Projects. The Organizing Unit

How projects structure your work and relate to everything else

Projects are Layer 3 of the Foundry work hierarchy: Mission → Strategic Priority → Project → Initiative → Opportunity → Commitment.

Projects are the primary organizing unit for committed work. Ideas, assets, decisions, commitments, and journal entries can all be linked to a project. A project represents a distinct, time-boxed initiative, something you are actively doing, not thinking about doing.

• ACTIVE: Currently in motion


• PARKED: Paused, not abandoned


• COMPLETED: Finished, triggers the closing reflection flow


• ARCHIVED: Abandoned or irrelevant

Every project should have an energy type. This is a strategic classification, not a mood:

• Compounding, builds skills, audience, IP, or systems


• Draining, takes more than it gives (client work, maintenance contracts)


• Neutral, necessary but neither compounding nor draining


• Maintenance, keeping existing things running

The project journal is a private chronological record. Use it for:

• Weekly progress notes


• Blockers and how you resolved them


• Context that doesn't fit in a formal decision log


• Pre-mortem notes if a project stalls

Each active project has a health score (0-100), computed from:

• Journal frequency (40%). How recently have you logged progress?


• Commitment completion rate (35%). Are you keeping your promises?


• Decision recency (25%). How recently have you logged a decision for this project?

The Architecture page (linked from the Projects page header) shows a visual map of your entire project portfolio.

Two views:

• Interactive. A canvas diagram where you can pan, zoom, and drag project nodes to rearrange them. Hierarchical connections between parent and child projects are drawn as smooth curved lines. Cross-project relationships (created via the Relationships page) appear as yellow dashed curves that arc above or below the diagram to avoid crossing through nodes. Use the "Reset" button to restore the auto-layout.


• Simple. A static card tree with connecting lines. Good for a quick glance at your hierarchy without interactivity.

What to look for:

• Orphan projects with no children and no links, are they strategically isolated?


• Dense clusters of yellow relationship lines, these projects are interdependent and should be considered together


• Parked projects (shown at reduced opacity), are they truly parked or just forgotten?

Never closing projects. Projects that are truly done should be COMPLETED. This triggers the closing reflection ritual and clears them from your active view.

Using projects as categories. Projects should be time-boxed initiatives, not permanent folders. "Marketing" is not a project. "Q2 Launch Campaign" is.