Delegation Hides Where You Never Thought to Look

Last summer, I was stuck on Lake Shore Drive in Lollapalooza traffic, and the drive home had been taking me an hour. Somewhere between the brake lights, I started wondering whether I could work closer to home without moving the office or carrying all the responsibilities of having one. I wanted to delegate my workspace to people whose job is to run it.

If you're an office manager or business manager at a project-based business, such as an interior design studio or architecture firm, you know the list that comes with a workspace. Your job should be building systems that improve how the business runs, yet the coffee order and the call to the landlord keep finding you. This is how I handed most of that list off, and the simple list I've used ever since.

The Office I Built and Then Had to Run

In 2018, I invested heavily in every detail of a new office. It was everything I wanted, from the brick walls to the refinished concrete floors, and what I cared about most was how the space felt to work in.

After working from home through COVID, we came back on a hybrid schedule, and it was so good to be back. But it didn't take long to remember how much it took to keep the office going, from coffee and snacks to the cleaning schedule, Internet issues and the printer.

Everyone pitched in on the everyday stuff, from taking out the trash to restocking supplies, on top of their real jobs. I handled the bigger items, like the landlord and major office purchases. We never got everything done, and always having some office task sitting on the back burner bugged me.

I Toured Coworking Spaces and Chose to Relocate

Moving into a coworking space probably isn't realistic for most businesses, and I'm not suggesting you do it. The lesson is what matters: there's work you've always done yourself that someone else is set up to do better.

I wasn't sold on a coworking space myself. We built our office, we loved it, and there was nothing wrong with it. Still, I toured a few places, and at Industrious I found a lot more than I expected.

My membership brings breakfast and snacks every weekday, and the hot coffee needs no supplies or cleaning cycles from me. They've stayed on top of the Internet, Wi-Fi, network setup and the printer, so I've never had to troubleshoot any of them. My rent covers the Internet, heat and electricity, and my 12-month term means I can move spaces without being locked in for years.

I have a private office, but I can also work from the lounge, the library or the rooftop, which helps my brain reset during the day. On the days my team comes in, we book a conference room for meetings or work side by side in the lounge.

The Default I Never Questioned

I made the move in June 2026. For years, I never considered anything but a standard commercial lease, a space of our own where we could grow. I never realized I could delegate so much of where I work and free myself to focus on what matters.

I've never been happier going to work without something I need to fix, pay for, or call a service person about sitting in the back of my head. My focus shouldn't be elsewhere, and now it doesn't have to be.

The Hours We Got Back

Once the coffee, the printer and the landlord calls stopped landing on us, the hours came back. Whether the title is senior technician, office manager or business owner, each of us gained at least 1 to 3 hours a week to do the work our title says we do.

For me, that meant finally getting to my list of things I want to bring to our clients. A technology subscription tracker and an AI enablement program for small businesses had been sitting on it since last year, and we finished both in the last three months.

Start Your Own List

Whenever you catch yourself doing something you'd rather not, write it down. The next time it happens, check your list. If it's already there, put an X next to it, and if it isn't, add it. After about a month, the items with the most X's are your first two or three things to get off your plate. Some things only you can handle, and those stay with you.

For most firms, technology ends up with the most X's. Onboardings, offboardings, password resets and a thousand other things tend to land on the same desk, often yours. When our clients delegate their technology to us, those items come off their list for good.

If you own the business, keep a list of your own. Owners tend to carry the most, and plenty of it has a better home.

Take a Tour of Your List

My tour of Industrious showed me a possibility I had missed for years, and I'd like to return the favor. Bring your list to a 15 minute conversation, and we'll look at what could come off it, including things you never thought to hand off.