Horizons of focus explained
Getting Things Done looks at your commitments from six heights, from the next phone call up to why you do any of it. The horizons are how a to-do list connects to a life, so the weekly review can ask whether you are working on the right things, and not only whether the work is getting done.
The six levels
| Horizon | What it holds | Look at it |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose and principles | Why it all exists, and the standards you will not trade away. | Once a year, or when something big changes |
| Vision | What it all looks like a few years out, if it works. | Once a year |
| Goals | What must be true a year or two from now. | Every quarter |
| Areas of focus | The parts of work and life you have to keep healthy: health, family, finances, each part of your job. | Every month, and a glance in the weekly review |
| Projects | Outcomes that take more than one step and finish inside about a year. | Every week |
| Actions | The next physical, visible step on each project and on everything else. | Every day |
The rhythm in the last column is a starting point rather than a rule. The higher the level, the slower it changes, so the less often it needs looking at.
Areas and projects are not the same thing
This is the distinction people trip over most. A project finishes: you can say what done looks like, and one day it is done. An area never finishes. "Health" is an area. "Run a 10k in May" is a project that serves it.
Keeping them apart is what lets the system notice neglect. When an area you care about has no projects under it for months, that is worth knowing, and a flat list of tasks can never tell you.
Start at the bottom
It is tempting to begin with purpose and work down. David Allen recommends the opposite: get control of your actions and projects first, then move up. Until the ground level is under control, the noise from it drowns out any thinking about goals and vision.
In practice: run your system for a few weeks with just next actions and projects. Add areas once you notice projects that do not obviously belong anywhere. Goals and vision come after that, when you have the headroom to think about them.
Using the horizons in a review
- Projects that serve nothing
- A project that links up to no area or goal is either missing a link or is something you are doing out of habit. Both are worth knowing.
- Areas that have gone quiet
- An area with no active projects may be fine, or may be slipping. Look at it and decide which.
- Goals with no projects
- A goal with nothing working towards it is a wish. Either start a project for it or move it to Someday/Maybe.
Horizons in Relay
Relay models every level. Purpose, vision, goals and areas live in Horizons. Projects and actions live in their own lists and can link upward to the horizons they serve, so a piece of work can show what it is for.
Horizons carry no progress bars or completion percentages. Purpose, vision and areas are standards you hold, not tasks to finish. The weekly review has its own Higher Horizons step, and a project with no upward link carries a note during the review.
See your work from every height
In Relay you link each action to its project and each project to the area or goal it serves, so the weekly review can check whether you are working on the right things.
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