B (27:58)

Yes, it would be. You don't have to read every single word or anything, but just to get a, a sense of what else is on the slide. That would be helpful for those who are listening while say they're driving.

A (28:09)

Yeah, this is difficult, difficult workshop to do as you're driving. But just in case, you never know. You know, people these days with the AI and tools, who knows what they can do? Could be. For example, let's say you're thinking about hiring. Well, what does hiring mean? Well, it means you're in charge of new hires, but not only just new hires, also their orientation, recruiting, recruiting, keeping the employee manual current. Same will be true with organization development, internal consulting, team building, communication, succession planning. So as you can see, you just went deeper on each and every one of them. Great job. I mean, you can do that too. And you actually, I think it also has another tier just to torment you even more because you may say, well, personnel. What about personnel? Oh, that's true. We have Francis and we have one and we have Margaret and Miriam and Aaron. And you know, I need to kind of be, be on, on the lookout for them and, and what about them? So you can go as deep as you want or for this next exercise as time allows you. But at a very minimum, I want you to make sure you've gotten as far off. So as far as this 4 to 7, whatever main air, you know, titles are under your role. So if you just, if you are an HR and you identify these seven areas that are true for you, that's great for this next activity. And if you have time and you want. And you can go deeper, personal, let's say now we're talking about you as a human being, right? Not as a person that has a job. Well, what are my areas of focus and responsibility and, or interest? That's another way of think of it, to think of it. Well, relationships, recreation, career, health, energy, spiritual, self development, household, community, creativity. This is all me. These are all things that matter to me. And within each and every one of them there's more. Right. When I think of Relationships. What do I mean? Well, I mean my family, I mean my relatives, I mean my pets. And when I think of recreation, what is it that I like for recreation? The movies and hiking and camping and travel and tennis and Instagram. I mean, Facebook sounds so outdated. And reading and food, wine, whatever, you name it, right? Creativity, watercolors, poetry, baking, photography, gardening, health by exercise, nutrition, you know, yoga, meditation practices or however you want to think of it, etc. Of course, they are still deep. There's a deeper tier here because look at just how family expanded just in a minute, right? My three kids or my two kids and my wife or whatever. It's true. So in terms of that, let's say my wife Sandy. Well, what about our quality time and support? And Sarah, my daughter, what about her education, her health, her creativity, her extracurricular activities? I mean, we live lives way more complicated than we give ourselves credit, believe me. So there's plenty here that you can use your time in this next activity to either identify again the main four to seven or go deeper as time allows you. Because what I'm going to ask you to do in a minute, I'm going to ask you to update or create, if you don't have them, your areas of focus maps, personal and professionally. So you will have time for the next five minutes to actually only update or create your areas of focus maps, personal and professional. Maybe you only have time for one. After we're done with that, I'll give you more time to identify new projects. So only worry right now of updating or creating your areas of focus map. Any questions, John? Because I'm not looking at the chat box, it's very hard for me to be looking at them and the screen and everything else that I'm doing. So I just want to make sure I answer questions.

B (32:35)

Sure. One here that came up may apply for others as well and it may help to distinguish between areas of focus and projects that can be done. So would you consider each of the areas of focus sub items a project or only if there are next actions? I think that refers back to the slide where the areas of focus then go into subdivided areas of focus. And Katie? I'm getting a nod, so I think that's what you mean. Would are each of those projects or only if they have next actions? And what do you have to say to that, Ana Maria?

A (33:11)

I'm not sure I'm understanding the question, Katie. So let me see if I can help. The areas of focus are this, that map that I'm just showing you right As I said, you can stop here and you can say, okay, I as a person, these are the things that I don't want to lose focus off. I don't want to lose focus of my relationships, my recreation, my career, blah blah, blah.

C (33:33)

Right.

A (33:33)

I'm not going to repeat all of them. Truth is that that's enough of an orientation map. You could argue and say once a month I look at this and it helps me enough to be able to confirm with myself I'm on cruise control or I'm not meaning, ooh, you know, I really haven't been paying attention to my recreation. And no wonder I'm feeling so tired and so short tempered and so intolerant. I've been doing things for myself. So that's the intention of the areas of focus to monthly brings us to this place of where we can say I'm on cruise control. Things are up, up to level, up to standard. I don't need to course correct anything. The course correction using that term can happen by either adding a project onto my list. I gained five pounds without me even noticing. I don't like it. I had to lose five pounds and honestly losing five pounds doesn't happen in one sitting. I wish. So now I have a project on my list, right. So it could potentially trigger a project. Katie potentially doesn't have to because things can be on. I'm happy with my five pounds. I'm not going to do anything about it. Right. I mean it all depends on what we, what decisions we make. Or it may trigger a next action only. You may say, you know what, I haven't been going to the movies lately. I really want to go and I'm just going to go this Saturday to watch a movie. That's just the next action. You need to make a project about that. And that would bring recreation as an area of focus back to cruise control or balance. The reason why I'm showing you extra thinking is because each and every one of those areas of focus, if you take the time to do a map on relationships, for example, that's going to trigger what are the relationships that matter to me? Well, my family, my relatives, One could say friends. And there are no friends in there as an example here. Right. So and then you may say, well, what about my family? Who do I consider family? Who's my family? And then that would trigger. So it's like a map within a map within a map, only to help you identify if there are projects or next actions needed to be added onto my system. But not that you have to go this far. You're welcome. So I guess I answered your question or it helped. Okay, good. What else, John?

B (36:07)

That's it that I'm seeing in the chat. Katie says since those things wouldn't get completed, they don't have a done point. They sound like they can just stay in areas of focus instead of being projects.

A (36:20)

Yeah. The only reason an areas of focus changes is if you change jobs or if you get a divorce, you may still have your husband on. On your areas of focus. I'm on terror. I'm terrible. Don't I always go. Sometimes I go too far. I be. This becomes too intimate. But you know what I mean, Katie. It's practical. If obviously I'm no longer in HR and now I've moved to finance, then I got to redo my whole map. Right? Or pets. If two of my dogs die, they can no longer be on that list. There will be the new ones. You know, it's GTD is very practical, which is what I love at the end of the day, the source of the stress or the tension or the stuff, it's still. It will still need to recur. This same rigor of thinking, whether it's something that that makes me sad or makes me happy or it's positive or it's negative, still requires the same rigor of thinking in order for me to organize it where it belongs. That's why GTD is so practical. Okay, so guys, five minutes and only focus on creating your areas of focus map, personal and professional. Or at least get you started if you don't have one. Or update your areas of focus personal, professional, given this short presentation that we just completed. So I'll give you five minutes and let you know when time's up. Don't do anything about projects yet. Excuse me. Go ahead and start to finish. Complete that last item you're writing or reviewing, please. Okay, so what we're going to do next is now I want you to scan those areas of focus maps and add as it says there, any projects, new projects or next actions or someday maybes. What's important to understand here as I. As the example that I gave a moment ago, I think is not necessarily because one of your areas of focus demands attention from you, as in having to do something to bring it back to balance. That equals a project. It may just equal an exception. So it doesn't have to go on. A sequential or hierarchy structure like horizon two should generate a horizon one that should generate a ground level item. No, you can go from horizon two areas of Focus to a ground level item and next action. Go to the movies. That takes care of recreation for me, for example. Or it can definitely be no. Here's a project about this. It's not just calling my mom because I forgot to call her in the past few days. I really want to organize a trip with my mom because we haven't, you know, it's been too long that we haven't spent time together. Therefore I'm going to organize trip with mom to fill in the blank to Hawaii. Therefore that's a project. So now I need to add a new project onto my list which of course will require that I add a next action. Because what it is true is that for every project there has to be a next action, but not for every area of focus has there to be a project and the next action or a someday maybe there may be nothing because you may look at your areas of focus and say, I'm good. They're all on cruise control. I have no tension or attention on any of them. I'm good. Good job. See you next month. They're designed to be reviewed on a monthly basis. So let's take the next three to five minutes. I'll check with you at three minutes in case you need the time. If not, we'll move on. But what we're going to do now is go back to those, the maps that you just did or updated and see if it triggers any new projects, next actions or someday maybe and go ahead and add them to the right list. So let's get started and I'll check with you at three minutes. Move on. Perfect. So any reflections or comments given what we've done or just on this last activity, anyone wants to share anything, either open mic or in the chat box.

B (40:53)

I'll say something. Yeah, I've been using Todoist for many years and I had it set up pretty poorly. So just thinking that through just now, I made it much, much simpler and therefore a lot easier to define things and track.

A (41:10)

Fantastic. Easier. It's always better. Jeremy. So good job. Thank you. Simple. Yep. Simple and easy. We always say GTD is simple. People don't believe us. Anything else or what? What stood out for you? If you want to let us know either on the chat box or again open mic and I know John will tell me.

B (41:42)

I'm not seeing any of their hands raised or anything or open mics, but see, oh, just one person commenting about their Internet issues. We're switching back and forth and stuff like that. So it's not related to the Content here. So nothing further on the, on the sharing about the content so far.

A (42:06)

Okay, so we're going to move on to the, on to the next three horizons of focus. But before I do that, I just want to read something that I think it's very useful from David where he says maps of this horizon, referring obviously to Horizon 2 are very useful orientation tools, especially when you're in transition mode of any sort, personal or professional, or when a recalibrating of your resources and focus might be needed for more balance. So definitely exploring this horizon too, and keeping it current allows you to walk into your world more comfortably and confident about your priorities. So if at any moment you're confused about your priorities, trust me, just look at this horizon. It's the horizon that can very quickly and effectively get you back to really trusting that the choices that you're making are the right choices. Both your projects list obviously, but if you want to go a horizon higher, it would be Horizon 2. This designed to help you with, you know, ensuring you trust your decisions, you trust your choices. Okay, so let's now take the next three levels as just one. I'm not gonna ask you to go deep into each one like we just did with Horizon 2. We're just kind of take it, we're going to take it as one big one. And the intention here is to do it a little bit more like light touch. This is not designed to be intimidating because sometimes for folks when asked the question of what's your purpose, it can be intimidating. It's intimidating for me. I hate when they ask that question. I'm like, why do you want to know kind of thing. We're just going to do it just to keep on helping you again, complete your projects list. The intention for all of this is mining for projects and to see if there's anything out there that can potentially be a project that needs to be added to your list. So Horizon 3, it's very simple. Think of this horizon as outcomes. The outcomes that belong to Horizon 3 are often referred by goals and objectives. And lots of companies, they have goals that they need to achieve within two years or three years or whatever length of time. So that would be what belongs to Horizon three. Some people refer to it as objectives. Usually these are defined during strategic plan sessions or year end planning sessions. Those are the opportunities at companies that we define these goals and objectives. Personally, you can just think about what would I like to be through by the end of 2026 or why would I like to be true in the next two years? So this horizon is about two years from now, then Horizon four with the title we've given it or we've defined it as vision. This is again just outcomes, no different, but further out in the timeline or further out in your time frame, four to five years from now. So here you can think, take a moment to really grab things that are more like way out there. Like I know in four or five years I'm going to move to another country. Or you know, I know in four or five years my kids will be out of college, so now what? Or I know in four or five years my kids will be starting college. So now what? Have you prepared financially for that? Or do you need a project? So when you think out, that helps again trigger projects in case they're missing from your list. And then of course, purpose would be top level stuff. You know, what's really core meaningful to you, what matters to you in your life, what kind of drives you, moves you. It's your prime criterion for your priorities. I mean, whenever we're making the wrong decisions, whether we are conscious of our purpose or not, because I think we all have a purpose, we may just not be conscious of it, but we know if we're not on purpose because there's a part of us that feels off, whatever that translates to you. So, so the intention here is kind of just bringing greater clarity to Horizon 5 and potentially putting words, you know, my purpose is to be joyful. My purpose is to be of service. My purpose is to be a mother. My purpose is to be, you know, a community person. You know, doesn't have to be perfect again. And no deep or too complicated. It's just give yourself some criterion for making decisions. So I will give you now, I think five minutes. Check with you again at three minutes and you can either update your higher horizons maps if you have them, or you can just start creating a draft. Well, here are some of the things that I see that I've committed to as goals and objectives and here are some of the things that I know are going to be true in four to five years. And here's kind of what I resonate with in terms of what's my purpose. Simple and easy again. So five minutes. Check with you on at three minutes. Go ahead. Yeah, so I was just catching up on the chat and thank you, John. Mark, I think you had that question. Indeed. Really the distinction here is the timeline. That's why I purposely chose to say outcomes. Because everything, if you think about it, it's an outcome, even if it's the next action. A next action. By definition it's an outcome. Call my mom to say hi. That clearly has an outcome defined. So everything are outcomes. It's just a matter of where in the timeline. If their outcomes, you know, days from now, if their outcomes month from now, if their outcomes years from now, then you get to decide on which horizon they belong and it becomes personal. These are just time frames that we give you just to orient you to kind of know what goes where. But there's wiggle room. It doesn't have to be exact. So the visions are just things that I go, I know this will be true four to five years from now because definitely in four to five years my kids would be out of school and ready to go into college or for sure in the next four or five years I've reached retirement age and what's next kind of thing. So that's, that's the intention or to, to take the time to actually think about these things because if so, then do I need to add a project as the next exercise is asking us to do? Right. If in four or five years I reach retirement age, is there anything I need to be preparing for, getting ready, considering adding onto my someday maybe list if not ready to put onto my projects list or even just a simple next action because I'm not going to make any commitment much further given what I know today. So that's the power for mining for projects in the higher horizons is to think how far so to see what brings closer to us. Okay, so now let's, you know what's next, go ahead and scan these higher horizons that you just either created or updated a moment ago and add new projects, next actions or someday maybe whichever one is appropriate or not. So again, I'll give you a couple of minutes to do this and I'll check with you to see if you need more time. That's about time here. And again I want to check in with you anything that stood out from this last activity, higher horizon 3, 4 and 5, anything you, any reflections, anything you want to comment about it? Yeah, go ahead. Adiana. Thank you.

C (50:22)

Yeah. So for me what came into my mind because I was looking at my areas of focus in my horizons three and four was that I think for some, for some time and actually recently I was having these kind of way of thinking that goals were not projects, meaning I would, I would have like a separate list of goals. Even in my, in my current, you know, view of projects, I would have like a, a project that I would call goals for 2025. Because I. I had this. I don't know, this understanding for some reason. And then just recently I realized that they were actually projects, but I was just keeping them in a little separate container for some reason because I think I thought I wanted them to be separate because I wasn't acting on them yet. I didn't want to. So I think the thing is I didn't want to see them on my projects list because they were not activated. And I didn't want to say that someday maybe, at least because I thought it was someday maybe it's not. That means I'm not going to act on it this year. So I think it's a kind of a weird cognitive, you know, confusion or something. But I. And then I started kind of moving all these goals into my projects list. It's very recent, like maybe, I know, two months ago. And I'm like realizing that I had a bunch of projects that were hidden in this walls list for some reason that I wasn't acting on. But. And then. But I actually wanted to execute them this year. But I was kind of.

A (52:16)

They were on another list. They were not on the list exactly.

C (52:20)

They were not in my head. I was not treating them as projects. I wasn't acting on them because I was like, yeah, those are goals. I'm going to act on them. I don't know.

A (52:29)

Yeah.

C (52:29)

But so just the fact that I started moving them into projects as they are because they are my expectation of them being completed this year.

A (52:40)

Correct.

C (52:40)

And then I started acting on them.

A (52:43)

Yeah.

C (52:43)

Just my weird, no good job.

A (52:46)

I mean, humans were funny. You know what I mean? Who knows what little crazy hits make up of things. Thank God for that creativity. But what you did and what you described, Ariadne, it's very common. I've seen it a lot. Some people actually create a list titled Projects on Hold because it's not a project, it's not a goal, not a someday maybe. Don't you dare. It's a project on hold. And I go, if you want to call it a project on hold because that's how your mind better relates that works. What matters is your commitment to reviewing. And I think it's in the reviewing that we either do or don't do, where we start making all this kind of variations in forms because our minds are very quick and very smart. And we often quickly conclude that it's a someday maybe. I'm not going to look at it. And GTD says that your Sunday maybe list is a list to review as part of your Weekly review. So. But it feels like it's, you know, someday maybe someone's like, it's like Neverland. Not, not really. All Someday maybe is. It's a list for potential projects that I'm not committed to move on yet. So it's a very simple definition, Ariane, but if you think about it, it's a powerful one. It's one that I need to be able to stand for because it's. I saying I'm not committed to move on yet. That's a powerful statement. But if instead I put it on a project on whole, you know, these are all variations of some. They maybe, to be honest, but for some brains, it works better that way because it calms them. So if at the end of the day you need to call it differently or, or organize it differently, as long as you're reviewing it regularly, that's what matters. Otherwise it will all crawl back to your head because the mind is very quick and very smart. And it's going to say, arianne, you're not fooling me. You may be fooling the screen, all this list and all these title things, but you're not fully me. Therefore, I'm holding on to it because you're not looking at it. And the whole purpose of gtd, right, is to get things off our mind so that we can be fully present, so that we can be engaged, so that we can be strategic, creative, etc. So all great awarenesses. I completely understand what you, what you were referring to and just know that the Someday maybe list is the first cousin to the projects list. If there's a list that it's very near, the projects list is the Someday maybe. It's a wonderful list that I think we don't often explore enough because there's a little bit of a concern or a fear that I'm not going to see it or I'm not going to do anything about it. Not doing anything about it is correct. Not seeing it, it's what's incorrect. But it's part of the weekly review. But good job. Thank you.

C (55:48)

Yeah. Yeah. It's very interesting to notice.

A (55:51)

Very interesting. Yeah, I know. And that's why, that's why I go. It's all outcomes guy. Just put it, it put it in, in the time frame that it belongs. Because it's true. There's some things that are goals in terms of how we define it, right. Two years from now or three years from now. And sometimes it's arguable that some people may say, well, I still need to keep A closer hold of that goal, because the goals list, theoretically, it's reviewed quarterly. Okay. Each one of these horizons require a different time when to review them. So you may say, even though this is, by the GTD definition, a goal, because it's in two years from now or three years from now, I got to keep my touch on this thing weekly because it is how this job or this work gets done, then that perfectly qualifies as a project. It's more a matter of how soon, how much or not do you need to be reviewing it? What defines more, where it goes? You know what I mean? Like, that's where all this flexibility starts to play in. Oh, but two years from now, you just said that's not a project. Do you need to look at it weekly in order to relax your mind? Yes. Then it's. It's more of a project than it is of a goal. Does that make sense? Arianny, when you bring in that other.

C (57:10)

Variable, it makes total sense that you know that you touched on a point that that is exactly what happened. I wasn't looking at that list because I was thinking it's a goal or this year, But I wasn't actually reviewing that list. Because you were not. Yeah. And. And because, you know, when you do weekly review, you have, like, the step review project. So in my mind, I was just looking at my projects, and I was forgetting about that one because it was. And although it isn't the same app, like, I. I could see the list was there.

A (57:39)

Oh, yeah, I know.

C (57:40)

But my brain was like, man, but it's not. These are not projects. Don't look at them. And then. And then I realized, well, I have ch to go back and look at them. And then I realized that I was kind of not putting them in the projects category for my mind to actually go through them and take action.

A (57:59)

I'm telling you, the projects list is the most liberating list. And it's the nastiest list because it's the list that brings us back to peace, to clarity, to a sense of control. But it's the list that demands thinking. All the other ones, we can kind of, like, pretend they're there, but they're not there. The projects list is heavy lifting, but it's. It does wonders to our lives. Right? But. But I understand. I understand the relationship.

C (58:27)

Can I just make one more comment about projects list that also sometimes I think or my brain think when I say my brain, my brain, it's not me, thinks that that goal or that thing I want to accomplish is so small that it doesn't deserve being a project.

A (58:51)

I understand, but that's because of how, however you've, you've learned to refer to as a project, you may just need to, you know, kind of change your relate. Because to me a goal is bigger than a project to me. But I was raised in dtv, you know what I mean? So to me fix the faucet is the project as much as it is, I don't know, build a new house that we're actually doing because they're all multi step outcomes. But so to me I'll go, it's a bigger thing. So two people thinking completely different.

C (59:22)

Yeah.

A (59:24)

All right, my dear, thank you very much. What else, John? Because I'm not seeing, I'm just seeing the chat box jumping on my screen, but I'm not reading. Before I move on.

B (59:35)

Let's see a comment here from Mark. A project is anything that is more than one action. Size does not matter. There we go. Yeah, I think Ariadne, you, you mentioned something that a lot of people can relate to with thinking that it's too small to call it a project. And then they, the, the trouble with that is they end up with next actions that are really projects but the next actions list repels them or they don't feel drawn to do things on it. Because some part of our consciousness, some part of our mind is not fooled by that. Some part of our mind looks at that next actions list and says that's not really a next action. Because even if I do that, it's not. The thing is not done, the outcome isn't achieved. So it's hard to trick our own minds.

A (60:27)

Very hard. And before we go on a break, just keep this in mind guys. Often if it's self evident, it may not even have to go on your projects list despite the fact that it's multi step outcome. For example, you know, my dad is coming to visit me from Spain. All I need is a reminder in my calendar to go get him at the airport, you know, at the time that he arrives. I don't need a project about that. It's kind of self evident everything that I need that needs to happen for him to stay at my house. If on the other hand I had to move my children out of their bedroom to accommodate for a new bedroom and I had to do, you know, make some logistical changes and there was a work involved to preparing for that visit, then that might not, that might not be self evident. It may require my mind to weekly focus on this outcome of preparing for that visit, otherwise it's going to show up on a Tuesday and nothing's going to be ready. So there's some things that even they are multi step outcomes. If they're self evident, you may not have to put it on a projects list. You always need to put it on a project list if it requires your weekly thinking so that you confirm, ensure, guarantee that you get to your outcome. If it's not required, then you're probably fine with just, you know, a reminder on your calendar and when in doubt, put it on your projects list. Worst thing that can happen is you go, oh, that was overrated. It wasn't a project. But it's always better to say it was overrated and to go, they put on a project, they thinking it wasn't and now look that is here and the house is a mess. They're your choices. All right, dear, let's go on a break. And unfortunately it's gonna have to be 10 minutes so that we can finish on time when we come back. So 10 minutes beginning now.

D (62:31)

I'd like to give a short message to those of you who've been participating and playing with GTD Connect for a while and sort of remind you that all of us with this GTD methodology and this set of practices go through cycles. You know, I still go through cycles myself initially. There's, there's kind of the inspiration and there's a lot of material to ingest and to get familiar with. And so people oftentimes when they first come onto Connect are just potentially overwhelmed by how much information there is. In a way, it's just a huge library where we've been able to archive so much different information from so many different perspectives and people and points of view and so understood that it's like walking into a library, oh gee, where do I start? So that's oftentimes the initial phase of this and many people after a year or two, you know, probably get on some level or some plateau where they go, well, I kind of got it now, I've got my system set up and everything's fine. And I'm thought. And you may find yourself at that point also finding yourself saying, gee, I'm now becoming a resource of this methodology for people around me, you know, people asking me for assistance and help in this. And we've seen in the forums a number of people now sharing ideas about how to get your teams more involved or families more involved with this information. So some of that information is in there as well. But I think you'll Find yourself going through cycles of this and you may find that much like if you've ever read a. I remember when I read, when I learned Microsoft Word to begin with, for instance, I read the manual, wow, this is really cool. And I started to use the tool and didn't need the manual anymore. As a matter of fact, a good example of that right here, the manual for this camera that's taking this picture right now. Initially, I read this, got it all set up. That's really cool. And that's really fine. And so pretty much everything was onto cruise control. I didn't need to go back to my library to make this really work. And then of course, as I started to get more sophisticated in terms of the stuff I wanted to do, got more inspired about some things I saw other people are doing. I go, how do I do that? Went back to the manual. I went, oh, God, I didn't realize I could do that. I didn't realize I could do that. I remember at least two or three iterations of going back to Microsoft Word back in the days when there actually was a manual for that, as opposed to just all online and realizing, oh, oh my God, I didn't realize that, oh, I could do that now. I could do that now. And I think that's what you might find with Connect too, is that it's a gold mine of stuff. Well, many people have read getting things done more than three or four times, and every time they read it, they get something new out of it. So I think you may find Connect the same way and probably even easier because, hey, it doesn't take much to just click on, surf around, see what might be new or what might be of interest to you, and pay attention. There's more than meets the eye in there.