, river you paddle. Just go and enjoy.
Work
Don’t expect anything from a particular colleague for a day. Don’t write a job list. Just help others for a day. Don’t use productivity tools for a day.
