Everyone Needs an Assistant. Here’s Why.
The biggest blocker to delegation is thinking 'it's faster to do it myself' - and that's true. But you can't build leverage without going through the upfront work of teaching and delegating. Start with voice notes instead of thumbs on your phone - you can delegate 2-3x faster by speaking than typing
56mKey Takeaway
The biggest blocker to delegation is thinking 'it's faster to do it myself' - and that's true. But you can't build leverage without going through the upfront work of teaching and delegating. Start with voice notes instead of thumbs on your phone - you can delegate 2-3x faster by speaking than typing.
Episode Overview
Jonathan Swanson, founder of Thumbtack and Athena, shares his framework for effective delegation and time management. He discusses how to scale from ChatGPT ($20/month) to human assistants ($3,000/month) to full executive support teams, emphasizing the compound effects of long-term assistant relationships.
Key Insights
Delegate by Algorithm, Not by Task
Instead of just saying 'plan a dinner party,' export your internal preferences: 'I like 6-8 people at similar funding stages with similar employee counts.' Write an algorithm for how you make decisions, then delegate that entire decision-making process.
Voice Delegation Creates Real-Time Leverage
The best delegators use voice notes between meetings to immediately offload tasks. Walking between meetings, they'll voice note takeaways and next steps, so work gets delegated before accumulating into an overwhelming end-of-day list.
Time Is the Ultimate Asset
You can always raise another funding round or make another trade, but you can't raise another decade. If time is your most valuable asset, design your calendar purposefully around your highest goals - if last month's calendar doesn't reflect your priorities, you're doing it wrong.
The Power Law of Goals
There's typically one thing every month or quarter that if accomplished is worth more than everything else combined. Figure out what that one thing is and go all-in on that rather than procrastinating with a long list of smaller tasks.
Notable Quotes
"Cardinal sin of delegation is that it will be faster or better to do it myself. And the reason it's a blocker is cuz it's true. But the only way you get leverage is by going through that work."
"I want to break the chains of time. We can always raise another round or do another trade, but you can't raise another decade."
"If you don't have an assistant, you are the assistant and you don't want to be the assistant."
"A phone call is better than a meeting. A voice notes is better than a call. A text is better than a voice note."
Action Items
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1
Start Delegating with $20/Month
If budget is tight, begin by delegating to ChatGPT for goal brainstorming and business planning. Prompt engineering is really just delegating - master this before hiring humans.
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2
Use Voice Notes for All Delegation
Replace typed delegation with voice notes. You can speak 2-3x faster than typing and can delegate while walking between meetings or during downtime.
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3
Do Weekly Calendar Audits
Every week, review which meetings you wish you hadn't taken and adjust next week accordingly. If your calendar doesn't reflect your highest goals, you're not optimizing your time.
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4
Build Long-term Assistant Relationships
Don't switch assistants every 6-12 months. The compounding effect of a decade-long relationship creates incredible leverage as they learn everything about you and your preferences.