Can you feel it? Do you notice your training ramping up a bit? Are you starting to feel the energy and enthusiasm return as we slowly drag ourselves out of our storm inflicted hibernation? Have you noticed daylight is starting to win the battle?

In a few short weeks, many of us will be back in the training saddle. As winter begins to move on, this is a perfect time to outsource the distractions in your life to focus truly on the things that are important: your family, your health (a nice euphemism for training) and your work.

I would love to outsource some of my training. I am thinking Sam McGlone for my swimming, Chrissie Wellington for my cycling and Miranda Carfrae for my running. Now if only they could compete for me as well.

I do love to train, so that would probably ruin the whole triathlon experience. What I don’t like is the noise. The things that suck time and energy from my life. Lawn care, house cleaning, bill paying, banking, to do lists, getting prescriptions refilled, making appointments, etc., etc., etc. All those things that our loved ones will notice that we arenot getting done.

All of those activities add up to less time doing the things that I love. Not necessarily things that are easier, often they are harder than the general chores of daily existence. What is a triathlete to do?

Outsource! Hire or barter out the noise.

• Lawn service
• Cleaning person (or perhaps the reason we have children!)
• Bill paying app for your phone (Chase or INGdirect has some of the best apps)
• To do list that automatically updates on all your devices (I like Remember the Milk).

This month, I have taken it to a whole new level and hired a virtual assistant. I realized that my sister-in-law had all the skills I was looking for in a VA: smart, funny, hard working, computer competent and the ability to tell me when I am wrong. I offered her an hourly wage (much more than a typical VA employed in another country earns). She accepted it on a trial basis to see if it is work she likes and if it will work around her day job (the much harder work of being a terrific stay at home mom).

Here is how I set it up:

• Google e-mail account. Both of us have access.
• E-mail only. We have had one phone call in the last month.
• Google spreadsheet time sheet document. She records her time worked and submits it via e-mail at the end of the month.
• Dropbox account for each of us with a shared VA file (very secure).
• Templates. Every time I ask her to do a repeatable task I write a quick template and place it in our Dropbox file. My travel template looks like this Travel Document Template.
• Shared to do list. I prefer Remember the Milk or a shared Dropbox file so we don’t lose track of the work. If you are on Android I highly recommend todo.txt.
• No time sensitive projects. If I have one, I specifically label them time sensitive and she responds to whether or not she can meet the deadline.
• List of my personal and corporate credit cards. Included guidelines on which to use first.
• Shared Google Calendar. Access for her to add appointments (I give her guidelines on day and times that I prefer).

How is it working? Fabulous. Recently, I had my VA book international travel for six. She found the flights that met my time parameters, at the hub I preferred, in the price range I desired and successfully booked the flights. Now that is real time saved in my life.

Better yet, the day before our flight leaves, I will have her enter all of our passport info (I have already placed copies of our passports in Dropbox) to expedite the check in process at the airport. Have you ever traveled with four teenagers internationally? It is one of the reasons that every terminal has at least one bar.

Did I mention that she has been registering me for all of my races? And making the hotel reservations (yes, I have a template for that too!), reserving cars and even negotiating to have a refrigerator in my room (she offered a hotel manager an extra $10 a day to make it happen!).

What if things go wrong? Let them. Part of the cost of having the life I want is releasing the worry about mistakes. Yes, it may cost me a bit of money or some extra time untangling an error but the return on investment is more than worth it!

Want to reach your goals this year? Chip away at the distractions. Find the spaces and reach your goals; fit, fast and focused.