The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing Your Life
May 2, 2008
Outsourcing isn’t just for business. In fact, outsourcing many areas of your personal life is going to become increasingly popular over the next decade, because thousands of people are tired of working long hours, only to waste even more time doing personal chores when they get home.
Gift Buying
To me, shopping has to be one of the most mind numbing chores. And even shopping on the Internet still wastes a heap of time. If you feel the same way, you could outsource the purchasing of gifts for friends and loved ones - especially at Christmas. Personally, I would go a step further and outsource the gift wrapping too.
Pros: Saves time.
Saves forgetting and upsetting loved ones.
Cons: Your shopper may buy something that sucks, offends, or causes an allergic reaction.
You could be in trouble if a recipient asks questions about the gift.
Means entrusting your credit/debit card details to your shopper.
Learning
You can spend hours researching something you want to learn, only to find a couple of pieces of useful information among piles of crap. Why not save yourself some time, by outsourcing some of your learning?
Pros: Saves time.
You can get the researcher to make notes of the key points, meaning you don’t need to read the rest.
Cons: Could be costly if the researcher struggles to find what they’re looking for.
The information may not be accurate, depending upon what sources they use.
Vacation Planning
Some people spend more time researching their vacation than they spend planning any other aspect of their life. This is fine if you enjoy it and you have the time. If not, you could outsource all the planning and booking of your vacation.
Pros:Saves time - you just need to turn up.
Cons: You’re relying on the tastes of someone else to choose what is best for you.
They may not necessarily get you a great deal.
Vacations aren’t always as enjoyable if you don’t get involved in the planning process.
Cooking and Shopping
Cooking and shopping can easily eat into several hours of your life per week. Plus, if you finish work late, your family could be passing out with hunger by the time you’ve prepared the evening meal. So it may be worth outsourcing it.
Pros: Saves time.
You can relax when you finish work.
Cons: Expense.
Unless you’re not fussy about what you eat, you’ll still spend time putting shopping lists and menus together.
Your shopper may not be as fussy as you would be about freshness and quality of food.
Housework/Laundry
Housework and laundry can be a pain - especially if you’ve been working all day and you have kids. Outsourcing could be a big time saver.
Pros: Heaps of time saved.
Your house is always tidy.
Cons: Losing things. Cleaners have a habit of putting things back in the wrong place.
Trust is a big issue - not just with regard to theft, but confidentiality too.
It’s difficult and noisy to have someone cleaning and hoovering your house if you work from home.
Do you outsource any of these areas of your life, or do you plan to in the future? Can you think of any other things you could outsource to free up your time and make your life more enjoyable?
Related Stuff
The Pros and Cons Of Outsourcing
Money For Nothing: Tim Ferriss Guardian Article.
49 Decent Virtual Assistant and Personal Outsourcing Resources
Comments
11 Responses to “The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing Your Life”
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I’ve only dabbled in outsourcing myself, but I see the potential. Just having someone come in and clean my apartment every two weeks was fantastic. Coming home and smelling that “Clean Smell”, without doing the cleaning yourself, was great. There are so many other aspects to this though. Thanks for the post!
- Dave
I’ve outsourced a few things. Luckily, where I work in the city centre, there is an errand-running service. They’ll do anything. Including buying a gift, wrapping it, and delivering it to your desk before you go home.
And I’m not geing extravagant using it. It costs a fixed £4 per errand.
That may seem expensive, but losing an hour or longer costs me more if I’ve got to go and do it.
I’ve also used the same company to arrange household stuff - like converting a window into the garden into French Doors.
It actually saved me money because they got a deal about 50% less than my forays into the market. And their fees were negligible in comparison. On top of that they waited in for the contractors, made them tea, supervised them, and cleaned up after them too.
I’m not some bigshot. It’s just economics. If I did it, it would cost more. The time I put in creates more than the time/cost of outsourcing it.
Ian Denny’s last blog post..Deliberately Displease People For Better Results
Hi Catherine,
I’ve been reading how more and more bloggers are outsourcing part of the blogging process (comments, emails, etc). As much as we all know how time consuming this can get, it does make me wonder if some bloggers are also outsourcing their posts. Hmmmmm! (not to be confused with guest posts - although that is a great way to free up some of our blogging time, so having guest posters could be considered outsourcing, as well)
I haven’t outsourced anything in my daily life, but I do think you’ve hit on something in the ways many will use outsourcing in the future. Great entrepreneurial opportunities could be formed from the ideas you have listed.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Blogging - Year One - Lesson Twelve
[...] http://cathlawson.com/blog/2008/05/02/the-pros-and-cons-of-outsourcing-your-life/ [...]
Cath,
You have a great blog. I agree about increasing velocity of outsourcing in our personal lives. I’ve even read an article about outsourcing the house maintenance including fixes, lawn care, preventive maintenance as well.
I just subscribed to your blog, Please visit mine when time permits.
Thanks
Shilpan
Shilpan | successsoul.com’s last blog post..3 Simple Steps to Kindle Your Inner Fire
Hey Cath,
This came just at the right time, although you didn’t cover outsourcing for business. I’m thinking about this right now as my business is at the place on where I have to decide on whether to outsource or cut back on clients.
Doing the second would be silly as it could curb my business growth, therefore outsourcing is a must I have to address very soon in seriousness.
Thanks for this, I like the idea of outsourcing shopping. Come to think of it I just discovered an organic veg farmer who does home deliveries too. Wooohooo….
@ Barbara: as a matter of fact, yes some bloggers do indeed outsource their posts. I should know since I am at the other end of this equation.
While I would never outsource blog posts myself, I would outsource article writing to help me save time. I think in the end what matters is that the outcome is what you hope it to be, regardless of the job you outsource.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Writing Queries - Freelance Writing Guide
Hi David - once a fortnight is a good idea. I used to have someone in 2 mornings a week and that couldn’t work once I started working from home.
Hi Ian - £4 per errand is pretty good. Especially if it’s saving you an hour.
Hi Barbara - as Monika says that does happen. Remember not all blogs are run by an individual either - some have several commentors. I too have outsourced article writing - but only on websites, not my blog.
And you are right about the opportunities. Many people will be able to set up businesses to provide all this outsourcing - just look at the company Ian uses - and also Monika’s business.
Hi Shilpan - thanks. I’ve already visited your blog a couple of times, as I saw your signature over on Barbara’s. But, often I read and don’t comment.
Outsourcing gardening and house maintenance sounds like a smart move.
Thanks Monika - it would be great if you could free up some of your time, rather than turn clients down - especially if the outsourcing costs far less than what you would make in that time. It sounds like you’re definitely heading in the right direction.
Right now, I’m interested in being the outsourcee for a little while. There are things I find fun, like back-end blog stuff (theme, widgets, plugins) which others don’t particularly enjoy.
As for outsourcing my own things… I wouldn’t mind outsourcing research at some points. Vacation I really don’t like anyway, so I can’t imagine outsourcing it too.
Hi Mrs M - that would be great if you could provide widgets, plugins, themes etc for others and make yourself some cash out of it at the same time. And your products will be in demand. I bet there’s few bloggers who actually create their own.
More people seem to be opting for premium wordpress themes now - the ones you have to pay for. I got the Revolution one for this site and Men With Pens customised it. I know when I was looking that it was a struggle to find many really great premium themes, so anyone coming up with a good design would do extremely well.
[...] Catherine Lawson points out in a recent article, outsourcing is a great way to save time in all aspects of your life. Although outsourcing does cost money, if the cost outweighs the benefits, it may be the way to [...]
You have the point. Outsourcing is great because we can save a lot of time and you can do what you want but there is a negative effect when you depend everything through outsourcing. So be careful!