Concept
Someday/Maybe List
A Someday/Maybe list is a parking place for ideas and projects you might want to pursue but have not committed to yet, kept apart from your active lists so they cannot crowd today and reviewed every week so they are not forgotten.
In David Allen's Getting Things Done, everything you capture gets a decision: do it, delegate it, schedule it or drop it. Some items fit none of those. Learning Italian, redoing the balcony or starting a podcast are things you are not saying no to, but not saying yes to either. If they sit on your next-actions list, they turn into quiet guilt. They become verbs you skip past every day and never do, and that teaches you to distrust the whole list. If you keep them only in your head, your mind keeps reminding you at three in the morning. The Someday/Maybe list solves both problems. It is a deliberate "not now" that is honest about your capacity and safe enough that letting go feels possible. The weekly review is what makes it trustworthy. You scan the list, promote what's ripe and delete what no longer pulls at you.
A real-life example
Maya runs nine active projects and dreads opening her next-actions list. While processing her inbox she spots "start a newsletter," "learn sourdough" and "redo the guest room." None has a deadline, and none is happening this month. She moves all three to Someday/Maybe, and her active list drops from 48 items to 31. Four weeks later, in her weekly review, the newsletter still tugs at her. She promotes it with a first next action: "list five topics."
How to use it
- 1When processing your inbox, ask of each item: "Am I committed to this in the next few weeks?" If not, and you don't want to delete it, move it to Someday/Maybe.
- 2Keep it outside your active project and context lists, as one list or a few by theme (trips, books, skills).
- 3Scan it in every weekly review. Promote what's ready by giving it a next action, and delete what has gone stale without guilt.