What is Quality Time?

Despite the increased utility provided by electronic communication tools, these tools may potentially produce a decrease in quality communications and a decrease in quality leadership time.

The "quality leadership time team", as part of the National Public Health Leadership Institute has been exploring this problem statement and seeking personal learning and answers. The ideas here are from the whole team which includes Jay Bernhardt, Kevin Fenton, Camille Jones, Cynthia Lamberth, Lou Ann Weil, and Terry Zimmerman. This blog explores some of these issues.

What do you think comprises quality time? The themes from our conversations include:

The ability to FOCUS on a particular task at hand. Quality therefore being defined as a lack of physical or cognitive; personal or situational barriers that allows one to give attention to an activity.
The ability to PRIORITIZE – continually asking the question: Am I spending time on the most important and impactful things?
Maximizing PRODUCTIVITY – Knowing that an assessment of the productivity of a session often occurs at the end of the session and a desire to prevent the feeling of “lack of gain” from a session or particular activity.
Time which leads to a sense of PRIDE; COMPLETION; and a belief that something of value has been done.
Time spent on something that has (1) Personal VALUE; (2) Work PERFORMANCE; (3) IMPACT/ Productivity; (4) Personal INTERACTIONS (5) PROFESSIONAL GROWTH and development; (6) EMOTIONAL GROWTH and development (own and others
ALIGNMENT of activities and values/objectives produces high-quality time and results in feelings of “harmony” and “team”.
Being CHALLENGED.
Ability to EMPOWER STAFF to achieve their own and the organization’s goals.
Having WILLPOWER and CONTROL over our daily activities and which can greatly facilitate achieving higher quality-time throughout one’s day.
USING the strategy of SEGMENT INTENDING – being very deliberate about what one wants to obtain from every interaction, and working towards this as a goal. For example, clarifying BEFORE an experience what one wants to get out of the experience in order to ensure a more positive outcome. This could be applied to proactively when thinking about the week, day, hour, or meeting in advance or even activities of daily living. Generally being mindful of, and proactive about, each interaction, and what the desired outcome is. PAYING ATTENTION TO INTENTIONS.
MINDFULNESS about our daily interactions, but also being open to the objectives of others, and looking for ways to make these objectives transparent.
WHAT do you think is quality time?

Is the time graduate students spend in class “quality time”? This video clip from Kansas State University Digital Ethnography provides some insight into this question..