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What to get something done? Do it yourself

Have you ever noticed that if you want to get something done, you have to do it yourself? I don't know whether this is just me or it is a common thing. (Pointers? Hints?)

There are some small things that could be done. Many times I think that these things could be done by my students, workers, peers, fellows, employees, but nooo... I have to do them myself. For example, I still have to manage and maintain mailinglists myself. (Add subscribers, remove bounced subscribers manually, modify and configure systems and so on.) I still have to tinker with operating systems and applications. Another example, I still have to design and edit some web sites for community services. This things actually could be done by my students.

(BTW, there are other examples that are not IT related. There are other things such as community services, business deals, academic experiments, and so on. You get the idea.)

It is not that I don't want to delegate tasks. I did and still do delegate things. But, they are just not get done. Maybe it's because:
  1. They don't know how to do it. For example, my instruction is not clear enough. The solution is to give a better (and detailed) instructions. But to give detailed instruction or explanation takes more effort that do it yourself. Or, plain simple, they really don't know how to do it. In this case, a simple search and learn how to do it will solve the problem.
  2. They don't know how important that is. This is a lack of vision. Well, not everybody has a clear vision. You cannot blame them for this.
  3. They don't want to do it. This is a problem. They know that it is important and know how to deal with it, but they just don't want to do it. Lazy! I don't know a cure for lazyness. The most frequently used excuse is "I'm busy." Well, I am too, but I still can do it. Why can't you? It's just plain lazyness. (Or maybe they just don't know how to organize time?)
  4. Anything else?
Because of all of the above, in many cases I have to do things myself. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy doing the things that I've been doing, but I just thought that those things could be done by other people. They could and should get the credits for doing them.

So, let's get busy.

Comments

Hedi said…
I hope you don'have a conflict of interest, LOL!
12:34 AM
Anonymous said…
Its not just about giving credits to someone else. Its more about helping them!

By delegating task to s.one who don't know how to do it (yet), we are actually helping them to improve. If we keep doing the things by ourselves, they will loose their opportunity to learn & grow.

Meanwhile, we just have to restrain ourselves from being too perfectionist. It's difficult, yes I know.
1:35 PM
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