If Only I Had a Clone: Prioritizing Your Time to Maximize Growth

In a small group this week, we talked about the Qii mindset.

Let’s take a quick step back and review: Qii is “Quadrant 2,” the second of four quadrants popularized by Steven Covey as a method for organizing one’s priorities. Quadrant 2 is the “Important, Not Urgent” category.

Most of the time, many of us operate in "Quadrant 1," which represents the “Important and Urgent” tasks: reacting to email, speaking to someone standing in your office, or answering a phone call.

But, if you shift your focus to Quadrant 2, you’re training someone else to manage your email or developing a process to require appointments for phone calls so that you are in control of your calendar. Or perhaps you’re developing and mentoring a team member to take on a whole set of responsibilities that will free you up for other Quadrant 2 priorities, related to more excellence for your clients, more growth for your team, or more freedom for you. This is likely the most important, most leveraging Qii time you can spend — with your team.

Let’s pause and take a quick exercise:

1. Take a moment and write down everything you did in your last full workday.

2. Review each item — can someone else do one or multiple tasks for you, at least to 75% of your current standards?

3. How much of your day (go on, count the hours) is spent developing, supporting, and mentoring your team members?

4. If you doubled the number of hours you currently spend with team, what might a regular day look like six months from now?

Is it safe to say that 75% of your current standards is more than 100% of how good you were when you first started in your role? So, now you’ve got a great agenda for some quality Qii time with your team.

The problem is, it’s so hard to “find time” for Qii time. Is this time hiding somewhere and eluding you? No — you have to force Qii time into your schedule. The best practice is to schedule sacrosanct time with yourself on a weekly basis, in which you focus on the proactive, necessary work that will improve your future. You can dedicate this time to anything from developing your team members, to spending three hours each week on exercise, to getting more sleep! All of these will "create" more time for you later.

By nature, Qii time is leverage — the more time you spend in Quadrant 2, the less time you will spend in Quadrant 1, creating a compounding effect. And when you spend that time focusing on one of your team members, it’s the closest you can come to having a clone of your own.

Want to learn more about how to leverage the Qii mindset to cultivate future growth?

Tune into the upcoming June 5th webinar, "Creating a Culture Built for Growth," which Qii Consulting is co-hosting with Christine Sjolin, Vice President of Strategic Development and Operations at FP Transitions.

Click here to learn more about the webinar and to register.