The Outsourced Life
House cleaner. Gardener. Dog walker. Meal delivery. Organizer.
So many services and still… so little time. (And so much stress.)
Over the years, have you found yourself building a support squad of life “helpers”? I'm talking about all the people and services we hire to make life run smoother, cleaner, more efficient—so we can focus on what really matters.
If you've outsourced some of these tasks, congrats—you may have added 5, 10, even 15 hours back into your week. That’s a gift. A huge one. The question is:
Are those hours truly energizing you?
Are they fueling your joy, creativity, rest, and connection—or are they being quietly swallowed by more work, more busyness, and more low-grade stress?
Here’s the paradox I see all the time: We offload tasks to reclaim time, but we don’t always reclaim energy. Sometimes, in the effort to do more, we unknowingly trade small, soul-soothing rituals for more screen time, more meetings, or more mental load.
Think about it:
Have you ever felt oddly relaxed after cleaning out a closet?
Or reconnected to yourself while chopping vegetables or weeding a garden?
Have you noticed your body decompress during a walk with the dog?
We tend to treat these things as chores. But often, they’re actually forms of active rest—rituals that ground us, create space for thought, and bring our nervous systems back online.
A Fresh Energy Audit
If you're feeling depleted despite all the outsourcing, it may be time for an energy audit. Ask yourself:
Which activities energize me (even if they take effort)?
Which ones drain me (even if they seem “productive”)?
What have I outsourced that used to give me joy or a sense of calm?
What have I added to my plate that now eats away at my vitality?
Instead of defaulting to “I should hire this out,” try asking: “What does this task do for my energy?”
Maybe cleaning is meditative.
Maybe baking connects you to creativity.
Maybe folding laundry with music playing helps your brain reset.
Energy management is about more than efficiency. It’s about noticing what feeds your internal battery—and what slowly runs it down.
So before you auto-outsource the next “to-do,” pause. Check in. You may find that the key to replenishment isn’t in someone else’s hands—it’s in your own daily rhythm.