Three Horizons
Mapping

Career & Professional Tools

A worksheet for mapping where your attention actually lives across three
time horizons — and what that reveals about the work ahead.

Where This Tool Helps

Most clients who describe themselves as "considering a pivot" have spent a great deal of time in Horizon 1 — managing what exists, keeping it running, responding to what the current work demands. Horizon 2, the zone where a possible next direction gets tested and developed, often turns out to be nearly empty. Not because the client lacks curiosity or ambition, but because Horizon 1 is loud and Horizon 2 requires a different kind of attention that the current pace has crowded out.

This worksheet makes that visible. When you fill in all three columns honestly, the distribution itself carries information. Clients who discover their Horizon 2 column is thin — a few vague phrases, a curiosity named but never followed up on — often recognize in that moment that they have been telling themselves a story about a pivot they have not yet started making. The column isn't a problem to fix. It is a signal worth looking at before making any larger decisions about direction.

The three horizons are not deadlines or planning buckets. Horizon 1 is what currently demands your attention. Horizon 2 is what is emerging — possibly attractive, not yet committed to, needing some kind of real-world test. Horizon 3 is further out and more exploratory, operating at the level of curiosity rather than readiness. People in active transition usually have a fully populated Horizon 1 and a Horizon 3 that has been thought about at length. The under-examined column is almost always Horizon 2.

The steps below are designed around that pattern — starting where your attention already is, then working forward into the zones that have had less deliberate thought.

How to Use This Worksheet

  1. Fill Horizon 1 first, completely. Write down what demands your attention this quarter. What is the current work asking of you? What does success in your current role look like six months from now? Don't rush past this column — it tells you what you're actually managing, and most people underestimate how much is there.
  2. Move to Horizon 3 before Horizon 2. Write down what you are curious about at the longer horizon — what you might want to know more about in 18 months or more. Horizon 3 is low-commitment curiosity. This column is easier to fill than Horizon 2 for most people, and filling it first can help Horizon 2 come into sharper focus.
  3. Fill Horizon 2 last, and slowly. What is actually emerging as a possible direction? What signals are you seeing? What conversation would let you test whether it is real? If this column stays thin or vague after genuine effort, that is the information. Don't fill it with aspirational filler.
  4. Complete the time-allocation estimate at the bottom. Assign rough percentages to each horizon based on where your attention actually goes — not where you wish it went. The three numbers should sum to 100.
  5. Bring the completed worksheet to your next session. The coach will not interpret it for you. What you notice about the distribution, and what that observation opens for you, is the work.
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Three Horizons Mapping Worksheet

Horizon 1
What is keeping the current work running
What demands your attention this quarter?
What energy is the current work taking?
What does success in your current role look like in the next 6 months?
Horizon 2
What is emerging as a possible direction
What is emerging as a possible direction?
What signals are you seeing that point toward it?
What conversation or experiment would let you test whether it is real?
What would a first experiment look like?
Horizon 3
What is on the longer horizon as curiosity or exploration
What is on the longer horizon as curiosity?
What draws you back to it?
What would it take 18+ months to know whether to pursue?

Time-Allocation Estimate

Where does your actual attention go — not where you wish it went? The three should sum to 100.

Horizon Current % of attention
Horizon 1 — Current work %
Horizon 2 — Emerging direction %
Horizon 3 — Longer-range curiosity %
Total 100%
What do you notice about this distribution?
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Before Your Next Session

Reflection Prompts

Which horizon is getting the least attention — and what does it cost you to keep it that way? If your Horizon 2 column is thin, what is one conversation you could have in the next two weeks that would give it more substance?

Look at the gap between your time-allocation estimate and what you wrote in each column. Where does your description of your direction not match where your weeks actually go?

Notes on the first prompt
Notes on the second prompt
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