Your Guide To The GTD Vertical Map (Horizons Of Focus)

The vertical map, otherwise known as the horizons of focus, is a key element of GTD yet it is very often neglected, probably because the GTD book does not go into any great detail about it. As such, much of it is open to interpretation and you will find people using it in different ways. Below I’ve tried to condense some of these interpretations with my own personal thoughts on the matter to hopefully give you all a more clear idea of how it can be used. It is quite possible that a lot of you may have alternative approaches to what I have described, so I would be interested in reading your comments on this.

• 50,000ft
  This level is where you are ironically getting quite deep about what you want in your life. Imagine it as your ultimate mission statement. Have bullet points to state how you want to live your life, what you want to achieve from it, how you want to achieve it all and also what your core values and beliefs are. It doesn’t have to be specific or actionable at this stage, it can be something as abstract, like, “Be happy and content”. The lower levels of the vertical map are where you take what you put at this level and start to define specific actions to achieve it. Though GTD adopts a bottom-up approach, the influence of having a 50,000ft level worked out filters its way down through the other levels, meaning you are inclined to pick out more coherent and relevant projects and next actions that push you forward towards these greater goals.
• 40,000ft
  This level is often described as your vision or your three-to-five year goals. I personally like to view it as the vision for the next stage in your life. Rather than listing out a precise list of goals, ask yourself where you want to be and what you want to be doing in the next several years. The 50,000ft level is an abstract ideal for your life and as such it is not practical to work directly towards it. It can essentially be treated in a similar fashion to a massive project, it needs to be broken down. 40,000ft is the first stage of that process and it’s where you start to work out more manageable projects with timescales attached to them.
• 30,000ft
  At this level you tend to be looking at a two year timescale. Items here are essentially the actionable goals that move you towards your next life vision/step as defined at 40,000ft. For instance at the vision level you may have put down that you want to own a house and start a family. One of the goals to achieving this – which you would put down at this level – would be to get a new job that pays more money.
• 20,000ft
  This level tends to be the one that people struggle with because it seems separate from the surrounding levels. Simply, you define your current roles and responsibilities, whether they be a parent, manager or home-owner. It’s the one level whose influence goes both up and down the vertical map and determines what you do now as well as what you can do in the future. Working down, why would you want to be doing a project that you are not responsible for? Working upwards, why be responsible for something that doesn’t push you towards your goals in life? If your roles do not match your plans then you have to change them. Your current job might not match the career you want to be in five years from now, for instance.
• 10,000ft and runway
  Now we are getting into day-to-day territory. This is where you define weekly projects and their next actions, the vast majority of which will no doubt be dictated by your roles and responsibilities, as defined at 20,000ft. If what you are working on isn’t moving your role/responsibility forward do you really need to be doing it? However you also need to look beyond that towards the 30,000ft level too. Is what you are working on now moving you towards your life goals?