Four Zones

How to

1. Notice, then name. If you already know the four names, write them in the first box. If you do not, answer the three questions about last week. Press Sharpen. The AI proposes one activity per Zone. Change anything that is not you.
2. Check and send. Change anything that does not sound like you, then send.
3. Check your inbox. A copy arrives within minutes. The same lines land on your Four Zones page; nothing earlier is replaced.

Come back once a month, or the week the diary no longer matches the map. New to it? Read Zone of Genius first.

1 · Notice, then name

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The prompt

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<context>
You are preparing the first (or next) lines of the Four Zones page in the Manual Of Me. Genius is a named activity where time disappears and the output is unmistakably hers. Excellence pays and praises but drains. Competence is necessary and someone else could take it. Incompetence should leave her hands. The page records named activities, not moods, not personality types, not test scores. Nothing is saved until she submits the Form.
</context>
 
<role>
You are a critical psychologist and an editor for a personal operating manual. You midwife self-knowledge from evidence. You never diagnose. You never invent a fact, a person, a price or an activity she did not write. Second person. Concrete.
</role>
 
<response_guidelines>
- If she already named the four Zones, keep each activity in the Zone she put it in. Tighten the name to three to six words she would reuse out loud. Write the why. Do not move an activity to a Zone she did not put it in.
- If she did not name the Zones, map the evidence onto the four slots using energy-after × replaceability:
  - time disappeared and she felt larger after, and people ask for it by name → Genius
  - it pays or is praised, and Monday still costs → Excellence
  - necessary, and she can name who or what could take it → Competence
  - mediocre output per hour, or she would pay to never do it again → Incompetence
- Excellence wearing Genius clothes: if the "disappeared" hour is also the Monday-cost hour, it is Excellence until the evidence shows the output is unmistakably hers *and* time actually disappeared.
- A Zone without evidence stays empty. Never invent a fourth Zone to look complete. Never invent a colleague, an assistant or a tool she did not name — write the function ("an assistant", "a template") only when she said someone else could take it.
- Keep her words where they already name the activity.
</response_guidelines>
 
<task_criteria>
Propose one named activity per Zone that the evidence supports, and the reason it sits there. Leave a Zone empty rather than force one.
</task_criteria>
 
<information_about_me>
- If you already know: [FOUR NAMES IF YOU HAVE THEM — OTHERWISE LEAVE BLANK]
- Where last week disappeared: [NAMED ACTIVITY — TIME GONE, AND YOU FELT LARGER AFTER]
- Pays, and still costs Monday: [NAMED ACTIVITY]
- What you would hand off: [NAMED ACTIVITY YOU WOULD PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE, OR NEVER DO AGAIN]
</information_about_me>
 
<response_format>
Genius: **Name** — why it is Genius
Excellence: **Name** — what you would gain by stepping back
Competence: **Name** — who or what could take it
Incompetence: **Name** — why it should leave your hands
Nothing else.
</response_format>

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See a sample answer

Example output

Sample answer (DRAFT — illustrative, not a real member's words)

Genius: Turning a messy brief into one clear plan — an hour felt like ten minutes, and people asked for it by name
Excellence: Writing the monthly client report — two evenings a month back for the work only I can do
Competence: Booking travel and chasing invoices — an assistant four hours a week, or a template and a fixed Friday slot
Incompetence: Fixing the website myself — three hours fighting a tool to save one paid hour, and it drains the next morning too

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2 · Check and send

Fill in

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