Eliminate, Automate or Outsource – everything that doesn’t matter!

I think we would all like to concentrate on the things that matter the most to us; our children, our spouses, our family, our friends and our dreams.

When I think of my own life, I guess there are monotonous taks that I do enjoy, and I would not put these tasks into the category of “what matters most”.  For example, I do enjoy mowing the lawn occasionally, and I am such a cheap skate that I won’t hire it done, especially, when I have a 13 year old boy at home that could do it, when I don’t feel like doing it.  When I do mow the lawn, I find myself asking the question…  Do I enjoy this or is it just time that allows me to think, without any interruptions.  I guess my point to this drivel is, at-least in my case, sometimes I am so consumed with things that I have to do, I have forgotten what I like to do.  Because I am a software developer, I spend so much time on my computer.  When I was younger and I guess even now, I really enjoyed physical activity.  I still ride my bike twice per week and I hit the Gym 3 times per week, but I don’t throw the baseball with the kids nearly enough.  I don’t play hoops with my buddies.  Heck, I don’t even go to ball-games and have a few beers with my buddies anymore.  I have a good friend who plays in a band, and I consistently promise him that I will come see him play, but I can always find a reason that I can’t go.

So I have made a new agreement with myself.  At 42 soon to be 43 (October) who am I and what do I like.  Each and every time that I do something in the next 3 months I am going to document it.  If I like doing it, I am going to keep doing it.  If I like doing it sometimes, I am going to make arrangements to do it sometimes (Like mowing the lawn, maybe I will do it once per month – “13 year get ready the other 3 weeks are yours”).  If I don’t like doing it I am going to ask my self the following 3 questions:

Can I eliminate it?

If I can’t eliminate it…  Can I outsource it?

If I can’t outsource…  Can I automate it?

I am really going to try to track this kind of stuff for a while just to see how much filler that I have in my life.  I have realized that the filler in my life, prevents me from living my life.  I will continue to write about this topic and I will be looking for help.

Here is the first topic that I need help with…  How can I eliminate, outsource or automate – Doing the Dishes?

Anything else we should try to eliminate.  If we can’t eliminate them then we need to automate them.  If we can’t automate them, then we should outsource them.