Tim Noyce Advies

The nice thing about GTD is that you can keep coming back to it and discovering a new layer of meaning…
I am a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but I finally think I get Horizons of Focus…. you know, the 10,000 foot to 50,000 foot “altitudes” David Allen says ”stuff” turns up at.

GTD mostly focusses on helping you deal with your current reality “buy nails”, “Call Susan on 020 555 6156″ largely because trying to thing about the meaning of life is impossible if you still need to feed the cat, your television is on the blink and the oil light just went on in the car.

Once you get a grip on that level the next level up immediately becomes relevant. Next Actions are at ground level, but many of them are just one step in a larger project: you are buying nails because you are ”building in bookshelves”.  Projects like that live at 10,000 feet. Any time the next action you are taking is not enough to finish your commitment and get your final result you have a project at 10,000.

That project may in turn may be part of a much bigger picture, like ”raising the value of the house”. This is the 20,000 foot level and at work it corresponds (you hope) to your job description. Unlike your formal job description it has everything to do with what you are actually doing. In my line of work the large formally-organised projects that I undertake and which typically last for a year or two, live at 20,000. They of course generate many, many short-term GTD-projects while they are running.

Your job, your responsibilities and larger outcomes are on the move too, so the next level up, 30,000 is the place for one and two-year goals. Where do you want your job to be next year? What will you be doing when the kids are a year older? These are 30.000 foot conversations.

40.000 is focussed at three-to-five year visions and 50.000 is the holy grail: why are you on the planet, what is your fundamental purpose in life?

You will certainly not start out thinking at all these levels, but you certainly have “stuff”, things at play at each of these altitudes and, most importantly, each of these levels instructs and drives the level below. Naturally any plan you make for the next 18 months had better be having some effect on your current responsibilities. Your basis drives in life will have everything to do with where you want to be in 5 years.

The point about having a good think about stuff at each of these levels is that it all finally finds its expression in operational reality. You are calling Susan because she has the info your need for the sales project which is part of your current profile but also sets you up for a move to product management in the near future. That is important because you can see yourself in a defining role in product management in the future, it is a role in which you feel you could fulfill your full creative potential. That was a quick 0 to 50,000 joyride!

Just remember, whenever you really start thinking about one of these levels you will start creating things on the level below…. As the old man said “it’s turtles all the way down”.