Most people who start with GTD stop at the Inbox, projects and next actions. That's fine — David Allen himself recommends starting "from the bottom", because while a hundred uncaptured things are rattling around in your head, you can't think about your life's purpose. But after a few months a question arrives: I'm doing lots of things, but are they the right ones? The horizons of focus answer it.
What the horizons are
Allen describes six levels at which we think about work and life. He uses a flying metaphor — the higher you go, the more you see and the fewer details you can make out:
| Horizon | Question | How often to look |
|---|---|---|
| Actions (ground) | What will I physically do now? | Daily |
| Projects | Which outcomes am I driving right now? | Weekly |
| Areas of responsibility | Which roles and areas do I maintain over time? | Monthly |
| Goals (1–2 years) | What do I need to move forward this year? | Quarterly |
| Vision (3–5 years) | Where do I want to be? | Yearly |
| Purpose and principles | Why am I doing all this? | Yearly, or at a big life change |
In AltoFocus we added one more level on top — legacy: what you leave behind. It's optional, but for many people it's the strongest anchor, and the other levels follow from it more easily.
Why it doesn't work on paper
The horizons make sense, but in practice they fall apart. Your goals sit in a January document, your vision in your head, your tasks in an app. Nothing connects them, so in the weekly review you check deadlines, not direction. A year later you find that the project "learn pottery" never existed, because it never got a first step.
The key isn't having the horizons written down. The key is a thread between them: every project belongs to an area and ideally points at a goal; every goal serves the vision. When the thread is missing, that's a signal.
Getting started in 20 minutes
Don't start at the top. Start in the middle, with areas, because they're the most concrete:
- List your areas. The roles you maintain over time: work, health, family, finances, home, learning. There are usually 6–10. An area never ends — you never finish "health".
- Assign projects. Put every active project under one area. If it fits nowhere, maybe an area is missing — or the project makes no sense.
- Write two or three goals for the year. Not ten. A goal is an outcome with a date: "Run a half marathon by June", not "run more".
- Write your vision and purpose in one sentence each. Imperfect is fine. You'll refine them in your yearly look back.
Done. Don't waste time polishing wording — the horizons are a tool, not an essay.
Gaps are the most valuable information
Once the thread exists, two kinds of gaps become visible:
- Actions without vision — projects that lead to no goal and belong to no area. Some are fine (you simply have to change the tyres), but when it's half of them, you're living reactively.
- Vision without actions — goals with no active project beneath them. Those are wishes, not goals.
AltoFocus shows both gaps right on the Horizons screen and at the end of the weekly review. You don't have to fix them immediately. Seeing them is enough — just noticing that the goal "more time with the kids" has not a single project is often what gets you to plan one on Friday.
How much time to give it
The horizons aren't daily work. A sensible rhythm:
- Daily you work on the ground: Today, next actions.
- Weekly, in the review, you go through projects and glance at the gaps (5 extra minutes).
- Quarterly you check your goals — are they still the right ones?
- Yearly you sit down with vision and purpose, ideally away from your desk.
If the horizons take more than a few minutes a week, you're turning them into a project. Don't.
Keeping the horizons private
One practical note: the horizons are personal. Your vision and values don't belong in a shared team tool. That's why in AltoFocus everything above projects stays yours, even when you share a project with a colleague. You share the work, not yourself.
Summary
- The horizons answer "am I doing the right things?", not "am I doing things right?".
- Start with areas, then two or three goals, then vision in one sentence.
- Look for gaps: actions without vision and vision without actions.
- Five minutes a week, one afternoon a year. That's all it takes.