If you follow anything to do with David Allen’s GTD methodology, then you know about the Horizons of Focus. To paraphrase directly, the Horizons of Focus are:
“David Allen’s “Horizons of Focus” model is essentially a map of the six different types of agreements that you can have with yourself. They each have a different flavor, time horizon and impact. Clarifying what your agreements are at these levels and reviewing them as often as you need to will help you maintain a sense of perspective about all of the minute-by-minute choices you make about what to do and what to commit to.” – Michael Dolan
These horizons range from being “On the Runway” (basically, next action items) all the way to “50,000 feet” (which represents your ultimate purpose and core values). While this model may work for those who are working towards becoming full-fledged GTDers (or GTDians), it doesn’t exactly work for Eventualists. We prefer to go down when working towards accomplishing things. It also gets us closer to a prone (or sleeping) position, always the ideal for vying to become stronger at eventualizing.
These levels are called The Depths of Doing. The depth levels are outlined as follows:
Wading Pool
You’re just getting into becoming eventual about tasks. You still see a value at getting things done straight away, but aren’t as married to the idea as you once were. You occasionally let your email replies slide and project action steps are starting to overlap. Problem is, you still fret a little about that. But at least you’re starting to not do things that you used to do right away.
Shallow End
You can still touch bottom, so you feel safe in that knowledge since you haven’t fully immersed yourself in being eventually productive. You don’t have to tread water because if you feel the need to you can plant your feet. But you’re pretty wet now. That’s a big step. At this point you’ve probably let errands slide and been late to a few appointments (on top of the bloated email inbox and lagging project plan). Just one more step and you’ll be in the…
Deep End
Now you’re kicking. Literally. You can immerse yourself in overwhelm if you’d like. Relationships are starting to fray and you may have even had a few verbal warnings from your superiors. You’ve lowered the bar and made it so you can get by on the bare minimum. Yet you can still touch bottom if you’d like. You just won’t be able to breathe when you do. Unless you’re wearing scuba gear. Then you’re cheating.
Mariana’s Trench
Here’s where the rubber meets absolutely nothing because it is too deep to do so. You’ve reached the pinnacle of Eventualism because there’s nowhere to go but up OR down. While you could touch bottom here – eventually, of course – you’d likely drown in overwhelm before even getting there or trying to get back to the surface. Not to mention the rapture. The journey to this depth of doing is an eventual one; only if you have a personal assistant named Mariana can it be achieved in less time. (Tip: Give her all of your stuff to do. That’s how you get there faster.)
Dive In…Eventually
In order to reach the highest and lowest level of doing, you’ll need to focus like an Eventualist. You don’t even have to swim very far to do this. In fact, I’d say not at all because it’s really just a hackneyed analogy.
Man, I wish I had a swim-up bar.
Until tomorrow, keep your eyes on the prize – which is the inside of your eyelids.
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This is a great post! David Allen is a star and this theories are so interesting and valid.
We recently did a webinar with David Allen that you might find helpful! He touched on some key topics around GTD and answered some great questions. Check out the recording here: http://bit.ly/bOyk1o