Common GTD Mistake #1: Someday/Maybe does not mean just Maybe

One of my many, many, ill-fitting hats is "GTD advocate". GTD is a system for managing your personal workflow. If you haven't heard of GTD before, check out this post at GetRichSlowly.org, or the more abstract description from Wikipedia.

I thought I'd start a little series of GTD tips, with this observation:

Someday/Maybe does not mean just Maybe.

GTD has a "Someday/Maybe" category, but a lot of people avoid putting their projects into that category because they think that means the project might never get done. They're imagining that Someday/Maybe is like saying, "someday, maybe, I'll do this thing". Not so! The slash means "or", so putting something in that category can also be like saying "I will (definitely) do this some day".

One of the reasons for the Someday/Maybe list is to keep your Next Action lists as short as possible. When you have a less urgent project that you know you aren't going to get to for a few weeks, you should move that project to the Someday/Maybe list. It takes away the actions you know you aren't going to do (just yet), and makes it easier to decide what you will do.

Don't be scared of putting definite projects in to Someday/Maybe. Remember that you look at every project at your weekly review, so at worst you're only ignoring the project for one week.

So use Someday/Maybe for more than just "Learn the viola", use it for your Not Until Next Month projects — your Next Action lists and your life will both get simpler!