The Stop Doing List

CHAPTER 5 DISCOVERING YOUR GENIUS ZONE

The ultimate goal of the Stop Doing List system is to help you spend more time in your Genius Zone. Your Genius Zone is the three to five major tasks you own in the business and that you invest the majority of your time into in order to generate maximum return. A genius task meets the following three criteria:

1. It's something you're passionate about. First and foremost, a genius task needs to be something you enjoy, something you love doing. Without that passion, you're not going to put in the time, energy and effort required to push your business to new heights.
2. It's something that is essential to the business. It must be done, even if nothing else is done all day. Your business hinges on this task being completed, and being done right.
3. It needs to contribute directly to the profit of the business. As you begin to value your time, it'll become increasingly important to you to spend your time on profitable tasks.

The four zones

I first learnt this method of categorising tasks from my studies of Dan Sullivan, founder of the Strategic Coach program and an international author, speaker and coach. I slightly altered his definitions as I began implementing the Stop Doing List system for myself and others. Please note that these are definitions to be applied to tasks or activities only and are by no means a definition of your intelligence or abilities.

Tasks fall into one of the following four zones, as shown in figure 5.1:

1. Incompetence