In the Zone

What does it mean to be “in the zone?” To me, that’s a place where I am focused, creative, avoiding distractions, and truly “on task.”

When were you last “in the zone?” What did it feel like? What were the circumstances that made it possible? Did you turn off your cell phone? Shut the door to your office, if you have an office? Did you stop checking e-mail every five minutes….every five seconds?

It’s so crucial for so many of us to find that place within ourselves that enables us to have optimum concentration. It is definitely more difficult these days to find quiet for reading, thinking, writing, or planning. In my workshops so many more people than ever before are sharing with me that they are getting into work earlier and earlier and leaving work later and later so they can find that quiet time. But is that right? If you are paid for 40 hours a week, and you’re working 50, 60, or 70, or if you are a business owner who has to be open from 9 to 5 but you’re there from 7 till 7, are you living a balanced life? Do you have increased productivity to show for all those hours?

Is it possible to find an inner peace, to get yourself “in the zone,” even within your work day? What about that lunch hour you should be taking? Are you even taking a lunch half hour? If you are taking even half an hour for lunch, could you use that time to think, to take a walk and reflect? How about finding a quiet place at your office or place of business where you can recharge your physical and mental self so you can get so much more out of the rest of your day?

How will you get yourself “in the zone” today? What great ideas might you come up with if you’re not racing from task to task, dealing with distraction after distraction, rather than giving yourself even twenty minutes a day to consider what innovations you might come up with to revolutionize your business perhaps even transform your industry.

 

Jan Yager, Ph.D. is the Founder & CEO of Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc. She also helps individuals and companies to become more efficient and to handle their relationships better through workshops, coaching, and her writings, most recently, Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover (Sterling Publishing Company). She is also the author of Creative Time Management for the New Millennium (Hannacroix Creek, 1999). For more information, go to: www.drjanyager.com