The Problem with "Someday Maybe" Lists

[Dave Edwards]

Have you ever looked at your "Someday Maybe” list and felt completely overwhelmed? What started as a place to capture future dreams and ideas—learning a new language, writing a book, or traveling the world—has turned into an ever-growing, guilt-inducing black hole. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably added to this list for years, rarely revisiting it, and now you wonder: “Will I ever actually do any of these things? “

When my Someday Maybe list became unmanageable, I turned to David Allen, for advice. His response? Sometimes, you just need to let go.

Watch The Video

 

[Gardener]

I don't find Someday/Maybe overwhelming, possibly because I divide it.

I have 25 Someday/Maybe lists with a total of 908 items--and that's just my personal stuff. They're all in a "list" context that is On Hold, so I don't ever see them on a normal day.

The lists have titles like:

Finance Thoughts
Paperwork Thoughts
Computer Thoughts
Other Thoughts
Food Ideas
Travel Ideas
Garden Ideas
Sewing Ideas
Movies and TV
Other Media
Books
Gifts
On Deck

and so on and so on and so on. "On Deck" is for stuff that I think I'm actually reasonably likely to pick up soon--a prediction that usually turns out to be false, so it gets cleaned out periodically.

I also don't really bother to distinguish between actionable, reference, and in-between.

I know that the vast majority of those things will never happen, but that's OK; I'm happy to have them in the lists, so that they're there if I have the time and desire to pick up something new.

That doesn't mean that I don't delete things or compress things. I've stopped collecting perfume or blogging about perfume, so I no longer have a dedicated "perfumes to try" list--now the occasional perfume mention that makes me say, "ooh" goes in my "Shopping (theoretical)" list. When I go through lists once a quarter or once a year, I'll delete stuff. But the presence of that stuff wasn't really a problem.

 

[TesTeq]

The older you are your Someday/Maybe list gets shorter and more focused. Or at least it should. You realize that things take time and your time supply is running out each second, minute, day, month, and year…

 

[gtdstudente]

Appropriately clear Purposes help to keep Areas-of-Focus appropriately clear which helps to keep Someday/Maybe list(s) appropriately clear ?