In his book, Getting Things Done, David Allen writes about how our priorities will be determined by our perspective on the work we’re doing. This can be done from a number of different levels, or altitudes, and he uses an aerospace analogy to illustrate:
- 50k+ feet – Life, Mission, Purpose
- 40k feet – 3-5 yr visions
- 30k feet – 1-2 yr goals
- 20k feet – Areas of Responsibility
- 10k feet – Current Projects
- Runway – Current Actions
Each of these levels should align with the ones above it: what we’re doing in the short-term should bear some connection with the longer-term direction we want to go. If they doesn’t, we may need to rethink what we’re doing.
In an ideal world, we would start at the top, and work all the way to the nitty-gritty of what we’re doing today. For instance: What’s my purpose in life? And how does that affect my long-term goals? And how does that influence my short-term goals and the projects I take on? And how does all that relate to what I choose to do today? etc.
However, if we try to do this without having a sense of control at the implementation levels—being able to trust ourselves to effectively handle all the current actions and projects on our plate—trying to manage from the top down can end up creating additional frustration.
Instead, from a practical perspective, it’s often effective to start at the bottom and first get a handle or all the things we’re currently responsible for. For instance, we can start getting all the things we need to do out of our head and onto paper; we can set up some kind of system to help us keep track of our commitments so that nothing falls through the cracks. It’s in doing things like this, and getting a firm handle of all the things we have to do in the short-term, that can actually help clear some mental space and give us the ability to better focus our attention on our life and work from the other, higher-level perspectives.
Yes, it’s important we see things from a much higher altitude than the just the urgent things that need to be done today. And being able to clean up the mental clutter and get clear on exactly what’s at the runway level can often be a big help in getting there.