Pursuits · Planning · HourLife Premium
Every maybe gets a stage, a clock and an ending.
Track the openings worth a closer look, move each one from Radar to Pursuing, and close it as won, passed, or expired.
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Four stages, one pipelineRadar, Exploring, Evaluating, Pursuing. “Advance to” moves a pursuit on, “Back to” moves it back, and the journey log keeps the date of every step.
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A clock for each kindA trip is expected to move in three days, a business in thirty. When a pursuit sits in one stage for twice its kind's pace, Insights says it has gone quiet.
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A real endingMark it won, pass on it with a reason, or let the window expire. Wins and passes can write a Decision Record, and a win can become a goal.
Your first pursuit
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Tap “+”
Write it under “What's the pursuit?” and pick a kind, such as Career, Collaboration, Business or Travel.
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Say where it stands
Under “Where is it now?”, choose Radar, Exploring or Evaluating. Add a note and a decision deadline if you have one, then tap “Add”.
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Move it along
Open the card and tap “Advance to …” as it moves. Log calls and emails under “Activity”, and close it from the ⋯ menu when you decide.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Tap "+" and write the pursuit in "What's the pursuit?".
- 2 Pick a kind, such as Career, Collaboration, Business or Creative, and choose Radar, Exploring or Evaluating under "Where is it now?".
- 3 Add notes, a decision deadline and a linked person if you have them, then tap "Add".
- 4 Open the card and tap "Advance to Exploring" (and on) as it moves forward.
Six pursuits, one pipeline
Every pursuit sits in one of four stages, and each kind has a pace: three days for a trip, a month for a business. Let the days pass and watch the dwell bars fill. Open a pursuit to advance it, step it back, log what you did, or close it as won, passed or expired, and see Insights and the Today card answer.
Sample · six live pursuits and three closed ones, on Tuesday, October 20
Insights
On Today
Wins and Archived
Each bar runs to three times the kind’s expected stay, with a tick at one and two. Past two, Insights calls the pursuit stale and the bar turns hatched coral. “Back to” is a stage change like any other, so it starts the clock again. Nothing here is saved; Reset goes back to October 20.
When a pursuit goes quiet
How long a pursuit can sit in one stage depends on its kind. Up to the expected stay all is well. Past twice that, Insights lists it under GOING STALE and System Health counts it as slow; past three times, it is stagnant.
Days in one stage, by kind
Travel3d expected · quiet after 6d
A month of remote work from Lisbon · 2 days in Evaluating
Collaboration7d expected · quiet after 14d
Co-build a habits dataset with RunLab · 4 days in Exploring
Creative7d expected · quiet after 14d
Write a quarterly product essay series · 10 days in Pursuing
Career14d expected · quiet after 28d
Lead engineer role at a robotics startup · 6 days in Evaluating
Investment14d expected · quiet after 28d
Education14d expected · quiet after 28d
Teach an evening course on product writing · 33 days in Radar · stale
Other14d expected · quiet after 28d
Business30d expected · quiet after 60d
Open a weekend coffee cart · 12 days in Radar
- Within the expected stay
- Past it
- Stale, slow in System Health
- Stagnant
- A sample pursuit today
The clock counts from the last stage change, not from the last activity: logging a call keeps a pursuit off the “quiet” rows of REVIEW NEXT, but only a move, forward or back, resets its days in stage.
The anti-goal check
Anti-goals live in Values: what you have promised yourself not to do. When you add a pursuit, its title and notes are checked against the active ones, and a match puts a banner on the sheet. It is a prompt, not a gate: you can still save. Type here and watch which words carry the match.
Sample · three active anti-goals in Values
Your anti-goals
- Never take work that keeps me away from home most weeksfrom value: Family comes first
- No commitments that eat into sleep or eveningsfrom value: Health is the foundation
- Avoid ventures funded with debtfrom value: Freedom over money
HOW IT MATCHES
Title and notes are lowercased and split at spaces and line breaks. Every piece longer than three letters is a keyword, and an anti-goal matches when its statement contains any keyword anywhere, even inside a longer word.
NEW PURSUIT
THE KEYWORDS
- co-build
- a
- habits
- dataset
- with
- runlab
- they
- have
- the
- runners,
- we
- have
- the
- questions.
Anti-goals surfacedNot a blocker — a prompt
- Avoid ventures funded with debtfrom value: Freedom over money
Does this fit?
The match is loose in both directions. “With” is a keyword, so a collaboration flags “Avoid ventures funded with debt”, and “evening” is found inside “evenings”. But punctuation stays on the word: “evenings.” with its full stop matches nothing. The check runs once, when the pursuit is added; editing it later checks nothing, and the flagged anti-goals show on its page under ANTI-GOALS FLAGGED.
What a decision deadline sets off
A pursuit needs no deadline, but one gives it a place outside its own page. Here is one deadline’s month: where it shows up in the 30 days before the day, and the week after, if you let it pass without deciding.
One deadline, 30 days out to 7 past
The pursuit’s page
“N days left”, in amber from 7 days out, then “Tomorrow” and “Today”. Once the day has passed it reads “Overdue”.
Countdowns
Every live pursuit with a deadline is also a countdown. Closing the pursuit takes it off.
Today
From 14 days out to the day itself: “… · decision in N days”, “Leaning: unsure” and “View opportunity”. One Pursuits card a day, the nearest deadline first, and a card rests for two days after it shows.
Insights
REVIEW NEXT and DECISIONS DUE take it from 14 days out: “decision due in Nd”. Past the deadline it goes to the top of both, and the page leads with “1 decision has blown past its deadline.”
System Health
Past the deadline, Settings › System Health counts it as an expired opportunity, and Quick Maintenance shows it as “EXPIRED OPPORTUNITY” with “Advance state”, “Pass intentionally” and “Mark expired”.
Closing the pursuit, as won, passed or expired, takes it off every row. System Health is the exception: it keeps counting a pursuit you closed as expired, because it checks the deadline and not the status.
Insights and Settings
Insights, from the ⋯ menu, opens on one headline and then PORTFOLIO, REVIEW NEXT, DECISIONS DUE, GOING STALE and OUTCOMES. Settings holds the defaults for a new pursuit and the cards the list shows.
Tips
- Give every live pursuit a decision deadline. Insights points out the ones without one, and "Window expired" is there for the ones that slip.
- Fill in "What would change this in future?" when you pass. It is saved on the Decision Record, so you can see later what would have made it a yes.
- In Settings, "Default home filter" opens Pursuits on one stage, and "New Pursuit Start Stage" sets where new ones begin.
Questions
About Pursuits day to day.
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What are the four stages?
Radar is something you have noticed, Exploring is finding out more, Evaluating is weighing it up, and Pursuing is going after it. A new pursuit can start in any of the first three; only “Advance to Pursuing” reaches the last.
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When does a pursuit count as gone quiet?
When it has spent more than twice its kind's expected time in one stage, counted from the last stage change. Travel expects 3 days, Collaboration and Creative 7, Career, Investment, Education and Other 14, and Business 30. Logging an activity does not reset the clock; moving the stage does.
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What is the difference between passing and letting it expire?
Passing is a decision: you say why, and what would change your mind. “Window expired” asks what happened. If you decided not to, it moves to Passed with your reason; if you ran out of time, it is archived as expired and reads “No decision made”.
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Will I be reminded before a decision deadline?
From 14 days out, Today can show the pursuit with “decision in N days” and “View opportunity”, one Pursuits card a day, nearest deadline first. The deadline is also a countdown, and Insights lists it under DECISIONS DUE.
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What happens when I mark a pursuit as won?
It moves to Wins with the reason you gave. “Also create a Goal from this” makes a goal from it, and “Create Decision Record?” saves the decision in Decisions. Both are on at first.
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Can I reopen a closed pursuit?
No. A won, passed or expired pursuit keeps its ending; its ⋯ menu keeps only the cover and Delete. Add a new pursuit if the chance comes back.
Works with
Where Pursuits hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Goals
"Mark as won" can also create a goal from the pursuit with "Also create a Goal from this".
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Decisions
Marking a pursuit won or passing on it creates a Decision Record unless you turn "Create Decision Record?" off.
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Values
New pursuits are checked against the anti-goals in your values, and any match is flagged on the pursuit.
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People
You can link a person when you add a pursuit. The link is kept with the pursuit, but its page does not show it yet.
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Countdowns
A live pursuit with a decision deadline also appears as a countdown.
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Today
A pursuit within 14 days of its decision deadline can appear on Today with "View opportunity".
Read and try
Books from the library that Pursuits puts into practice.
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Range David Epstein Epstein on sampling widely before you commit. Pursuits keeps the sample on a radar.
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So Good They Can't Ignore You Cal Newport Newport on building rare skills, then choosing among the openings they bring.
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What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles Bolles's long-running guide to finding work, for the openings worth pursuing.
What Color Is Your Parachute?
Richard Nelson Bolles
Already have HourLife?
Pursuits is under Planning in the module list, and it is a Premium module. The “+” adds a pursuit; the ⋯ menu holds “Insights”, “Wins”, “Archived” and “Settings”.
Pursuits is in the Library, under Planning. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules. It needs HourLife Premium.
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