Focus. The Sustainability Dashboard
Strategic Priority lives here. So does the burnout early-warning system.
By the end of this module
What Focus Actually Measures
Focus is the Strategic Priority surface (Layer 2 in the six-layer work hierarchy). It does not track what you did today. It does not tell you what to work on next. It answers exactly one question:
> Is the portfolio of work you're currently committed to actually sustainable, and is the right thing at the top?
If the answer is yes, Focus is quiet and you keep executing. If the answer is no, Focus is where you find out, usually before your body or your relationships do.
Capacity: Pick a Smaller Number
Your capacity profile has two settings:
- Max Active Projects, the count of projects you can genuinely push forward in a given week.
- Focus Lane, the one project you designate as primary. It pins to the top of Today.
Most founders default to 5+ and overload by week two. The honest numbers from the field:
| Max | Reality |
|---|---|
| ----- | --------- |
| 1 | Heroic single-focus mode. Sustainable for sprint phases, hard for the long haul. |
| 2 | The sweet spot for most solo operators. Allows long-horizon work + opportunistic work. |
| 3 | Defensible if one of the three is in maintenance mode. Otherwise you're rationalizing. |
| 4+ | You are running an agency in your head, whether you call it that or not. |
When you exceed your set max, OVERLOAD_ALERT fires as a High-priority recommendation. The alert is a constraint you set on yourself. Foundry won't block project creation, but the warning is on you to resolve, not dismiss.
Hub Projects and Ripple Effects
Each project card surfaces its cross-project relationships in a yellow box: "supports", "derived from", "affects", "blocked by", etc. These are created on the Relationships page.
Why this matters on Focus: a project with 3+ links is a hub. Parking or archiving a hub project ripples through everything connected to it. Before you change a hub's status, read the yellow links and ask:
- If I park this, what stalls?
- If I close this, what loses its source?
- If I rename this, what else needs context?
The Architecture diagram (linked from the Projects header) shows the full network. Focus shows the per-project view. Use Focus for capacity changes; use Architecture to understand the topology.
Open Loops
Open Loops is the count of RAW ideas waiting for triage. It's an upstream cue: if open loops exceed your weekly triage capacity, you are capturing faster than you process. That isn't bad in a burst (a busy week, a strong week of customer calls), but if it persists for a month, you're building a backlog you won't catch up on.
Use it as a forcing function. When open loops cross ~15, schedule a 30-minute triage block this week, not next.
Common Mistakes
Misclassifying energy. The most common error is calling a client retainer NEUTRAL when it's DRAINING. The rule of thumb: if it pays the bills but you're glad when the call ends, it's draining. Honest classification is the whole reason the energy field exists.
Dismissing OVERLOAD_ALERT. Don't. It's the clearest sign in the system. If you dismiss it, you're telling yourself you're an exception to your own rule.
No declared Focus Lane. Without one, every project feels equally primary, which means none of them are. Pick the lane even if you'd rather not, the act of choosing is the value.
Energy Mix Patterns
Practice Checkpoints
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Next in Foundations Path
Commitments. The Layer 6 Promise Ledger
External promises sit at their own layer because they cost relationships, not just hours.