Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we can’t do everything when it comes to our business. While many ventures may start off as single-person projects, they typically don’t stay that way for long. If we try to manage every aspect of a growing business, then eventually it will outgrow our personal bandwidth. The only way to scale and grow a business is to create extensions of yourself. For this reason, delegation is a vital component of any successful company.

When it comes to business, there are several things that often can and should be assigned to others. First, stop doing hourly work that can be outsourced at a decent rate. Second, stop doing tasks you do not like and/or are not good at. You can’t grow your company if you don’t try to make the best use of your time and talents.

One way to determine how you can best increase overall efficiency is by following the Entrepreneurial Operating System’s® (EOS) series of straightforward steps and utilizing their Delegate and Elevate™ Tool.

Read on as we outline these measures:

Define your 100%

Maybe you’ve realized the hard way is stretching yourself too thin, closing in on burnout, or nearing your breaking point. Or maybe you are reading this before things have gotten out of control and are able to get ahead of the problem. The first step in being able to Delegate & Elevate is to determine how many hours a week you want to work and if it will allow you to operate at your best. Giving your business 100% of your effort doesn’t mean giving it 100% of your time. It means being healthy and balanced which allows you to contribute to the best of your abilities with optimal energy. Your “100% work” time is the hours per week that you decide allow you to be your best and have the balance you desire.

List everything you do throughout the week

Once you’ve determined your time commitment, take inventory of everything you do and everything that needs to be done by writing it out in list form. Just jot down all of the tasks, meetings, and accountabilities that are required of you in an average week. Along with the list add a range of time that you spend on each of the items on the list in an average week.

Determine if you’re over capacity

Add up the number of hours required to get all of your list done in a week. Take the number of hours a week you previously determined is your committed “work time” and consider how many hours over capacity you are currently at. If you are exceeding your bandwidth you need to dole out responsibilities to others.

Create your quadrants

Using a simple chart, place everything in the list you just made into one of the following four categories: Love it/Great at it, Like it/Good at it, Don’t Like it/Good at it, Don’t Like it /Not Good at it. These classifications will help you organize tasks based on your level of enjoyment and aptitude for each one.

Delegate and elevate

Looking at the bottom half of the chart you’ve made, begin figuring out what you can delegate. By empowering others with responsibilities, you will actually elevate the work that you yourself are doing. Start with the bottom right, if you are doing things you do not like and are not good at, get rid of these things asap. You are serving no one by continuing to do these tasks. The bottom left is what we call “personal hell”, it drains your energy to do things you hate doing even if you are good at it. There is someone out there that is great at and loves to do these items.

Taking on too much may seem noble at first, but as you begin to task others with duties, you will see that it can actually be very freeing and advantageous. If you can spend more of your time, energy, and talents on things you are good at and passionate about, then you and your business are more likely to thrive. And by entrusting others with tasks, you are inviting them to thrive as well. It may seem illogical at first that working less and delegating more can increase efficiency in your business, but often, effort and energy are just as important to consider as expenses. Don’t be afraid to appoint jobs that can be easily outsourced and that fall outside of the quadrant of things you love to do and are good at doing.