I’ve been in two conversations this week with people who were wrestling with staying engaged creatively when times are busy. I shared with them an insight that has been helpful to me over time and it’s something that plays right into our discussion about effectiveness versus efficiency.

In American football, there’s something called the “Red Zone.” It’s the part of the field inside the twenty yard line, and performance (both offensively and defensively) inside this area is one of the key determining factors of a team’s success or failure. Teams that advance easily advance the ball down the field but can’t score in the Red Zone will lose football games. It’s a fact. Similarly, teams that play great open field defense but can’t prevent scores in the Red Zone will lose.

Performance within this very small sliver of the field determines overall success or failure for a team.

The same thing applies to our lives. It’s important for you to identify the Red Zone activities in your life - the ones that will most affect your success or failure - and execute them flawlessly every time. There are a ton of things we do every day that may or may not affect our ability to generate ideas, but there are a few - these Red Zone activities - that will ultimately determine whether we win or lose.

For example, here are some of my Red Zone activities:
Study: If I am not constantly filling my brain with new thoughts, I will wither and die. It’s a fact and I know it. I can coast for a while in the open field, but when I get into the Red Zone my lack of discipline shows through.

Rhythmic Ideation: I must constantly be building time into my schedule to generate ideas. I’m not an “a-ha!” in the shower kind of guy. Most of my great ideas come in the midst of purposeful ideation. It’s work.

Family: I need to protect the first part of my day and the window of time when I get home from work for my family. I am not always great at this, but it’s something I’m aspiring to improve because I realize that the biggest impact I have on my family happens during the window before work and the hour after I get home from work. As a result, I have tried to build “buffers” between work and family time so that I’m not rushing home, spending ten minutes in the driveway finishing a phone call, then storming into the house with a hundred things on my mind. When I am out of rhythm with the family, I am out of rhythm with everything.

These are just a few of my Red Zone activities. I’d love to hear about yours. Remember, we need to identify the important practices that make us effective rather than relying on flash and show. It’s the linemen - the grunt workers - that provide the foundation for success in football. And it’s our willingness to stay disciplined about our effective (grunt work) practices that will provide the foundation for our everyday engagement.