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- [00:09]
A
Hello everyone, this is John Forrester and I'm joined as usual by my colleague Ana Maria. Hi, Ana Maria.
- [00:16]
B
Hi, John. Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining and. Or thank you for listening to the replay.
- [00:24]
A
Right, well, this is about the areas of focus level in the horizons of focus model in gtd and we're looking forward to this one. We get a chance to talk about what our areas of focus help you define yours more clearly. And we probably along the way we'll get to define some projects and hopefully distinguish between the different horizons more clearly for you. So I'm going to turn it over to Ana Maria. We'll advance the slide to our learning objectives.
- [00:59]
B
Go back to welcome for a split second, Don. Sorry.
- [01:02]
A
Okay. Oops.
- [01:04]
B
I just want to take a moment here not only to welcome you again, but also it is often a horizon where we get many questions. Interesting enough. As you all know, our model for the horizons of focus, it's made of the ground level and then horizon one projects horizon two areas of focus and accountability, horizon three goals and objectives, horizon four Vision strategy and then horizon five Purpose backslash principles. We have six horizons in total. That doesn't mean that are there only six horizons, period. There are probably more if you really think about of the in betweens, perhaps. But these six horizons are what we have identified to help frame the conversation, to help identify where tensions belong, to help identify where we have our attention to help identify where outcomes belong to. And I'm going to take a risk here and try to help you begin to understand perhaps outcome in maybe in a more stretched way. Up until now, most likely you've heard us teach getting things done by saying what's your desired outcome? As in what's your project title? Or if you were to give me your finish line so that we know how to title your project, I need you to think about and let me know what. What's your desired outcome? In other words, when do you know you're done? But if you really think about it, when we're looking at populating any one of these horizons from one to, from ground to five, and not that we're saying you have to populate them all, neither are we saying how much volume there has to be at any level. We have a sense, given the work that we do with people. But if you think about it, everything that you are organizing into any one of these levels are outcomes. It's more a matter of how far in time will they become done. If that's right, English, I'm sorry? Or how far in time will I be manifesting this outcome. Call mom to coordinate dinner reservations for, for the week of August 22nd when I'm visiting her in Spain. It is a next action most likely organized on my calls list. But it's an outcome statement like I can see myself doing that, correct. Same is true with projects. There are outcome statements. You can see yourself, you know, when you get to that place and see yourself there that you're done. And you can check it off different with areas of focus and accountability. So I'm going to pause there for a moment, but if you. I'm. And I'm going to jump over to horizon three as well as horizon four. So I'm going to, I'm going to teach both simultaneously. You also organize outcomes at any one of these two, three or four. Because there are outcomes that I, I've committed to completing anywhere from a year or two or three from now or three, four or five years from now. Because that's, you know, maybe semantics, but that's more or less what we mean when we say goals and visions, areas of focus and accountability, as well as purpose and principles. Yes, it's arguable you can still have outcome statements about those or affirmation statement about those or just a simple list that really outlines. What's true for you. More from a value, more for a values place, more from, you know, what's true for me given who I am. And because that's true for me given who I am, then I manifest and I materialize outcomes in my life. So it is often a very, I would say, highly discussed horizon areas of focus and accountability. And I think I can understand why. And it's often because our people are wanting to understand really, hey, what are these roles? You can think of it that way that I need to be clear about so that then I can more confidently right. Decide what projects belong to me or not, what next actions belong to me or not, and even what goals visions belong to me or not. So they're kind of ongoing, the areas of focus and accountability the same as your purpose. You know, unless you wake up wanting to be a different person or wanting to kind of be someone else who you thought you were or why you were here, your purpose is probably going to hold true from day one. Areas of focus and accountability have that same kind of flavor. They hold true while they're true for you. And why I'm saying that is because they may change. Even though they're ongoing, they may change why you may change jobs. So if you change jobs, you have to update Your areas of focus and accountability professionally. And they may change because your life may change, right? You may, I don't know, no longer have parents as your areas of focus and accountability because they've passed away. So life changed. You need to then update your areas of focus and accountability. But unless that changes, unless there's a life change in that way, most likely they will hold true for you. So, John, maybe I went too far, but I just wanted to kind of frame what we mean by this and why I think it's important and why I think people have so many questions about it because it really helps them, you know, in a very practical way, clarify their priorities, clarify what goes on my list. Having this clear understanding of Horizon two, right.
- [07:32]
A
No, I think you did great at that. So if you're ready at this point, I'll move on to the learning objectives. Okay, here we go. And these are the same three we have for all of these skills lab labs. Test your knowledge on the GTD best practices. Deepen your understanding through practice scenarios and quizzes. Learn other approaches through group discussion. And the reason I'm reading those is in case somebody's listening to the recording later and doesn't see the slide.
- [08:02]
B
I think they probably know them by now by heart. Right. It's like I think they can kind of repeat then without us reading it.
- [08:10]
A
Yes, actually, that's it. The next, the next time we start with the first quiz is tell us what your learning objectives are here.
- [08:18]
B
Okay, so which of these are areas of focus? So here's the quiz. Roles, interests and accountabilities in your life. Key areas of your life and work which you want to maintain at a certain standard criteria for assessing your experiences and engagements. That would be C, D, a checklist for self management, and E. All of the above.
- [08:51]
A
All right, so if you want to drop into the chat, you can either just consider this for yourself or we'd love to have you write something in the chat. We're seeing ease.
- [08:59]
B
They're answering. They're answering already. You know how they are.
- [09:02]
A
Yeah, I've got the chat going here now. It's E, which stands for everyone. Or in this case, all of the above.
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B
Everyone answered the right answer.
- [09:14]
A
Yes.
- [09:17]
B
Excellent. So correct. The right answer is all of the above for obvious reasons. Right. So I think for those of you listening, you, you know, not just limit your definition of areas of focus to any one of this because it can really be a great list for self management as we have one of the answers there and no, notice that it says checklist because we're not really looking at this list as a project list or an extraction list. We're not looking to getting anything off from that list done. We're looking at, we're looking at the list for self management purposes. As in what are those key areas in my life and work that I want to make sure I'm keeping at a certain standard. And there may be times when you review this list or this checklist and you may be, yep, I'm up to standard, I'm good to go. I got nothing to do here. It's not triggering like John was saying earlier today, it's not triggering a project to add to my system. It's not triggering, triggering an action to add to my system or goals or visions or what have you. You're good. And there may be times where yes it would trigger. It's necessary because somehow we didn't pay attention to that area of focus and accountability or you know, it's a great list to have. If you're changing jobs and somehow you need to now there's secession and there's a new person that's going to do your job and it's great for you to tell them, hey, by the way, here's the job that I did. Here are my areas of focus and accountability. This is what that means kind of thing. So it has many applications and many uses.
- [10:56]
A
I find also that speaking of the job, it can be something that helps you decide when it's time to look for the new job. I've had that happen at least twice that I can recall where I had my areas of focus and I looked at those and went something's not in alignment with my professional life. And it was a clue that it was time for me to move into a new job. So you can, you can work it both ways. Some, sometimes it's to transition to someone else, sometimes it's just transition yourself.
- [11:29]
B
Yeah, yeah. And see which John and I spoke about in preparation. It's also a great list to kind of help you confirm. Right. You know, is what I have on. Let's use my next actions list what I ought to have or what, what I need to have given my areas of focus and accountability. I mean back a couple of years ago when we were teaching level one fundamentals, we had an activity where we had people test the why and we call it the why test. Like kind of go back to each one of your actions on your list and ask yourself why because. And kind of up to five times, sort of sort of it worked. And you probably Got the answer before five times, but it was looking for alignment. Well, I have this action on my list because it belongs to this project. Why? Well, I have this action on my list because it belongs to this project, because I have this area of focus and accountability. Well, why? Well, I have this action on my list because it belongs to this project. Because given this area of focus and accountability, because given the objective that I agree to, unless I start working on this project now and making sure this action happen, it ain't going to happen, I may find myself not meeting that objective. So that's another great use for areas of focus is kind of to confirm why I have what I have on my system or why I'm even choosing to do what I'm choosing to do, perhaps even spontaneously. So very useful list.
- [13:01]
A
And it can also lead to what could be either fulfilling and or challenging conversations. If you look at things on your list of projects and next actions and say that doesn't really fit with any of my areas of accountability or focus. So that can lead to a conversation you have with a family member, a manager, a boss, co owners of your company. Sometimes those conversations can be a little bit challenging. If you're looking to change your life in some way or change what your job is about, how your job is defined, those can be a little bit challenging to do, but also very fulfilling. If you realize that you are putting your energy toward activities and projects that aren't in alignment, then you have a lot of energy you can free up by bringing those into alignment.
- [13:59]
B
Correct. We can move on. Do you want to read this one, John?
- [14:07]
A
Sure. This is from David. Areas of focus and accountability are important spheres of work and life to be maintained at standards to keep the engines running.
- [14:19]
B
And I think I want to underline standards and I think I want to also underline the fact that we don't all have the same standards about anything. So you know what for me may be maintaining a standard, let's say regarding my health, can be completely different to my husband. That doesn't make me right, it makes him wrong or vice versa. That's why it's very important to pay attention to the fact that it's about maintaining them at a certain standard to keep the engines running, right, to keep kind of things on cruise control so that we don't find ourselves all of a sudden, I don't know, having to size up on our clothing because we weren't paying attention. In other words, the engines weren't running at a certain standard. So that's all what that really Is it's to really help you and support you in that way.
- [15:19]
A
Good, good.
- [15:23]
B
So let's check. How well are you doing at keeping the engines running? A, I am humming along. B, I have some starts and stops. C, my engine needs an overhaul. D, I am stalled. So where are you? And you can share that answer with us. You know, again, it's a bit of sense of humor, but.
- [15:45]
A
And, and you can feel free to answer this about a specific area or areas general. Whatever. Whatever appeals to you that way. Okay.
- [15:54]
B
That's true, John, because I think if I was to be testing this on every single one, I may not get the same letter on.
- [16:00]
A
All right.
- [16:01]
B
Because I do better on some versus others. No question. And. And depends on when am I doing this. Because on some months I'm better at some than I'm not at others.
- [16:11]
A
Right? Yep. So we're getting cbb Laugh out loud. B, B, B, B, B. Sometimes A rational thinking, but now feeling more like a C. Oh, that's an interesting answer. Thinking about it in a feeling about it.
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B
And look, if you want to open microphones and if you want to comment why you think it's one but you feel as if something else. Why is there that dissonance we love to hear?
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A
Yeah, let's see.
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B
Someone gave an E. I couldn't read it, but there's no E.
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A
That was from the previous quiz.
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B
Oak.
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A
Yes. I don't know. I don't know if there's an option for an E where you would be even slower than stalled.
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B
Well, because I think dog is saying E sometimes going in the wrong direction as in another option.
- [17:17]
A
Let's see. Are you seeing that in the chat? Ah, there it is.
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B
Yeah.
- [17:21]
A
Sometimes in rational thinking. But now. Ana Maria, can you read that one again? I'm not seeing it in my chat.
- [17:34]
B
Yeah. Doug said E as in sometimes going in the wrong direction.
- [17:41]
A
Okay.
- [17:43]
B
Which I think I get what you're saying, Doug. And that could well just be potentially the result or the effect of not, you know, keep an ongoing review of this. Areas of focus and accountability. And then, you know, it's kind of like we went on the wrong path. You know, like I was supposed to be energizing this role or, you know, being accountable for abc. And I got completely and totally sidetracked, distracted. Life came at me too fast and I didn't pause to review. As, you know, we suggest the areas of focus and accountability are reviewed on a monthly basis or more. We never say that because it's monthly. You're going to do it daily. We think maybe it's an overkill, but we suggest monthly.
- [18:40]
A
And that's simply because things can change in any of those areas of focus. I mean, we all have lots of examples of things that have changed with family members, health, finances, job, lots of things can move around. Having a kind of a recalibration of those at least once a month could be very helpful for you.
- [19:00]
B
And also sometimes they also change because I think to what I just read it very quickly, Doug, but the daily volume or the daily noise or however we want to refer to that, what we end up kind of clarifying and organizing at the ground level may start taking it as a completely different direction than what we're supposed than the direction that we're supposed to be taking given areas of focus and accountability. Well, if that's true, then I am of the mind of, hey, then by default you are actually accepting a new area of focus and accountability. But by de facto, right, because now you have been completing actions and have been completing projects. So perhaps it's not so much going on the wrong direction perhaps is updating areas of focus and accountability so that it really then represents my current reality, which is there's this new thing that by de facto I've been kind of doing.
- [20:06]
A
Yes. If you're taking action on some area of focus that isn't listed yet, then the simplest way to realign could be add that to your areas of focus so that what is on your ground level and projects matches what's on horizon too.
- [20:23]
B
Right. And if you realize that was the wrong choice, then you will have to have that conversation with whoever you have to have it so that it doesn't continue to be expected from you that that result happens. See, a lot of the time by us not being upfront with a no or with a yes, I should say better then it's easy for those around us, whether it's a work environment or a personal environment, to then go, what would you've been doing? You never said no or you never said yes. Right. So just be aware of that.
- [21:04]
A
And last, we have a what gets in your way question about where you are on these. If there's anything that you'd like to put in the chat about what's getting in your way of having your engines humming along,
- [21:21]
B
which I think it's where Doug was going with his answer. So he was kind of ahead in that way. Thank you, Doug.
- [21:31]
A
We'll give you another moment there to fill in anything if you'd like to make a comment about what gets in your way and if not, we can also move along. My own tendency to overcomplicate. I can relate to that. Fuel pump is clogged with procrastination. All right, let's see what gets in the way. Inertia can take time to shift bit by bit. Yep. Inertia. Inertia is a factor. Unforeseen situations. Emotional driven. Yeah. That's why it can be really helpful to have extra unscheduled space in the calendar so that you're not feeling even more pressure if something shows up that you didn't have planned. Need to check on a more regular basis. Good. Lack of routine for including areas of focus into the weekly or even monthly reviews. Ah, yeah. If you have a checklist for weekly review, but it doesn't include, say once a month also having areas of focus review, that's an improvement opportunity.
- [22:54]
B
And one small, simple trick on your weekly review checklist that we provide, where it says review any relevant checklists, you can always add their areas of focus and accountability. And then if you are the type of person that schedules your weekly review, just schedule one review a month for maybe another, an additional 15 minutes or something like that. And write yourself the reminder in the calendar, you know, this review includes areas of focus or something like that to kind of bring that awareness or bring your attention to that horizon.
- [23:30]
A
Good, good. All right, let's see.
- [23:35]
B
I think we can move on. Yep.
- [23:38]
A
Which brings us to the question of how often.
- [23:40]
B
Oh, there we go. We already answered it, but, oh, it's not a quiz question. So
- [23:46]
A
this is a. More like. It's not a quiz. It's more like we'll see what we learn by reading it options here.
- [23:54]
B
So, you know, one way to look at this is how often should you review. Your risk of focus and accountability can be, you know, here's what we suggest as, also as. Here's what we've learned. Here's what we. Here's what we've observed, that it's an appropriate moment to review your lists or to review your Horizon 2 checklist. And that's, as I was saying, early monthly, you kind of want to add that as part of your weekly review. It shouldn't take you that long, really. An additional 10 minutes or 15 would probably do it. But just monthly, bring that awareness to that horizon. Gain perspective in that way and look around, look, look around to check and see. Hey, how am I doing regarding health? Yeah, I think I'm good. Fine. It doesn't require any much more deep thinking or how am I doing regarding. I don't know my relationships, as in friends, how am I doing regarding my relationship with family members, et cetera, et cetera. And you are the only one that will know the answer to that. And that may trigger, right. Some, some action or that may trigger some project or of course, when performance review comes around at work, you know that I think that's often like on a yearly basis. John. I know, I'm so. We're so not. We still don't operate that way, but
- [25:20]
A
we don't operate that way. But lots of companies operate with some kind of either quarterly check ins and, or an annual review.
- [25:28]
B
There you go. So John knows better than I in that way. But I think I remember from coaching clients that yes, there was some kind of yearly performance review and that was really often subject to how big or small a bonus they will get or not. So that's an appropriate time as well. And as we've been saying, whenever your job or life changes, and that's often one that we don't know, we don't know when that's. When is that moment, you will know because it changed. So that's an opportunity to reassess and see what needs to be added, what needs to be taken away, what needs to be rewarded, whatever it needs to be.
- [26:12]
A
And when you're doing this, it doesn't necessarily need to take a long time. You could do this in a couple of minutes if you just run down these and go, nothing really has changed. Or it could take 15 or 20 minutes if you, if you hit several things where you go, oh, that changed in my personal life, that changed in my health or the health of someone I'm involved with, that changed in my finances. And any one of those could be interwoven with how it affects other things too. So could be very quick review of your areas. Could take a little longer. Longer to readjust things. All right, let's see what's next here. Another self assessment.
- [27:00]
B
Okay, so are you reviewing your areas of focus and accountability as often as you need to? A, I feel completely aligned and on top of them. B, I could review them more, C, I look at them sporadically. And D, I forgot about my areas of focus and accountability before today.
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A
We have Bs, Cs, Bs and Cs, which is okay, well, good, nobody's down it. I forgot about them completely. Or saying I feel completely aligned and on top of them.
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B
Yeah, Rob did. Rob Bruce. Good for you, Rob. Because I'm a B, I think I can do better. No question.
- [27:47]
A
Aha. Okay. Yeah, there it is.
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B
Sure. The other day I was looking John and I have an area of focus and accountability pets. I was like, okay, half these pets are dead. I don't have the new pets added onto the list. I'm like, I think it needs an update.
- [28:09]
A
Oh,
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B
I laughed at myself because I was like, you know, pets are always, you know, I, I, they are in aerial focus and accountability. But I, I had listed their names and now it was like, these are not the pets.
- [28:24]
A
Right. If you just have pets, it doesn't need to be updated. But if it's very specific. And one of those pets was getting older. As Ana Maria and I both know, pets get older and things change.
- [28:39]
B
These ones were dead and I had new ones and I did have the new ones there and I still had the dead ones there. So it was a little crazy list. So I updated.
- [28:46]
A
Got it. Yep. And let's see, this may be only for Rob and Doug, but it could be for others as well. In the chat, you have an option to chat with everyone or just the hosts and panelists. And we encourage you to select the everyone option so everybody on here can learn from your questions, your answers and see the interaction. Thanks, Doug. I see the thumbs up there and taik saying too much. Living on the Runway in project mode. Interesting. Yeah, well, the Runway can take a lot of our attention. As far as project mode, I tend to think, and let's hear what Ana Maria has to say. I tend to think that running your day to day from your projects list can be quite effective. A lot of people get so caught up with the Runway in the calendar that they don't check in with the projects list quite often enough. So, Ana Maria, thoughts on that? Yes.
- [29:50]
B
It's not going to be nice what I'm going to say, but if you're doing your weekly review, you should have no tension
- [29:57]
A
about
- [30:00]
B
functioning at the ground level day to day. That's what it's meant to do. That's what's designed to do. We are to be functioning at the ground level on a day to day basis. But of course, if we have not been looking at the higher horizons as in projects or as a focus or any one of the above, then we will feel this misalignment or internal conflict sometimes in our attempt to feel back in control or feel aligned, then we incorporate perhaps unnecessary, I'm not saying it is, but perhaps unnecessary, then an extra layer of control. But I'm also going to look at my project list daily so that I'm aligned kind of thing. Well, if you do you do? But really, if you are. Consequently. How to say that?
- [31:05]
A
Consequently, consequently, or as a consequence, or
- [31:09]
B
I should say, if you are regular with your weekly review, a lot of this distress disappears. And if you're regular with your monthly review, where, as I said, just add it as part of your weekly review, don't ask yourself now, well be in addition to the four weekly reviews or five that I have to do every month, do you now are telling me that I also have to do a monthly review? No, I'm just saying that one of those reviews make sure you go even one horizon higher. Your areas of focus and accountability. So, yeah, of course, John, there's nothing wrong with, you know, operating or functioning or working off from a project mode, but I don't know that that to be true for all or applicable to all. What I do know is that as we're doing our. In continuing to do our weekly review, we won't be saying is, oh, I'm always working off my Runway. Well, of course, that's the level that we work off from. Life happens at the Runway or at the ground level. New vocabulary. So there should be no conflict with that because we don't, as you know, guys, we like to say, you don't ever do projects. You have projects. So there should be no stress within you in relationship to working off the ground level. That's where work gets done. That's where life happens. Everything else, it's the future or some vision or some dream or some idea about something that you want to manifest. But where life happens, it's here at this level.
- [32:59]
A
Yeah. And here we go. Let's see. I've been in Runway project mode since the pandemic areas of focus fell off the radar. Yeah. At least three, three and a quarter years ago, several people that we know suddenly were working from home and had to deal with new areas of focus. In our company, we had already all worked from home for a number of years. But for many people, that was a big shift either to fully working at home or some kind of a hybrid model, or if they were still going into work, were they going into an empty office and having to figure out how to collaborate with colleagues who weren't there? So I get where you're saying it turned out to be a very big shift. And Doug, are you getting to feel as though you're getting back on top of things and more clear about the areas now? Got it. He's saying, that's what I'm trying to do now. Start over and redefine. Good, good.
- [34:10]
B
We'll have some time today, Doug, to start drafting out or updating that areas of focus list. So use that time for yourself because that may be a way to start or continue.
- [34:26]
A
That leads us into this question. Here we go. How many should you have?
- [34:37]
B
Yeah, it's, you know, I often were asked, how many projects should I have on my list? How many next actions, you know, how many areas of focus? It's like, I don't know, as many as you have or as many as you need to have, or as many as you agreed to. Remember, GTD is really, you know, at a very deep level or basic level, however you want to define that. It's about identifying agreements and, and it's about managing effectively your agreements. What we're teaching you is to manage effectively your agreements. So what agreements have you made? How many areas have you said yes to or you haven't said no to?
- [35:18]
A
And then we get on to quantifying it. This is definitely an average, right?
- [35:23]
B
On average, you can have anywhere from five to seven on personal and professional, anywhere from four to eight. You know, there's no perfect number, but if I was coaching you and you show me, Well, I have 20 areas of focus and accountability on both, I may say, well, let's take a deeper look because maybe we're duplicating some. Maybe we're confusing one thing with the other. So still it's useful, I think, to have some sense of number of, you know, kind of what, what, what do you think we're able to manage? To be honest, I don't know that if it's right or wrong, it's more like how things. Do you want to spread yourself, you know what I mean?
- [36:03]
A
Like, yeah. And if you have, if you have. So if you add these numbers up, you. We come up with something like 10 to 14 areas altogether. If you're looking at your list of areas and you're finding you have 20 to 40 instead, it could be that you've got those subdivided a little more, you know, little smaller than you need to. And you could have the areas be just a little more inclusive of other sub areas and do that subdividing in your. On your projects list. So that's up to you. This is more like an average that we've found over many years.
- [36:46]
B
And we'll share with you some sample areas of focus and accountability. I think that's. Oh, not yet.
- [36:53]
A
Not yet.
- [36:55]
B
So there's a quote from David.
- [36:57]
A
Yes. Before we get to some sample areas, we have this quote. When you're not sure where you're going or what's really important to you. You'll never know when enough is enough.
- [37:10]
B
It's a great quote, I think, to close or wrap what you were just saying a moment ago. If you find yourself with 20 or 40 or if you find yourself with too many, it could just be because of what you just read. You know, it's like we don't know when to stop.
- [37:27]
A
Yeah. And that could be a good way to a lens through which to review your ground level too and go, well, I feel over busy all the time. In that case, it could be that you have some areas of focus that you may want to scale back on or say no to altogether.
- [37:48]
B
And you know, I was just thinking, as you were just saying that, John, because we do give folks the option with Horizon one projects to have projects on hold. So for a moment I thought crossed my mind and I thought, well, could you have Aries to focus on hold? I don't know for how long. It can be dangerous to think of. We've never coached that. We never offered that option. But I always like to ask myself those questions because I was wondering for me, well, for how long can I put health on hold before it becomes a problem?
- [38:22]
A
That's the one that came to me. Holy. You don't want to put that on hold for very long, Right.
- [38:27]
B
For how long can I put marriage, you know, on hold, being a wife before it becomes a problem, for how long? Not long, you know, not pay attention to these pets, put it on hold. So I don't know that in the same way that projects on hold, it's a great solution for some folks. I don't know that there's something like areas of focus on hold.
- [38:53]
A
Yeah, I don't know that there is. One of my worst recurring nightmares for years now is that I'm supposed to be taking care of either a pet of my own or someone else's pet. And in the dream I realize, oh, did I feed that dog or cat today? It's a terrible feeling.
- [39:14]
B
Oh my God.
- [39:15]
A
I would not recommend putting areas of focus on hold. They're either active or they're not or
- [39:21]
B
not or you're not committed. They're not yours. They should not be on your list.
- [39:28]
A
Ah, here we go. Here's a comment that handles something that I was thinking of saying earlier. So thank you for putting it in your own words. Exactly where I've been productive, working the lists, cranking widgets, but not looking at if they're the right widgets or just the latest and Loudest widgets. So that's something that the areas of focus can really help you with. You can use it to as a filter to look at your ground level and your projects and go, well, yeah, those are clearly defined actions and projects, but are they the right actions and projects? And right, of course, is entirely up to you. Yeah.
- [40:08]
B
Or if you just want to ask yourself, or do they belong to me? If you don't want to have, you know, the right or wrong connotation, it's like, well, yes, they're correctly defined. I see a desired outcome. And yes, there's next action is a physical visible activity. But are they mine?
- [40:26]
A
Yeah. And here's an interesting comment. Might be an interesting exercise to draft some aspirational areas of focus, such as, I'd like to end up in the position of having XYZ responsibilities. I hadn't thought of that before. And my first reaction to that is if they're entirely aspirational and you're not in any way committing to them, sure, that could be an interesting thing to do. And as soon as you get to the point where you might want to be committing something to them, for me, that would kick it up at least one horizon to goals and objectives, possibly vision.
- [41:09]
B
Yeah. And maybe. Agreed. And maybe, Peter, it can be also because you have an area of focus along the lines of something like work, life, balance, then that equals to me that that position that I want to get to or manifest, you know, has XYZ responsibility, whatever that means. So it's the area of focus that it's probably making you think that way. So one, one workaround. Yes. It could be that you identify it perhaps as a. As a, you know, horizon three or four towards, like an outcome that you work towards and that eventually you get to check off your list. Or do you create an affirmation about it where you now begin to affirm? You know, affirmations are for everything that it's not true today. So they're really aspirational. You can do an affirmation of, I have I am a brunette. Yes, I am. So there's no affirmation about that. So you do affirmations for those things that you are not today, but that you want to be. So that's another workaround with this.
- [42:25]
A
All right, ready to move along.
- [42:28]
B
See.