Getting Things Done - GTD
Gaining Perspective from the Areas of Focus
AUTHOR: Francisco Sáez
"Your life is controlled by what you focus on." ~ Tony Robbins
Gaining Perspective:
1. Gaining Perspective
2. Gaining Perspective Through Actions
3. Gaining Perspective at Project Level
4. Gaining Perspective from the Areas of Focus
5. Gaining Perspective Through Goals
6. Gaining Perspective at a Higher Level: Vision
7. Gaining Perspective at the Highest Altitude: Purpose and Principles
The areas of focus or areas of responsibility level is the level immediately above the project level in the hierarchy of horizons proposed by David Allen to reflect on what underpins your personal life and work and, as a result, to be clear about the priorities that should govern your decisions.
This level functions as a summary of your reality. It contains a small group of categories that describe the aspects of your life in which you have a special interest and to which you must pay attention in order for everything to work in harmony.
Your commitment to your areas of responsibility is what drives you to create projects related to them and execute actions that allow you to maintain them at a level you consider satisfactory.
For example, in order for your work and personal life to develop comfortably, you need a reasonable level of health, energy and physical strength. This can lead you to perform simple, routine tasks such as brushing your teeth after every meal, one-time tasks such as changing the old mattress on your bed to sleep better, or defining projects that help you implement a healthier diet and strength training at the gym.
You can probably identify easily a few areas of responsibility that you need to maintain at a good level to develop your work (between four and seven according to David Allen).
If you have your own company or are self-employed, you will have to worry about all the organizational aspects of any business: executive level, administration, public relations, finance, sales, operations and quality.
If you work for a company, your position will be more specialized in one or more of these areas, but you may have more specific responsibilities to consider.
In addition to work, your personal life will likely require you to pay attention to another set of areas related to your home, relationships, parenting, personal finances, creative interests, career and health.
Follow-up of the areas of focus
Having a defined list of relevant areas of focus in your personal and work life will allow you to check whether you’re paying attention to the most important components of your life, and can help you improve the balance between them.
You don’t need to review your areas of focus as often as you review your actions and projects. Reviewing your focus areas involves checking what projects and single actions you’re doing to maintain the level required in each of them.
The most appropriate frequency depends on the particulars of each person’s life. David Allen finds it useful to review this level every month and I personally find the sweet spot to be a quarterly review.
In addition to doing periodic reviews there are a couple of situations where you may need to focus on this level of perspective:
- When there have been significant changes in your life or in your work. A change of job, a change of position in your job, a change of city, starting to live with someone, having a child, having to take care of a sick relative… are situations that will force you to re-evaluate your commitments.
- When you have the sensation that there is a lack of balance in your responsibilities. For example, a period of intense work is often accompanied by little time for fun and less attention to the family. Stopping for a moment to look at things from a higher perspective can help you change them.
At some point we all think we should do this or that, but some of those things we consider important are then tucked away in the recesses of the mind. The main benefit of reviewing your areas of focus is that it allows you to start recovering all these kinds of concerns, and to transform the things that your brain has been ruminating on for a while into real projects.
Of all those things you want to improve, what are you not improving? What project can you define to, for example, do more exercise? Do you like swimming? Maybe you can locate the heated pools in and around your city and make a few calls to find out more.
2 comments
You seem to be saying that areas of focus are where I have responsibilities but some of the responsibilities are common to more than one area of focus eg health, exercise. So how do I list them twice in facile things?
You seem to be saying that areas of focus are where I have responsibilities but some of the responsibilities are common to more than one area of focus eg health, exercise. So how do I list them twice in facile things?
Hi Gary,
The best approach is to simply define your areas of responsibility so that there are no overlaps.
If you define a "health" area, it will contain all the actions that have to do with exercising, eating well, sleeping well, etc.
If you define an "exercise" area, then either you define other areas for other health-related aspects, or you use the "health" area for everything health-related except exercising.
Hi Gary,
The best approach is to simply define your areas of responsibility so that there are no overlaps.
If you define a "health" area, it will contain all the actions that have to do with exercising, eating well, sleeping well, etc.
If you define an "exercise" area, then either you define other areas for other health-related aspects, or you use the "health" area for everything health-related except exercising.