The defining moment that will determine the difference between you as a beginner business owner and expert entrepreneur will be when you master the art of prioritisation. To help you prioritise your to do list and figure out what you really should focus your energy on, draw yourself a quadrant diagram like below.
It’s simple really. You will just have to take the time to assess the different tasks that need to be completed in your business and categorise them into these four categories:
· Genius
· Excellence
· Competent, and
· Incompetent
This Genius Quadrant will get you on track to making the most of your time and you will only do the valuable tasks that you’re most passionate about.
Why Is This So Important?
As a business owner, what you should be doing is working on your business, not in it. Not only that, we believe you should only do what you love! Even those who have taken the right steps by getting started with outsourcing can still get lost with what they should be leaving with their VAs. Until you start to focus your own time and effort on the most value adding tasks, you will still be stagnating yourself.
The Genius Zone
These are the only activities that you ‘need’ to do. These are the ones that you are capable of doing really well, but also because they’re the ones you’re so passionate about that you never get tired or bored by it. These might be the higher strategy or higher stake tasks, but there is no strict definition.
Our suggestions for the type of tasks to categorise here include activities:
· You’re uniquely suited to do
· You’re passionate about
· You never get tired or bored of
· You have special gift and strengths for
· That provide endless possibilities for improvement
· You do better than anyone else
Because these tasks are so unique and tailored to you, you will be able to achieve extraordinary success in this zone. Everything outside this zone is what you can or should outsource.
The Excellence Zone
These are the tasks that you’re really good at – there’s no question about it. That might just mean that they’re not what you’re passionate about. For these tasks, you have a choice to outsource them to give you more time focused on the Genius Zone tasks that you do actually love.
Some indicators for Excellence Zone activities include:
· Ones which you have superior skill in
· Ones that you are comfortable doing (whether by skill or by experience)
· But these don’t tend to fuel your passion
Don’t get us wrong, successful people spend a lot of time in this zone (and the Competent Zone) below – but this is often the difference between excellence and extraordinary.
The Competent Zone
As the name goes, these are simply the ones that you ‘can’ do but by this point it’s clearly not what you ‘should’ be doing. These are simply the ones that you are sort of able to do, but there are definitely people out there that can do it better (with less effort!) and time spent here would be much better saved for the Genius Zone.
Some indicators of this zone includes:
· Activities where you blend in with the crowd
· Ones where your performance is average at best
· Ones that others can definitely do better than you in
The Incompetent Zone
Here is the outsourcing hot spot. To put it simply, time spent here is a waste of time and effort – unless you’re in the wrong business altogether, there are plenty of other things that will greater benefit both your business and yourself. As you can imagine, these are the tasks that you’re not that great at.
You yourself will be aware that you shouldn’t spend so much time here but maybe hiring another local staff member is beyond your means (hint: outsourcing is your friend) or more commonly, you might have tricked yourself into thinking that you need to be doing this yourself. In reality, for the latter, that’s almost never true.
What are we talking about?
· Activities that you’re just bad at
· Ones that make you feel frustrated and stressed unnecessarily
· Ones that you have no desire to master
Unsuccessful people will find themselves spending most of their time here. It’s like trying to fix a burst pipe with gum – you might only ever get a weak solution while you know for certain that there is someone out there that could do a better job than you.
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What Should You Do?
If you don’t already, have some helping hands in your business – VAs are affordable additions to your team that can achieve so much more than you might expect.
We also understand that relinquishing control of some components of your business can be scary so take baby steps – start by outsourcing tasks from the Incompetent and Competent zones. To be frank, these are not worth your valuable time.
When you start becoming more comfortable with the idea – start to let go of some tasks from the Excellent Zone. There is often a fine line between the Genius and Excellent zones but your time is precious, valuable, and limited – so why waste time on the things that don’t motivate you to go further?
If you have any questions about this Genius Quadrant Tool or want any advice or help about outsourcing, get into contact with the Outsourcing Angel team today!
