Things you might not be outsourcing (but could)

Little ideas to lighten the load

I’m a big fan of outsourcing. Managing a home and a family involves a great many tasks, but very few of those tasks have to be done by one particular person. Spreading the work around can free up time for focusing at work and being more present at night and on weekends.

But beyond the obvious things — like hiring a cleaning service — sometimes it can be hard to figure out what might be helpful. So I was happy to have a conversation recently with Emily King, co-founder and CEO of Faye. This is a family assistance service that pairs busy families with local advisors who take on tasks that would otherwise consume time and energy. Generally, people pay for a few hours of assistance per month, and often the advisors live in the same communities as their clients so they have some local knowledge. Here are some examples of things she suggested that you can ask someone else to do.