I have to agree that outsourcing the drudge work is an excellent idea for anyone who can afford it.

Currently I have a maid service come in to clean once a week and a landscaper over to maintain the yard 2x a month. I got sick of the house being dirty, sick of cleaning up after my housemate, and sick of having the worst looking yard in the neighborhood.

The piece of mind is incredible, I no longer cringe because I keep seeing long-neglected household chores I don’t want to do. I am no longer constantly frustrated with my housemate for not doing any of the housework or yard work. The neighbors no longer drop hints about the state of our yard. The only remaining minor annoyances are the kitchen can get pretty trashed in a week if neither of us are cleaning and the maid service will only deal with clutter build up to a point.

The next step is to try to find someone via my personal network or craigslist for 8 hours a week of whatever including yard work and house work. While I’m happy with the maid and landscape services they won’t help me organize the garage, de-clutter my closets, or take the cats to the vet. The cost won’t be much more as I’m currently paying slightly over $400 for the maid and landscape services.

Great post and way to connect it with real life examples. Thats great you realized what in your life makes you truly happy, and essentially, more efficient and effective!

I love the idea of hiring a personal assistant. I see it not spending your income a month, but rather trading resources. Your trading money for time, and time is a resource that more often or not, most peope don’t have nor can afford due to demanding jobs, etc.

The book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, is a book I highly recommend if you haven’t already read it. People are truly happy with your their lives by focusing and being challenged by something they are passionate about in their daily work.

@Anne: My boyfriend espouses the virtue of doing things like dishes for the exact reason. I find driving and showering to be the best two mindless “thinking” tasks for me, so I outsourced other tasks.

Thank you for the comments!

I find my software job to be a lot of drudge work, and my soul shuts down the minute I step through the door, even before I actually have to do anything. I was only half joking when I asked my boss if I could outsource my job to someone in India. Then I could just do any rework that was needed, pocket the difference between my salary and what I’d be paying the guy in India, and be free to enjoy a lot more flow moments–like blogging! Not surprisingly, my boss didn’t think it was a good idea!

Nicole, did you ever use paper plates and plastic utensils? I’m sure you’ve come across many people who couldn’t for the life of them understand why you think not having a dishwasher means you wasted 7 years of your life. While I don’t understand it myself and I’m trying hard not to laugh (sorry), I’ve had the experience of no one understanding why I hate certain things. What can I say? One person’s flow is another person’s drudgery.

@Dale: I asked. I looked around on craigslist for a personal assistant and emailed several people until I found the right fit. My assistant has a FT job and just wanted a few extra hours of work a week. A great fit for both of us!

@Nicole: You might want to work on getting rid of that little nagging voice in your head…that will help you have more peak experiences as well.

Thank you all for commenting! I will keep reading here and posting as needed.

-Erica

But you are right if in your mind you interpret things negatively then I submit even having money could be a drudge because now you have to protect it.

I am glad I can use my brain to make money, cook those gourmet foods people spend and arm and a leg for in trendy restaurants, and more importantly, develop my creative and synthetic imaginations to keep my mind alert to the wonderful things in life.

Best wishes to you and your continued success!
Stew

To give you an example: Most people find washing dishes annoying, but they’ll do it and say just what you say. Me on the other side, I grew up with a dish washer and spent my first 7 years out of home without one. These are 7 wasted years of my life and it was not just a “oh I hate it but I do it” thing, but really hating. Doing it _never_ was easy.

Until today I do not use a lot of utensils and dishes at home and now that I do not have a cantina anymore around slowly try to adapt to more cooking. With everything I take out a voice in my head still cries ‘but you need to clean it’. btw, that buy of a dishwasher is now 9 years ago. *that* is drudging something.

As for the flow state and the new peaks, I disagree. I do not need work I hate or else to be the ‘refreshing mode’, I’d rather find something new to refresh my mind.