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December 08, 2007
Getting the Water Just Right: The Someday Maybe List
I've noticed a broad theme about GTD, both in my own practice and in the coaching I provide to others: Keeping your GTD system healthy is all about recalibration.
In my own approach, I notice that it helps to always keep one eye on the look-out for how well my system and approach is serving me. Over time, things change in and around me. So I've got to make sure that I regularly recalibrate the agreements I make with myself to fit the environment and situation I'm in.
My experience of it is like an ongoing fine-tuning of the temperature of a shower in a house that has inconsistent plumbing. I've got to recalibrate my system regularly so I don't either burn myself or chill out too much.
If you know anything about the practice of the weekly review, you know that there's a lot of recalibration built in. In my weekly review I not only collect and process all of the stuff I haven't yet processed, but I also take a fresh look at all of the agreements I've made in the past and give myself the chance to change my mind. The weekly review is like the macro-level recalibration - and it's essential to keep things running.
Someday Maybe
One specific example of recalibrating during the weekly review has to do with the Someday Maybe list. I always try to keep a healthy give-and-take between the things on the Someday Maybe list and my Actions and Project lists. The Someday Maybe list is like the release-valve of my commitments. If I'm doing a weekly review and I notice that I'm starting to reach capacity in terms of workload versus energy, it's time to recalibrate and shift some things that were once committed projects into Someday Maybe mode. I can always tell that I need to do this when my overall feeling of relaxed control starts to morph into the beginnings of a slight feeling of anxiety (Yes, even a DavidAllen coach feels anxiety sometimes). I can actually feel it in my body. And when I do, that's an important signal for me to start recalibrating and renegotiating those agreements.
Of course the opposite is true as well. When my schedule and bandwidth start opening up and my energy starts to be available for more commitments, one of the first things I do is hunt on my Someday Maybe list for some juicy bits for which I've been hoping to have time.
Have you ever noticed that when you don't have a lot to do, you do proportionally less with your time? Recalibration is about keeping your commitments at just the right level so that you're not swamping yourself and you're not succumbing to laziness.
Posted by mdolan at December 8, 2007 02:10 PM
Comments
Michael:
Interesting approach. I like the idea of a "release-valve". My own way of doing this is limiting my project list to three projects (outside of my day job).
On the other hand, call me a heretic but I've abandoned Someday/Maybe. I give everything a date when I want to revisit it. For me about this see my post:
http://craighuggart.typepad.com/tech_yourself_to_rest/2007/10/apocalypse-now-.html
Craig
Posted by: Craig Huggart at December 20, 2007 05:35 AM
