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One of the main ideas in The 4-Hour Work Week is outsourcing. The idea is to have others do easily-outsourced tasks for you, so that you can focus on things that are really important to you and more valuable instead. Many people outsource tasks without even recognizing that they are doing so, since the phrase “outsourcing” brings to mind call centers in India for many people. But outsourcing can be as simple as paying the neighbor kid to mow your lawn.

But how do you know when outsourcing is worthwhile? I think there are three main considerations: transferability, time/money value, and finding the right person or organization.

Transferability – The tasks you do that could just as well be done by someone else are the ones that are prime candidates for outsourcing. Examples might include mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, filing paperwork, paying bills, doing internet research, setting appointments, running errands, etc.

Time/money value – Will you get enough value in time or money from outsourcing the tasks you’ve decided on? In other words, will the free time you now have available be useful for something else (such as growing your business or learning to play the violin) or will you spend it watching reruns on TV? And of course, can you afford to outsource the tasks you have in mind? Or would you rather spend the money on something else? I suppose I could afford to have someone come clean the house, but I’d rather do other things with the money, so to me it’s not worthwhile. Yet. And I never want to feel like I have to work in order to pay for those kinds of things.

Finding the right person or organization – This is the toughie, for me at least. Personality, references, ability to do the tasks, and possibly insurance and taxes all come into play. By personality, I mean both your own personality and the personality of the person or people you’ll be interacting with.

I was willing to give outsourcing a try when it came to research-related tasks, but have not yet found the right person or organization to do it for me. (Although I have only tried one so far, Ask Sunday, which unfortunately did not work out for me.) Do you outsource any of your tasks? If so, how has that worked for you?

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