GettingThings Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

'Someday/Maybe' List

It's highly likely that if you did a complete mind-sweep when you were collecting things out of your psychic RAM, you came up with some things you're not sure you want to commit to. 'Learn Spanish,' 'Get Marcie a horse,' 'Climb Mt, Washington,' and 'Build a guest cottage' are typical projects that fall into this category.

If you haven't already done it, I recommend that you create a 'Someday/Maybe' list in whatever organizing system you've chosen. Then give yourself permission to populate that list with all the items of that type that have occurred to you so far. You'll probably discover that simply having the list and starting to fill it out will cause you to come up with all kinds of creative ideas.

You may also be surprised to find that some of the things you write on the list will actually come to pass, almost without your making any conscious effort to make them happen. If you acknowledge the power of the imagination to foster changes in perception and performance, it's easy to see how having a 'Someday/Maybe' list out in front of your conscious mind could potentially add many wonderful adventures to your life and work. We're likely to seize opportunities when they arise if we've already identified and captured them as a possibility. That has certainly been my own experience: learning to play the flute and how to sail big boats both started in this category for me. In addition to your in-basket, there are two rich sources to tap for your 'Some-day/Maybe' list: your creative imagination and your list of current projects.

Make an Inventory of Your Creative Imaginings What are the things you really might want to do someday if you have the time, money, and inclination? Write them on your have 'Someday/ Maybe' list. Typical categories include:

• Things to get or build for your home

• Hobbies to take up

• Skills to learn

• Creative expressions to explore

• Clothes and accessories to buy

• Toys (gear!) to acquire

• Trips to take

• Organizations to join

• Service projects to contribute to

• Things to see and do

Reassess Your Current Projects Now's a good time to review your 'Projects' list from a more elevated perspective (that is, the standpoint of your job and goals) and consider whether you might transfer some of your current commitments to 'Someday/Maybe.' If on reflection you realize that an optional project doesn't have a chance of getting your attention for the next months or more, move it to this list.

What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.

 Special Categories of 'Someday/Maybe'

More than likely you have some special interests that involve lots of possible things to do. It can be fun to collect these on lists. For instance:

• Food—recipes, menus, restaurants, wines

• Children—things to do with them

• Books to read

• CDs to buy

• Videos to buy/rent

• Cultural events to attend

• Gift ideas

• Garden ideas

• Web sites to surf

• Weekend trips to take

• Meeting ideas

• Party ideas

• Ideas—Misc. (meaning you don't know where else to put them!)

 These kinds of lists can be a cross between reference and 'Someday/Maybe'—reference because you can just collect and add to lists of good wines or restaurants or books, to consult as you like; 'Someday/Maybe' because you might want to review the listed items on a regular basis to remind yourself to try one or more of them at some point.

In any case, this is another great reason to have an organizing system that makes it easy to capture things that may add value and variety and interest to your life—without clogging your mind and work space with undecided, unfinished business.

The Danger of 'Hold and Review' Files and Piles

Many people have created some sort of 'Hold and Review' pile or file (or whole drawer) that vaguely fits within the category of 'Someday/Maybe.' They tell themselves, 'When I have time, I may like to get to this,' and a 'Hold and Review' file seems a convenient place to put it. I personally don't recommend this particular kind of subsystem, because in virtually every case I have come across, the client 'held' but didn't 'review,' and there was numbness and resistance about the stack. The value of 'someday/ maybe' disappears if you don't put your conscious awareness back on it with some consistency.

Also, there's a big difference between something that's man-aged well, as a 'Someday/Maybe' list, and something that's just a catchall bucket for 'stuff.' Usually much of that stuff needs to be tossed, some of it needs to go into 'Read/Review,' some needs to be filed as reference, some belongs on the calendar or in a tickler file (see page 173) for review in a month or perhaps at the beginning of the next quarter, and some actually has next actions on it. Many times, after appropriately processing someone's 'Hold and Review' drawer or file, I've discovered there was nothing left in it! 

Using the Calendar for Future Options

Your calendar can be a very handy place to park reminders of things you might want to consider doing in the future. Most of the people I've coached were not nearly as comfortable with their calendars as they could have been; otherwise they probably would have found many more things to put in there.

One of the three uses of a calendar is for day-specific information. This category can include a number of things, but one of the most creative ways to utilize this function is to enter things that you want to take off your mind and reassess at some later date. Here are a few of the myriad things you should consider inserting:

• Triggers for activating projects

• Events you might want to participate in

• Decision catalysts

Triggers for Activating Projects If you have a project that you don't really need to think about now but that deserves a flag at some point in the future, you can pick an appropriate date and put a reminder about the project in your calendar for that day. It should go in some day-specific (versus time-specific) calendar slot for the things you want to be reminded of on that day; then when the day arrives, you see the reminder and insert the item as an active project on your 'Projects' list. Typical candidates for this treatment are:

• Special events with a certain lead time for handling (product launches, fund-raising drives, etc.)

• Regular events that you need to prepare for, such as budget reviews, annual conferences, planning events, or meetings (e.g.,when should you add next year's 'annual sales conference' to your 'Projects' list?)

• Key dates for significant people that you might want to do some-thing about (birthdays, anniversaries, holiday gift-giving, etc.)

Events You Might Want to Participate In

You probably get notices constantly about seminars, conferences, speeches, and social and cultural events that you may want to decide about attending as the time gets closer. So figure out when that 'closer' time is and