I spent time on the road with my friend, Mark McKeon, author of Get In The Go Zone, recently. Mark has spent much of his career as a high performance coach for athletes, and was recently inducted into the Collingwood Hall of Fame.
Mark suggests that we take control of ourselves and our day-to-day work habits. One message that many of our people swear by is to have daily Go Zones – time blocks where we work at a high intensity, focusing only on important work.
He recommends a one-hour Go Zone per day, or two-hour Go Zones several times a week. A Go Zone is the perfect sprint technique.
Nobody can work ‘flat chat’ all the time, but too many people work erratically over long periods – working at whatever activity comes to mind, or on urgencies that scream the loudest, failing to perform sufficient actions to produce high results. This erratic behaviour becomes a habit. You can learn to focus, but you can also learn to be an erratic time manager.
Focused work
Regular Go Zones guarantee that for several hours a week you are working in a focused manner on activities that produce results. This focus-sprint will get results if repeated consistently over time.
I said that many of our people swear by the Go Zone technique, but what I find fascinating is that many fail to do Go Zones regularly. Sure, it works, but many do not want to remain focused for even one or two hours.
Repeat what works
Is this a smart idea? I don’t think so. Winners win because they find techniques that work and repeat those techniques competently, over time.
What these people miss is the ‘over time’. Doing something once and saying, “That was fantastic” but failing to make this a habit will not lead to success – in fact, it is a sure path to performance slumps.
Mark McKeon has just released a revised edition of Get In The Go Zone. In my opinion, this book is a must read.