New Business Direction LLCThe Four Ds for Efficiency
The Four Ds for Efficiency
Time is our most precious personal resource; once it’s spent, we can never recover it. As busy entrepreneurs, we seem to have less time than anyone else, so it just makes sense to look for ways to use our time wisely. We’d like to introduce you to a technique called the Four D’s that has worked for many.
The Four D’s
When you think about it, there are only four types of actions you can take against any one task:
- Do it.
- Delegate it.
- Delay it.
- Delete it.
As you approach each task on your to-do list, ask yourself which one of the four D’s is best.
Do It
The first option is simply to do the task yourself. Get it done, checked off, and out of the way. This is often the best option if it’s urgent, important, or you are the only one with the experience and training to do it.
While this might sound counterintuitive at first, simply doing a task might not be the best option. Let’s look at the other three options before we decide.
Delegate It
If your to-do list is full of simple, routine actions, then delegating is a strong choice. Delegating is also great for tasks that are beyond your expertise and would require too much learning to accomplish sufficiently. If you don’t have time to do everything yourself, then getting help is a smart alternative to doing it yourself.
Getting help doesn’t mean you have to hire a full- or part-time employee. You can get help in a multitude of other ways:
- Engage a company to do a task. From walking your dog to managing Google Ad campaigns to handling your bookkeeping and taxes, there are service-based companies that can take over a task permanently or on a short-term basis to alleviate some of your workload.
- Automation is a form of delegation. Can software do what you are doing?
- Find help on platforms like Fiverr.com or UpWork. Whether it’s a five-minute or a five-day task, you can find a freelancer to help with your project.
If you can write instructions about how to perform the task, you can delegate it. And if you’re worried about losing control or quality, simply add milestones where you check the person’s work. Initially, it might not be faster, but in the long term, it will pay off.
Delay It
If a task is not urgent or important, delaying it might be the right option. But the problem with this strategy is that it requires you to handle the task at least twice: once when reviewing it and deciding whether to do it, and again when you finally decide to do it. If you repeatedly decide to delay it, you’ve taken up precious time and mental energy that could be better spent.
So, when exactly is the best time to delay a task? Consider delaying when any of the following apply:
- It’s not urgent and you have other urgent items to attend to.
- It’s less important than other items you must attend to.
- It’s less profitable than other items you must attend to.
- The task is best accomplished in batches. As an example, rather than answer each email as it comes in, think about blocking out a couple times a day where you check and clear your email. You can apply this time-batching concept to just about everything to gain efficiency: posting on social media (write and schedule a month’s worth in advance), returning phone calls, attending meetings (book them all on one day and keep other days clear), and running errands (delay until you have three to four errands, then do them all in one run.
Be careful of delaying a task over and over again. Something else may be going on with your mindset:
- The task may be uncomfortable for you (find someone that loves to do what you don’t and delegate), or
- The way to get started is ambiguous (schedule some training or find someone experienced to shorten your learning curve).
Delete It
Some tasks should never be added to your to-do-list in the first place. When there is no return on investment for a task, perhaps the best choice is to delete it.
Take a look at some of the things you do out of habit. Does it still make sense to do that task, or is it simply done because it was always done that way?
