The Someday/Maybe List
A parking lot for dreams, interests, and possibilities you're not ready to commit to yet
The Someday/Maybe List is one of the most liberating components of the GTD system. It is a designated holding space for any outcome you might want to pursue at some point but that you are not committed to acting on right now. By giving these items a legitimate home outside of both your active Projects list and your head, you accomplish two critical things: you preserve potentially valuable ideas without losing them, and you keep your Projects list focused exclusively on committed outcomes with active next actions.
Typical Someday/Maybe items range from the practical (learn Spanish, take a watercolor class, build a wine cellar) to the aspirational (set up a nonprofit foundation, take a trip through Montana, apprentice with a carpenter). Allen recommends maintaining subcategories as needed: books to read, wines to taste, weekend trips to take, CDs to buy, things to do with the kids, seminars to attend.
The critical discipline is reviewing the list regularly -- Allen recommends including it in every Weekly Review. This review serves multiple functions: it surfaces items whose time has come (promote to Projects), eliminates items that no longer interest you (delete), and most importantly, acts as a regular renegotiation of these agreements with yourself. When you see 'learn Spanish' on your Someday/Maybe list during your Weekly Review and consciously decide 'not this week,' you've renegotiated that agreement. Your brain can release it until next week's review.
- Not everything that interests you needs to be an active project. Having a legitimate holding space for possibilities reduces pressure and increases creativity.
- The list is only valuable if reviewed regularly. An unreviewed Someday/Maybe list is just a forgotten wish list.
- Promoting items from Someday/Maybe to Projects (and vice versa) is a normal, healthy part of life management.
- Deleting items that no longer interest you is as important as adding new ones. Your aspirations evolve -- so should your list.
- Create your Someday/Maybe listSet up a dedicated list (paper, digital, or file folder) for ideas, projects, and aspirations you're interested in but not currently committed to. Populate it with everything you've been carrying in your head as 'wouldn't it be nice if...' thoughts.Pro tipCreate subcategories for different types of items: books to read, places to visit, skills to learn, home improvements, creative projects, etc.
- During processing, route appropriate items to Someday/MaybeWhen processing your in-basket and you encounter something interesting that you might want to pursue but aren't ready to commit to, place it on the Someday/Maybe list rather than the Projects list or trash.Pro tipThis decision often feels uncomfortable because we want to feel committed to everything that interests us. The Someday/Maybe list gives you permission to be interested without being obligated.
- Review the list during every Weekly ReviewScan the entire list and make conscious decisions about each item. Promote items whose time has come to your active Projects list. Delete items that no longer hold interest. Consciously acknowledge the rest as 'not this week.'Pro tipThe act of seeing an item and saying 'not this week' is a renegotiation, not a broken agreement. This distinction is what makes the list psychologically powerful.WarningIf you never review the list, items will accumulate without conscious renegotiation, and the list becomes a source of guilt rather than possibility.
- Add new items freely and without guiltWhenever inspiration strikes -- a brochure arrives for a future concert, a friend mentions a fascinating hobby, you read about an interesting travel destination -- add it to the list without pressure. The list is meant to be a creative, expansive repository.
A brochure arrives for the upcoming symphony season. You browse it and notice a program four months away that interests you, but you can't commit because your travel schedule is uncertain. You put the brochure in your tickler file or add 'Check symphony schedule for April' to your Someday/Maybe list.
An entrepreneur maintains a rich Someday/Maybe list including business ideas, potential partnerships, technologies to explore, and markets to research. During a period of reduced workload, he reviews the list and identifies three items whose timing is now right.
Allen observed that people either suppressed their aspirations (creating invisible psychic pressure) or put them on their active to-do lists (creating overwhelm and guilt when they couldn't act on everything). The Someday/Maybe List emerged as a third option: a place where possibilities could exist without the pressure of commitment. Allen found that once people had this container, they became more creative and generative because they knew their ideas would be preserved and regularly reviewed, even if they weren't acted on immediately.