How to Know When to Hire Help

“I should be able to do this myself. Why can’t I get things done?” Many people feel this way. It’s discouraging to struggle when others seem to manage with ease. We may wonder how everyone else seems to have skills that we somehow never learned. Thoughts like these often lead to shame, which then makes us want to withdraw and hide. Sometimes, friends and family get frustrated with us and don’t understand why we can’t just figure it out. Fortunately, when organizing and executive functioning feel hard, there are professional resources who can provide needed guidance and support. If you are struggling, here’s how to you know when to hire help.

Hiring Professional Assistance

At some point, most people hire professional assistance. We hire help when:

• We don’t have the skills we need to do a task on our own.
• We lack the tools needed to complete a job.
• We lack experience and don’t want to make a situation worse.
• A task is more complicated than similar ones we’ve handled before.”
• Specialized skills are needed for the task at hand.
• We are unable to complete a task for physical, mental, or emotional reasons.
• Our time is valuable and we want to be as efficient as possible.
• Extenuating circumstances prevent us from completing a task.
• The approach we are familiar with is no longer effective and/or possible.

There may be other reasons why you want to bring in a pro. The reasons for hiring a professional organizer or executive functioning coach are much the same.  Let’s consider how these reasons might look in the organizing world.

Lack of Skills

In everything from athletics to math, some people are born with an innate advantage. They naturally absorb ideas and seem to perform with ease. It’s normal to feel a bit envious of these people, and yet this is all part of the way the world is. Everyone has unique strengths, and together those differences create balance.

While a bit of envy is normal, concluding that we are somehow “worse” than others because we can’t do what they do is not. No one excels at everything, and most of us need training or support to build competence. Education and tools help all of us perform better.

For some reason, when it comes to organizing or productivity, we seem to believe that we should have automatically absorbed the necessary skills. This just isn’t the case. A lack of skills is not evidence of weakness; it often simply means no one ever taught us.

The good news: there are many effective strategies and tools that can help you live an organized and productive life. If you don’t know what they are, you can learn them from someone who does.

Lack of Tools

Very few tasks can be performed without at least some sort of tool. Painters need brushes, programmers need computers, basketball players need a ball, firefighters need access to water and a hose.

The same is true for organization and productivity. To be organized, you need sufficient supplies, such as bins, sorters, labels, and dividers. To be productive, you need things like a task list, a calendar, and a schedule. You might also benefit from using alarms, reminders, a database, apps, a motivational chart, an accountability partner, and more.

Part of the challenge is that we often aren’t sure which tools to buy. We don’t want to purchase something that isn’t going to work. We also have a budget and don’t want to waste money.

The good news: there are many free and low-cost options that can get you up and running. Professionals can help you determine where to start, and which tools are worth investing in based on your specific situation.

Lack of Experience

A common fear is taking action when we don’t know what we are doing. We may worry about making a situation worse. In some situations, lack of experience is a valid reason to seek help before taking action. For example, it would be unwise of me to try to fix electrical problems. I definitely need an expert for that.

In other cases, we may be able to make progress, but our inner anxiety keeps us from trying. We rationalize delaying action, leading to avoidance and procrastination. Organizing tasks often fall into this category.

The good news: experience is gained through repeated practice. If you don’t know where to start, you can hire a professional organizer to provide direction and supervision. For example, if you struggle to manage sentimental possessions–which is common–it helps to have someone design a pathway for decision-making that you can follow. As you sort and review, the decision-making gets easier.

Complicated Tasks

Many people feel competent handling routine tasks but get nervous when the situation gets complex. For instance, I might feel okay about replacing the rubber flapper in my toilet but not know what to do when the ejector pump alarm in my basement starts blaring.

Some tasks are simply more complex than the average person knows how to handle. When it comes to organizing, for example, perhaps you were able to maintain order when you lived alone in an apartment. However, now that you live in a house with three children, a dog, a mother-in-law, and you’re running a home-based business, you feel overwhelmed.

Hiring help can be a smart decision when facing complex situations. Most people cannot realistically ‘do it all.’” Can you imagine the family in Downton Abbey making their own meals, caring for their own horses, tending to their extensive gardens, polishing all their own silver, and cleaning the castle by themselves? It sounds silly. Yet many people today place similar expectations on themselves.

The good news: you don’t have to handle complexity alone. You may want to hire someone to whom you can offload the hard stuff.

Specialized Skills Needed

Many jobs require specialized skills. We don’t question this fact when it comes to things handled by doctors, lawyers, and aerospace engineers. After all, we want someone who is well trained and knows what they are doing.

While many organizing and productivity challenges don’t require advanced training, there are some that do. For instance, maybe you are relocating to another country and don’t know how to get your belongings moved internationally. Or perhaps you work for the government under a security clearance and need to use a specialized system or tool. Maybe you need to get rid of something that can’t just be sold or donated (such as a weapon or old legal tender).

Some situations require specialized expertise.”

The good news: someone out there knows how to help you with your particular situation. If the first person you call doesn’t know, they might be able to direct you to someone who does.   

Physical, Mental, and Emotional Challenges

While lack of skills is one reason we may struggle, it isn’t the only reason. There are a wide variety of real challenges that may keep us from handling a situation on our own.

For instance, when it comes to organizing and productivity, this may look like a physical disability. It’s difficult to stay organized while recovering from heart surgery or if you can’t put weight on your foot. Many physical procedures require a period of limited mobility to facilitate healing. You may also have a permanent physical restraint that keeps you from being able to lift, carry, stretch, or bend.

Mental hurdles can also hinder our productivity. For example, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) can result in intrusive thoughts that interrupt your ability to perform tasks. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can make it hard for you to stay focused, even on tasks that you know how to do. Hoarding disorder creates a situation where efforts to declutter and organize are repeatedly undermined.

Emotional challenges can also hijack efforts to organize and get things done. A condition like depression, for example, can sap energy and drain hope, both of which make it hard to work on tasks.

If you feel overwhelmed or unable to function effectively, seeking professional support can be an important first step. You may not even know what is wrong. In this case, a diagnosis will be very helpful. Once you understand the cause of your situation, you will know what type of professional assistance will be most helpful.

The good news: now more than ever, professional help is available for those facing specialized situations. Don’t suffer in silence and be open to accepting aid when it is offered. If you don’t know where to find help reach out to someone you trust to help you begin finding the right resource.

Limited Time

One of the most common reasons people fall behind on organizing and productivity tasks is limited time. For instance, a deadline is so near that one person working alone simply cannot complete it in time. Or, we are being pulled in more directions than we can handle.

In one respect, this is a nice problem to have. It means our lives are full. At the same time, it can feel discouraging to work from morning to night and feel like we aren’t doing anything well or making anyone (including ourselves) happy.

When time is your most limited resource, it’s worth considering what you might be able to outsource. For example, you may choose to hire a lawn care service instead of spending the weekend mowing. Or perhaps you hire a virtual assistant so you can spend more time with clients. Maybe you want to hire childcare (or swap childcare with a friend) a couple of times a week so you can be more efficient with errands. Move managers and organizers can help you unpack after a move, allowing you to settle into your new home more quickly.

The good news: intentionally deciding how to allocate resources–both money and time–is not only acceptable, but also wise.

Extenuating Circumstances

Even efficient, trained, and skilled people sometimes run into situations that are overwhelming. Circumstances can interfere with our ability to handle tasks on our own.

For instance, if your house catches fire, you really can’t clean that up on your own. Or how about when you have your schedule planned and then you are called for jury duty. You can’t be in two places at once.

When it comes to physical belongings, maybe you run a fairly organized house, but then your child comes back from college with a dorm full of stuff. Or a sick family member moves in and now you need to turn your living room into a hospital room and provide round-the-clock care.

The good news: professional help can come in handy when life surprises you with an unexpected challenge. Experts can help you navigate unfamiliar territory by offering expertise, instruction, access to resources, and extra arms and legs.

Outdated Skills

As we age, especially in this technologically driven era, many people find themselves suddenly unable to complete tasks the way they know how. Many seniors struggle with things like patient portals, computer challenges, phone issues, bank logins, and more. The rapid pace of change has left many people feeling overwhelmed and left behind.

As someone who still uses a paper planner, I feel compelled to say that new is not necessarily better. Many older approaches still work perfectly well. At the same time, I know that there are circumstances where we are being forced to adopt new approaches. This can be very hard to figure out on our own.

The good news: professional organizers can help with administrative tasks, photo organization, productivity systems, technology transitions, and more.

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Are you struggling with organizing and productivity?  Now may be the perfect time to bring in a professional. The right professional can provide timely, practical solutions.

When have you been happy that you hired some help?