1.  Can you pay (a reasonable sum) to have someone else do these tasks? There might be children in your house who would clean up your linen closet/pantry/storage area for $$. Isn’t it worth that to you?

2.  Do you need a professional to help you with a task? What if your carpet is pulling up from the seam and you can’t fix it yourself? Set a specific time every week to make phone calls to professionals to help you with odd tasks like this.

3. Are there tasks that you are afraid of? How about that big project your employer asked you to do? Even if you aren’t going to do the task today, make an outline of what must be done to complete the task. Force yourself to complete one item on the outline before you leave work today.

4.  Are there tasks you hate? Accounting, filing, etc.? Get to work 10 minutes early for the next several days until these items are caught up. Then designate an early morning time to complete the item on a regular basis.

5.  Don’t allow yourself to whine about your procrastination. In the time it takes you to whine, you can often finish the task.

Read Rita Emmett’s book The Procrastinator’s Handbook.

You may also want to access one of the Third Thursday Productivity Time programs:  

Polish Off Procrastination!  Bump Off this Obstacle to Productivity (just $9.97; such a deal!)

Can you give us more information about using teenagers to run errands for you? For example, how much do you pay them? Do they sign a contractor agreement? What type of tasks do you have them do? If you don’t know them well, do you visit with their parents first? Any information about this topic would be appreciated.

Here are some of my responses to these questions:

I pay young people anywhere from $3/hour – $11/hour–depending on a few factors.

• Age
• Type of work they are doing for me (how much skill is involved)
• Whether they are just starting to work for me (and are unproven at this point) or whether they have already shown themselves to be excellent workers.
• Whether they have a driver’s license (which also indicates that they would be older) but this changes some of what I can have them do and also the expectation I have of their responsibility level. Generally, if the teen is doing errands that involve driving, I also pay mileage (50 cents/mile).

Here are the kinds of tasks I’ve had teenagers do:

• Stamp, label, and stuff envelopes.
• Stamp & label postcards.
• Input addresses, etc. on the computer (update mailing lists and the like).
• Internet research (finding names & addresses, etc.)
• Delivering products (Paper Tiger software, for example).
• Put together packets of handouts for workshops.
• Collate notebooks of materials for workshop participants.
• Insert my business cards into letter openers.
• Make games that I was going to be using at workshops.
• Pick up cleaning, mail, books, etc.
• Assist me in my off-site storage unit where I keep workshop materials, books, and other items that I use in my business (so helping clean things, move things, get items in order, etc.)
• Stand at my Pitney Bowes machine and run lots of envelopes through there.
• Burning CDs
• Basic website maintenance

So you can see, it’s quite a range–some is fairly low level and some is higher level.

At this point, I have not had them sign an independent contractor agreement if they are under 18, but I do have them sign their “hours” every week when they turn them in. I pay the teen weekly either in cash from my company’s petty cash account or I write a check from the company. Either way I can track it for expenses.

In every case of a young person I’ve hired, I know their parents (or one of their parents actually works for me and is “subcontracting” the work out to their own or neighborhood kids). I think knowing the parents is smart for a number of reasons; I also believe that parents would want to know YOU because their child will be working with you.

Hiring young people benefits you, your organization, and the teenagers. They learn responsibility and what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. Plus, they are earning money, which also helps them out!! As the teens you’re hiring prove themselves to you–then give them more responsibility and more money. Make them ask for a raise. That, all by itself is an important lesson, especially for young women.

Be sure to check with your own legal advisors as to what you should do in your situation and in your state. You want to be spending your time focusing on important tasks, not dealing with the IRS because you didn’t follow the correct procedures.

Okay, I’m organizing my planner months in advance in order to carry out all the necessary things I need to do so I can accomplish my goals. Follow up calls to principals that I sent tips booklet letters and order forms to is a task that needs to be accomplished. I want to spend time every day doing this. As I was writing down this task in my planner I started thinking that maybe this would be a good time to start delegating more.

Delegating is a “secondary” goal that I’m keeping in the back of my mind. I think I remember you making a comment that you have Lisa do follow up calls for you. For this type of task, would it be best if I made the calls or should I find a virtual assistant to do this for me? I can see advantages of doing it either way.

Can you give me some examples of what type of language I should use when I make these calls? We’ve talked about this before but can you refresh my memory? What are some “phrases” I can practice before I make the calls?

Posted by Billy Simms (to the Help Desk and excerpted for the blog) | 1/10/08

Answer:

Good for you!!! For right now, I think if you can make the calls, that would be great…and then when you can find someone who is excellent and you can train that person to do the follow up calls…then start to have him/her do some, too. It’s got to be someone who has excellent communication skills and “gets” what it is that you do, too.

Try just making a few calls each day and see how that goes.

Here are some suggestions on the phrasing & language: “Hi, this is Billy Simms and I was just calling to check to make sure you had received the booklet on bullying that I sent last week. It’s called _____________ and would have come in a regular business sized envelope. I wanted you to have this with my compliments and I know how the holiday mail goes sometimes…so I just wanted to make sure you’d gotten it.”

Then, depending on the response, go from there. If no, you could ask, “would you like me to send you another one?”–but only if you see bullying as an issue at your school, that is. Or, “would you like me to fax over a couple of the pages so you can see the kinds of tips I offer…they are great for teachers and other people in your school who are helping to address any bullying problems that might crop up.” If yes, then you can ask if s/he has had time to read it and then let him/her know that you have quantity discounts if they’d like to order enough for their teachers and that you do workshops on these topics, etc. Find out if s/he has any questions, etc…. Keep it short unless the person keeps it going. It’s key to get past the secretary if you can.

Meggin’s note:  Billy came up with the idea to offer to send the e-version of his booklet and this has made a huge difference in getting through to the principals.  Hooray!    Having digital versions of your writing is so wonderful because it doesn’t “cost” you anything to send it.  I’ve got lots of my digital items listed on one of my new websites www.FromtheDeskofMegginMcIntosh.com.  And, BTW (by the way), I’d encourage you to get a domain name that is something like this….but with your name of course.