10 Errands You Should Stop Doing Yourself (and Who to Call Instead)
Life in a busy African city can feel like one long list of errands. You need to pick up a package, buy groceries, collect documents, pay a bill, drop something off, or visit a store. Before you realise it, an entire afternoon is gone.
The problem is not always that you have too many responsibilities. Sometimes, you are spending valuable time on tasks that someone else could handle for you.
Outsourcing an errand does not mean you are lazy. It means you understand the value of your time. With delivery companies, dispatch riders, personal shoppers, cleaners, technicians, and other service providers available in many African cities, you no longer have to personally handle every small task.
Here are 10 errands you should consider taking off your personal to-do list.
1. Grocery Shopping
Grocery shopping can easily become a weekly time drain. You have to travel to the market or supermarket, find parking or transport, compare prices, queue, carry your items, and return home.
For busy professionals, parents, business owners, and people managing multiple responsibilities, this may not be the best use of several hours.
Instead, consider using a personal shopper, supermarket delivery service, or trusted market vendor.
You can prepare a detailed shopping list and send it to the person handling the purchase. For regular shopping, you can even build a relationship with a reliable vendor who understands your preferred brands, quantities, and budget.
This is especially useful for household staples such as rice, cooking oil, toiletries, beverages, and cleaning products.
2. Picking Up and Dropping Off Packages
Do you really need to leave your office to collect a package?
If you are expecting a document, clothing item, food package, or small parcel, a dispatch rider or courier service can often handle the movement for you.
This is particularly useful in cities such as Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, Kampala, and Johannesburg, where traffic can turn a simple delivery into a major time commitment.
Instead of spending two hours travelling across the city, you can arrange a pickup and delivery while you continue working.
The important thing is to use a reputable service and provide accurate pickup and delivery information.
3. Laundry
Laundry is necessary, but doing every part of it yourself may not always be necessary.
Washing, drying, ironing, folding, and organising clothes can consume a surprising amount of time. For professionals with demanding schedules, a laundry and dry-cleaning service can take this responsibility off their hands.
You can choose between full-service laundry, ironing-only services, or dry cleaning for delicate clothing.
If cost is a concern, you do not have to outsource everything. You might wash everyday clothes yourself and send formal clothing, bedsheets, curtains, or difficult-to-clean items to a professional.
4. Cleaning Your Home
Cleaning your home can become overwhelming when work, family, school, and other responsibilities compete for your attention.
Instead of waiting until your house becomes difficult to manage, consider hiring a professional cleaner or domestic cleaning service.
You can arrange a weekly, biweekly, or monthly cleaning schedule depending on your budget and needs.
A cleaner can handle tasks such as mopping, dusting, bathroom cleaning, kitchen cleaning, window cleaning, and general organisation.
The goal is not to avoid responsibility. It is to protect your limited free time.
5. Buying and Collecting Medicines
When you are busy or unable to travel, visiting a pharmacy for routine, already-prescribed medication can become another unnecessary trip.
Where legally and practically available, you can use a licensed pharmacy delivery service or arrange for a trusted person to collect the medication.
However, medication is one area where convenience should never replace safety. Use licensed pharmacies and follow professional medical advice. Avoid asking unqualified people to recommend or substitute medicines.
For regular prescriptions, ask your pharmacy whether they offer delivery or refill services.
6. Paying Routine Bills
Many people still spend valuable time travelling to physical locations to handle payments that can now be completed digitally.
Depending on the service, banking apps, official websites, payment platforms, or authorised agents can help you handle electricity, internet, subscriptions, school payments, and other routine expenses.
Before paying, confirm that you are using the provider’s official payment channel. Digital convenience is helpful, but protecting your money and personal information matters more.
Once your regular payments are automated or scheduled, you remove several small errands from your monthly routine.
7. Sending Documents
Need to send a contract, application, invoice, or signed document across town?
You may not need to travel yourself.
A courier company or dispatch rider can collect the document and deliver it to the recipient.
For documents that do not require physical copies, secure digital tools can make the process even easier. You can scan, sign, and send documents electronically when the recipient accepts digital copies.
This can save hours, especially when traffic and distance are involved.
8. Buying Household Items
Running out of detergent, toiletries, light bulbs, bottled water, pet supplies, or other household items does not always require a trip to the store.
A delivery service, personal shopper, supermarket, or nearby vendor can often bring these items to your home.
One useful strategy is to maintain a household shopping list. When several items accumulate, order them together instead of making multiple trips.
For frequently used products, buying larger quantities may also reduce the number of shopping trips.
9. Car Maintenance and Basic Vehicle Services
Your car may need servicing, washing, tyre checks, battery replacement, or other routine attention. That does not always mean you need to spend your entire day at a workshop.
Depending on the service, you can contact a trusted mechanic, mobile car wash, tyre service, or vehicle maintenance provider.
Some providers can come to your location. Others can collect the vehicle, complete the work, and return it.
However, do not outsource blindly. For major repairs, use qualified professionals and verify what work has actually been done.
10. Standing in Queues and Waiting for Services
This may be one of the most overlooked errands.
Sometimes the task itself takes five minutes. The problem is the waiting.
You may spend an hour standing in line to collect something, submit paperwork, pick up an order, or wait for a service.
Where the service permits it, consider using a courier, authorised representative, virtual assistant, personal assistant, or trusted family member.
Always confirm that third-party collection is permitted and provide the required authorisation or identification.
The Real Value Is Your Time
Outsourcing errands does not mean outsourcing your entire life. The goal is to identify tasks that consume significant time but require little of your personal attention.
Start by tracking your errands for one week. Write down how long each task takes, including transportation and waiting time. You may discover that a supposedly simple errand takes two or three hours.
Then ask yourself three questions:
Can someone else legally and safely do this?
Does my time have greater value elsewhere?
Can I afford to pay someone to handle it?
If the answer to all three is yes, outsourcing may make sense.
For many people, the biggest benefit is not simply convenience. It is mental space.
When someone else handles your groceries, laundry, deliveries, cleaning, or routine pickups, you have more time for work, family, rest, learning, and the things that actually require your presence.
In busy African cities, time is a resource. Traffic, long distances, queues, and unpredictable schedules can make ordinary errands surprisingly expensive.
You do not have to do everything yourself.
Sometimes, the smartest way to get more done is to decide what not to do yourself.
