Delegation, Automation, and Elimination

The Manager Who Did Everyone’s Job

He was the best individual contributor on the team. When he became manager, he kept doing all the technical work himself. He worked 70-hour weeks. His team sat idle, waiting for him to hand off the work he’d completed. The team’s output was worse than when he was a solo contributor because he’d become the bottleneck.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll identify tasks to delegate, automate, or eliminate—reclaiming hours for the work only you can do.

🔄 Quick Recall: In the previous lesson, we built deep work protocols and learned that most people can sustain only about 4 hours of deep focus daily. Remember the 23-minute refocus cost? The remaining hours should be spent as efficiently as possible on necessary shallow work—or eliminated entirely. Today we minimize that shallow work.

The 3D Framework

For every task on your list, ask three questions in order:

1. Delete: Does This Need to Happen at All?

The most powerful time-saving technique is elimination. Many tasks persist through inertia—they’ve always been done, so they continue, even though nobody benefits.

Questions to identify deletable tasks:

• If I stopped doing this, would anyone notice in a week?
• Does this directly contribute to a goal that matters?
• Am I doing this out of habit rather than necessity?
• Would the consequence of not doing it be acceptable?

Common deletable tasks:

• Status reports nobody reads
• Meetings without decisions
• CC emails that require no action
• Perfectionism on low-stakes deliverables

Here's my task list from the last week:
[list all tasks]

For each task, evaluate:
1. If I stopped doing this, what's the worst
   that happens?
2. Is the consequence acceptable?
3. Is anyone actually using the output of this work?

Identify tasks I should DELETE completely and explain
why the consequence is acceptable.

✅ Quick Check: You spend 30 minutes every Friday writing a status report. You suspect nobody reads it. How would you test this hypothesis before eliminating it?

2. Delegate: Can Someone Else Do This?

If a task must happen but doesn’t require your unique expertise, delegate it. The test: could someone else do this 80% as well? If yes, delegate.

The delegation formula:

1. Document the process. Write step-by-step instructions (AI can help)
2. Teach once, thoroughly. Invest time upfront for long-term savings
3. Define “done.” Be specific about the expected outcome
4. Set check-in points. Review at milestones, not micromanage

I want to delegate this task: [describe the task]

Help me create a delegation package:
1. Step-by-step instructions (clear enough for
   someone unfamiliar)
2. Definition of "done" (specific, measurable)
3. Common mistakes to avoid
4. Check-in schedule (when should they update me?)
5. Authority level (what decisions can they make
   without asking?)

What to delegate (even if you can do it better):

• Data entry and formatting
• Scheduling and calendar management
• Research compilation
• Report generation from templates
• First-draft communications
• Routine approvals

3. Digitize: Can AI or Software Do This?

Many tasks that seem to require human judgment can be partially or fully automated with AI and software.

AI automation examples:

Here are my recurring tasks:
[list recurring tasks with frequency and time]

For each, suggest:
1. Can AI handle this completely?
2. Can AI handle part of it (which part)?
3. What software tool could automate it?
4. What's the estimated time savings per week?
5. How long would setup take?

Prioritize by: highest time savings ÷ lowest
setup time.

✅ Quick Check: You spend an hour every week creating a status report from project data. Could AI help? What parts could be automated, and what would still need your judgment?

The Task Audit for 3D

Take your time audit data from Lesson 2 and run every recurring task through the 3D framework:

Here are all my recurring weekly tasks:
[list them with estimated time per week]

Run the 3D analysis:
For each task, recommend:
- DELETE if the consequences of not doing it
  are acceptable
- DELEGATE if someone else could do it 80% as well
- DIGITIZE if AI or software can handle it
- KEEP only if it requires my unique expertise
  AND has high impact

Calculate total weekly hours I could reclaim.

Saying No

Eliminating tasks means saying no—to requests, invitations, and expectations. This is the hardest part for most people.

Scripts for saying no gracefully:

• “I appreciate you thinking of me. I can’t take this on right now without dropping something else. Which of my current priorities should I deprioritize?”
• “I’m not the best person for this. [Name] would do a better job.”
• “I can’t do this by Friday, but I could look at it next Wednesday. Would that work?”
• “I need to say no to this to protect time for [specific priority]. I hope you understand.”

Try It Yourself

List your top 10 recurring tasks. For each one, decide: Delete, Delegate, or Digitize? If you can’t apply any of the three, and only then, keep it on your plate.

Calculate the total hours you could reclaim per week. Most people find 5-10 hours of potential savings on their first pass.

Key Takeaways

• The 3D framework (Delete, Delegate, Digitize) should be applied to every task before you personally do it
• Elimination is the most powerful time saver—many tasks persist through inertia, not necessity
• Delegate anything someone else could do 80% as well; the upfront teaching investment pays off quickly
• AI can automate or assist with many tasks that seem to require human judgment
• Saying no is a skill that protects your time for high-value work
• Most people can reclaim 5-10 hours per week on their first 3D audit

Up Next

In Lesson 7: Weekly Planning and Review Systems, we’ll build the recurring system that keeps your time management on track week after week.