If you listen to any podcast on time saving in business, one of the number one tips you will hear is to outsource. While that may be the answer for a lot of people, we are not quite to the point where we want to outsource any of our business tasks yet. We believe that we should be doing everything in our business for ourselves for a good while because we have to establish how our business works for us. We need to be the ones editing our photos, crunching the numbers, and running our website.

However, we both still work full time in other positions so our time is stretched thin most days. Just because we aren’t ready to hire others into our business does not mean we have to give up on the concept of outsourcing.

Instead of outsourcing business tasks, we can outsource household task so we can spend more concentrated time on our business.

You may think I’m silly, but trust me, these little tips can be lifesavers….

1. A Crockpot. After a long day of work at our 9-5 jobs, it can be such a drag to come home and have to cook dinner then jump back into photography work mode. What’s the answer? Outsource to a crockpot! One day last week I worked at my day job from 6am- 5pm then got stuck behind an accident on the interstate for 2 hours after work! Luckily, I had put a taco recipe in the crockpot that morning because I came home with dinner already done. I could then jump into photography mode for an hour or two and then go into relax mode. I recently bought a cookbook bundle that I think will enhance my crockpot obsession even more: Slow Cooker Freezer Meals Cookbook. They even have a gluten free version for Hannah!
2. A Robot Vacuum Cleaner. I know I’m way behind the game on this one, but I got a robot vacuum for Christmas this year and it is life changing!! You know I love my sweet dog, Mellie, but she sheds like you wouldn’t believe. Plus, I’m a clean freak so I used to vacuum myself everyday. Now, my robot vacuum cleans for me while I work! Insert happy dance!!
3. Batching Tasks. A few weeks ago Hannah and I had an extremely busy Saturday. We had two client meetings, errands to run, photos to take, and work to do on our laptops. Those tasks took us all day long. I think if we would have planned our time better, we could have gotten done in half the time. Batch your errands. Go to the bank, post office, and grocery store all in one trip so you don’t have to drive back and forth to home a million times. Plan out your day and you won’t loose unnecessary time.

While there will come a day when we will need to give up some of our business tasks, I think if we continue to come up with ways to outsource things in our home life, we will get more focused time to work on our business so we can come out from behind our computers and just live.

-Chelsea