It's easy, isn't it?
It's so easy to add another class. It's easy to stay an hour later, come in an hour earlier. Easy to skip lunch. Easy to skip sleep. Easy to skip family mealtime. They're all easy - each just one small surrender in the rearword march toward burnout. All too easy to pack one more thing into the day, usually at the edges, and the giant ball just expands outward....
New Box owners laughingly refer to their weight-loss and performance deterioration as, "New Box Owner Syndrome." You put everyone before yourself (good) and pay the price physically and emotionally (bad.)
The first step toward free time isn't delegation: it's breaking your job apart. By smashing your day into smaller roles, you can identify the many hats you've been juggling...and then, when your staff comes asking for a new Horizon, you'll have something to shift over. A nice little package, done up with a bow. "You want more money? Here's the Social Media job." "More influence over coaching decisions? Here's what it will take to step up into Head Coach."
Write these roles - they're really job descriptions - into separate boxes on a piece of paper. Don't assign names yet. Let them stand on their own: it's easier to hold up a role and say, "think you can fill this?" than it is to replace a human who performed tasks D, L, and Q - a unique combination.
Clearly delineating these tasks into bite-sized chunks - bringing them down to checklists, if possible - will make them easier to shift to another. The key is to have a well-written job description for each role, even if YOUR NAME goes into every single box at first.
Every time I speak with a Box owner, I ask them to list their priorities. If they've been in business for more than a year, TIME is always at the top. Help everyone: smash your job.
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