Are you doing the right things right?

I remember about ten years ago meeting the owner of a successful accountancy practice who came along to a networking meeting I happened to be running.

We got talking and agreed to meet up the following week.

I went over to this guy’s office and boy was this place tidy. Everything seemed to have a place. All the papers were in neat piles. There was no clutter. It gave out the message ‘I’ve got it together!’

The business was also doing very well. He knew exactly how many clients he had, what they were worth to the business and just as importantly how to keep them happy (which they were happy to pay well for). He had systems for everything, which created a sense of control.

I was naturally curious as to how he had built the business. So I asked!

He got out a piece of paper and drew two lines, one horizontal and one vertical, so there were four equal quadrants.

In the bottom left quadrant he wrote ‘wrong things wrong’ and in the bottom right he wrote ‘wrong things right. In the top left he wrote ‘right things wrong’ and in top right ‘right things right’.
He said he had worked hard to make sure that he now spent most of his time in doing the ‘right things right’. Although this hadn’t always been the case.

The first task, he said, is to fill in the quadrants by taking a very close look at everything that goes on in your business and asking if it’s really necessary. He explained how easy it is to spend time on things that are a waste of time or inefficient.

He asked where I could be wasting time. Either with unnecessary activities or things best done by other people.

He also asked me what my high-leverage activities were. Where did I make my money? Was I spending the appropriate amount of time working on improving my business?

Once you know what is going on the focus is, at first, on first moving all your activities above the line. This means stopping anything below the line by delegating, out-sourcing or eliminating it.

Once your activities are focused above the line the focus is on getting better at doing these things so that the majority of your time is spent ‘doing the right things right’.

Just imagine spending at least 80% of your time on high-leverage activities. What would it be like spending most of your time doing what you love? How much difference would it make to your business and your life?

Here’s an exercise for you. Simply draw out the four quadrants on a piece of paper and keep it nearby. For one week just add to it. No pressure. No effort. Just add to it as things come to you. At the end of the week just reflect and begin to think about how you’re going to move ‘above the line’ and then onto spending 80% of your time in the upper right quadrant.