Last night Ginny and I got to discussing all the various tasks that I farm out to other people. Though she graciously pointed out that other CEOs probably do the same thing, I could tell she was also a little amused by my excessive laziness. So it got me thinking, at what point does outsourcing the tasks you don’t want to do go beyond common sense and become a problem?

Currently, I have:

• A house cleaning service
• A lawn care service (for a yard that has *maybe* 700 sq ft of grass)
• A dry cleaners that does pickup and delivery, where I send not only my dry cleaning but anything that needs to be ironed, and anything that doesn’t fit in my washer (like my bedspread)
• A groomer to keep the dogs ship-shape
• A detailer to keep my car ship-shape

I haven’t quite succumbed to the siren song of ordering my groceries online and having them delivered, mainly because I like going to New Seasons, but I can imagine that day arriving. Besides, I eat out about 95% of my meals, which is just another form of Not Doing Things For Myself. Ginny asked me, somewhat sarcastically, if I still do my own laundry. Yes, I do at least do that.

So is that too much service? At what point do I call myself officially spoiled?

My justification for all this is that a) these are tasks I don’t enjoy, and so don’t do a very good job at, and b) not having to spend time on these things is what allows me to have so many extra-curricular activities. If I had to clean the house and mow the grass, I’d have to spend at least one additional evening at home, and that Just Will Not Do. Not when there are so many more interesting things to do with that time.

So what do you all think? Here’s a chance for some reader participation…