Functional Zones – Your ‘GO’ Zone

Your ‘GO’ Zone is busy. So busy that often you don’t have time to step back and realise that your busyness might not be taking you where you want to go.

The ‘GO’ Zone can feel pretty full-on. You’re on the move. Your to do list – and possibly your work diary– are bulging with tasks.

One moment you’re playing at redesigning your logo or a flyer. The next, you might be writing a blog post.

Then there’s that networking lunch to go to, all those Facebook groups to keep up with, and you’ve signed up for a webinar this evening…

Throw in a monthly group coaching session, a few Skype calls with people you met on social media, that bit of free work you said yes to and – gosh, yes – even that project you’re actually being paid for!

And we’re not starting on all the domestic tasks and obligations that are piling up.

Is it any wonder that at times you feel scattered?

Your Go Zone encompasses everything you do in between avoiding the bits that terrify you (your ‘NO’ Zone), the stuff that bores you (your ‘SLOW’ Zone), your super-productive days (your ‘PRO’ Zone, which I’ll cover tomorrow) and doing the thing that you absolutely love (Your ‘FLOW’ Zone, coming in a couple of days’ time).

You don’t mind the Go Zone tasks – in fact you’re pretty competent at most of them. And that’s the problem. Because you quite enjoy doing them and they keep you busy, it feels as though you’re working.

But ‘busy’ and ‘working’ are not the same thing.

Think of the other meaning of work – as in “It works. It’s effective.”

Now, whenever you feel ‘busy’, ask yourself: “Is my busyness working for me? Is it taking me one step closer to the life of delicious abundance that I want for me and mine?”

It’s hard to focus for long in the Go Zone. There’s so much to do and the list of tasks just seems to grow longer.

If you find yourself thinking, “I’ll just cross a few of these jobs off the list so that I can feel a sense of achievement”, you’re in the ‘GO’ Zone.

Busyness can be as much a procrastination tactic as the more usual work-avoidance tricks.

When I was a business writer, I could spend an entire morning sharpening pencils, tweaking my Word template, deleting files and doing a lovely spreadsheet of all the stages involved in the project I was supposed to be working on. I would kid myself that I was ‘working’.

The real work only kicked in 12 hours before the first draft deadline, when panic would finally force me to put my head down and come up with the goods.

It’s a pretty stressful way to earn a living.

The irony is that never once in all the years that I was a business comms consultant did I ever fail my client, because the writing was THE THING. When I was writing, I was in my ‘FLOW’ Zone. It was so easy for me.

TASK: For the next week, monitor how you spend your time. Keep a time sheet

• How many different things are you trying to get done?
• How many of those tasks and appointments are absolutely essential?
• How many could you cancel or strike off without it making any significant impact on your life?
• Of what’s left, how much is truly within your sphere of competence?
• How often during the day do you check emails?
• How long do you spend browsing on social media?
• What can you outsource?
• If outsourcing isn’t an option, prioritise each task and diarise them so that you allocate a reasonable chunk of time to it and get it finished sooner rather than later.

This should bring you out of your Go Zone, into a place where you can stop running on the spot and actually get something done – which is your ‘PRO’ Zone.

And that’s where we’re going next. Stay tuned…