Workload Reality Check
Which of your recurring tasks are actually worth your time?
List the tasks that come round every week or month, rate their value and how they leave you feeling, and see each one sorted into continue, automate, delegate, reduce or stop. Everything is calculated in your browser.
Hayley Duster — writer and solo business owner
The sum of every named task above.
Hours currently spent on tasks marked automate, delegate, reduce or stop.
Stop
Low value and draining — the strongest candidate to stop entirely.
Delegate
Worth keeping but draining — a good candidate to hand to someone else.
Continue
High value and manageable — keep it, ideally protected on your calendar.
Assumptions behind these numbers
- Verdicts follow a simple rule of thumb based on the value and energy you assign — they are a starting point for judgement, not a fixed formula.
- 'Stop' suggests removing the task; 'Reduce' suggests scaling it back or simplifying it, not necessarily stopping it.
- Reclaimable hours assume the task is fully removed or fully handed off, which is rarely instant — treat the figure as a ceiling, not a guarantee.
A worked example
A designer logs three recurring tasks: client invoicing (3 hrs, high value, neutral), social media posting (6 hrs, low value, draining), and inbox management (10 hrs, medium value, draining).
- Client invoicing
- High value, neutral → Continue
- Social media posting
- Low value, draining → Stop
- Inbox management
- Medium value, draining → Delegate
- Reclaimable hours
- 6 + 10 = 16 hours a month
Sixteen hours a month — two working days — are tied up in tasks that could be stopped or handed off, without touching the highest-value work at all.
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