Concept
Hard Landscape
The hard landscape is David Allen's name for the calendar as the part of your day that does not move, holding only time-specific actions, day-specific actions, and day-specific information so that every entry on it stays true.
In Getting Things Done, the calendar is protected territory, and only three kinds of thing get in. First, actions tied to a time, like the dentist at 14:00. Second, actions that must happen on a particular day but at any hour, like paying a deposit on the 15th. Third, information you'll need that day, like the door code for an office you're visiting or the fact that a colleague is on leave. Anything you'd merely like to do "sometime today" belongs on your next-action lists. Why so strict? Once wishes land on the calendar, they roll over undone, and you learn the calendar lies. Then you stop trusting it and start re-checking everything in your head. A calendar that holds only real commitments can be believed at a glance. The open time around it is yours to fill from your lists, based on context, energy and time available.
A real-life example
Maya, a project manager, starts Monday with "write report," "call supplier" and "update deck" blocked on her calendar alongside a 10:00 client call. By Wednesday, half those blocks have been dragged forward twice. She moves them to her next-action list. What remains is the client call, a visa appointment Thursday at 9:00, an invoice due Friday, and a note that her designer is off Tuesday. Now one glance tells her the truth.
How to use it
- 1Go through the next two weeks and ask of each entry: does this truly have to happen on this day or at this time? If not, move it to the right list.
- 2Add day-specific information, such as codes, addresses and who is away, as all-day notes rather than events.
- 3Each morning, fill the open time from your next-action lists instead of pre-scheduling hopes.