In a flat world, you don't have to be a celebrity to start eliminating menial tasks and enjoying the finer things in life – or just reclaiming it from the clutches of your BlackBerry. I've spent the last three years using a small global army of MBAs and assistants to effectively run my life for me, all for $4 to $10 an hour.
Want a digital concierge 24/7? For $30 a month, you can get your next vacation planned while you sleep. Just sign up at AskSunday.com and reach a friendly Indian named "Philip" or "John." No time to catch up on that stack of business reading or find this year's Tickle-Me-Elmo for your kid? Relax. Someone 10 time zones away is on it.
This isn't just about being pampered. It's about putting first things first. Work on that innovative project instead of responding to e-mails. Take that long walk on the beach with your girlfriend, cute puppy, or long-ignored 8-year-old.
"Reclaim Your Life: 'Offchore' to a Bangalore Butler," CSM, Apr 8, 08.
As I was straining to uproot an S. leucantha for transplant on Sunday, I had an irritable moment where I thought, "Why can't I just pay someone else to do it and not feel guilty?" I got over it -- one of the things that makes me happy is being able to claim my garden victories as wholly my own -- but I do wonder whether it makes sense to outsource some soft-labor chores.
43 Folders covered this last year. What do you think now?
Am I just totally not getting this? Buying things on-line, getting movie tickets, making reservations--these just are not time-consuming activities for me. I guess there might be some psychological benefits--like the guy paying someone else to worry for him and finding that really therapeutic--but from a practical standpoint, I don't see the point.
It really goes against the grain of my personality--I like picking out presents for people, and if it takes me a long time to buy something, it's because it's something I really need to think about. If anything, I'm moving even further away from paying other people to do things I can do--as I have learned with my car and my house, it's not only more expensive to pay other people to do things, but you just don't know if they're going to do a good job.
Posted by: Polly | 2008.04.08 at 15:57
I think it depends on two things:
1 - How much of a time investment is the task in question?
2 - How much do you enjoy the task in question?
I'm looking to outsource cleaning our apartment -- we can't stay on top of it, and we hate it. A monkey (drunk or sober, heh) would do a better job than we currently do. It is worth the money for me to not have to spend time scrubbing my tub or worrying about the fact that my tub is not scrubbed. But I will keep doing the laundry -- it doesn't take much time, I am particular about what does and does not go in the dryer, and it's often the only two hours in a week where I have nothing to do but sit and read. We outsource some of our grocery shopping by having a box of organic veggies delivered every two weeks; however, now that the farmers market just around the corner is reopening next month, I've put a hold on the deliveries from May until October. Getting the veggies saves us a lot of time in the colder months, when I am in no mood to trudge to several stores to get what I want, but we enjoy shopping at the farmers market and the selection is great in the summer, so we won't need it then.
I don't think AskSunday is something I would use that often, but if I were the type of person who travelled a lot for business, or had to maintain a busy schedule of out-of-office work meetings and client dinners, I think the $30 a month would be invaluable. I can see my fiance, who runs his own business, getting a lot of use out of it.
Posted by: drunken monkey | 2008.04.09 at 05:26