A mess of ideas: Help needed with Horizons of focus (includes examples)

[Jimhardie74]

Hey guys,

I am struggling with clarifying certain ideas and ambitions that I have. Rather than explain- I will give you an actual exmple.

I have an item here that says 'I have my own flat in the centre of town'. I would consider this a goal (Level 3 Horizon) as it is something that I hope to acheive in the next 3-24 months. However- it is not something that I am seriously working towards at the moment so I am concerned about putting it on a list with my other goals that I am seriously working towards as I do not want to blur together goals that I am very serious about executing on, and goals that are not definite. I also do not want to put this action on a someday/maybe list as I feel that it is something that I do definatley want to do and be reminded of regularly incase an opporunity presents itself-- plus my someday/maybe list has got numerous 'fantasy' type ideas in it and I do not want this ambition to become blurred with very unserious ideas.

Is it good practice to set up a 'someday/definatley' list-- perhaps to organise someday/maybe items together in groups of how seriously I consider them? Could I even put this item in a list with my vision for the future (Level 4 Horizon)?

I would love some feedback to help me make some clearer distinctions with the horizons of focus and with organising my ideas and ambitions. My main concern here is keeping my serious and actionable items (my musts) seperate from ideas that I do want to execute on soon, but not yet (my shoulds).

Thanks allot guys. Thanks to everyone who posts on this and who posted on my previous threads, I really really enjoyed reading your ideas!

 

[Gardener]

I've always seen "someday/maybe" as a combination of Maybe actions and Someday actions, rather than actions that are ALL both Someday and Maybe. If you see what I mean. So I see no issue with putting a Definitely task into Someday/Maybe.

But that's about categorization, and doesn't address the concern that you might lose track of the important stuff if it's swimming in a sea of less important stuff.

I think that the answer would depend heavily on what the rest of your system looks like.

I've mentioned elsethread that I maintain lists of not-current items, separate lists for separate categories or ongoing projects. (Examples: Sewing Project List, Garden Project List, Widget Database Issue List, and so on.) If I had this concern, I might add a column that reflects the importance/certainty of the item, and then sort the list by that value whenever I review the list.

Alternatively, if the not-now-but-important items were a relatively small number, I might include them in my OmniFocus system as essentially a tickler project--I'd create the project, give it one action of "Consider activating this project", and make that a repeating action that pops up every week, month, quarter, whatever.

 

[Popoye]

You could develop your someday/maybe list in sub-categories and have one that would be "S/M - Goals".

I don't handle it that way though. I have a list of all the main goals that I want to achieve in the next 12 months or so (my 30k ft - Level 3). The most important/urgent/critical goals are on the top of the list (prioritization). I can't focus on too many goals at a time, especially for personal items.

 

[CamJPete]

Great question.

My thoughts are, if you do your weekly review often enough, put it on your someday/maybe list. You will review it regularly enough to keep your mind on it should the opportunity present itself and you can jump on it.

If you do not yet do weekly reviews often, then put it as a goal, and put a single action in your next actions list called: keep eyes peeled for a great apartment (passive approach). If you want to make it a more active approach, put a single simple next action on your list that is, well, more active: google search agents in the area, or find a real estate website for this area, or ask friends if they know of places. Small and simple is key if you don't really want to hit it hard, but still consider it an active goal.

 

[mcogilvie]

You should do what you think makes sense- unless and until it isn't working for you. I think putting the new apartment as a goal is fine. You may mention it to people, you will be more sensitized to opportunities, et cetera. I have been amazed at some of the goals I have accomplished by backing into them without thinking too hard.

 

[Jimhardie74]

Thanks guys. I took everything into account and decided that what was best for me was to split my goals list into two sections: My 'must' goals that I am very dedicated to working on and acheving an outcome (I call this list of goals my 'destination' goals as there is a definite destination or outcome to acheive). And I have also got a second list called my 'direction' goals which are the goals that I am serious about, but not putting all of my direct focus on at but I also still want to be reminded about them regularly. They are called 'direction' goals as they represent a definite direction that I want to move in, and I want my reticular activating system to be continually steering me in the direction of them. I agree with mcogilvie; you dont always have to think that hard about your goals to acheive them. Dave Allen says himself; people have made goal setting far too serious. Pick something you want and see where it leads you. Thanks again guys.