Always look at Someday/Maybe?

[sdann]

I regularly do my weekly review. Yay me. The non-yay part is that I don't review my someday/maybe's each time. I have a short list of s/m's I call Future S/M that I do scan (thinking about it, I forgot to go through those last time), but I don't go through all the others. This weighs on me. Suddenly I'll think that I should have reviewed them. But, as is mostly the case, I say I'll just do it next weekly review.

Do others always scan their someday/maybe's during the weekly reviews? Can I give myself a little leeway on this?

[Barb]

My Someday/Maybes are looked at...someday maybe. I pretty much know that anything on there isn't going to bite me in the #&%$.

[kewms]

If you can't remember, put the list in your Tickler for your next review day.

(And no, I don't scan them every time either.)

Katherine

[GTDWorks]

I will sometimes run out of time and do a way-too-fast scan of the list. Helpful somewhat, but leaves a lot to be desired.

Once I get that gnawing feeling that I'm missing something, I open up my someday/maybe list (whichever day it is) and review it.

Maybe you could schedule a separate day to review the list and/or trust your intuition to motivate you to review the list whenever you feel to.

[Barb]

If you can't remember, put the list in your Tickler for your next review day.

(And no, I don't scan them every time either.)

Katherine

Oh, I remember...I just don't feel like it most of the time.

[Barb]

I will sometimes run out of time and do a way-too-fast scan of the list. Helpful somewhat, but leaves a lot to be desired.

Once I get that gnawing feeling that I'm missing something, I open up my someday/maybe list (whichever day it is) and review it.

Maybe you could schedule a separate day to review the list and/or trust your intuition to motivate you to review the list whenever you feel to.

I have long been in the habit of doing "clean and clear" the day before my actual weekly review. If I want or need to go to the "higher levels", I usually schedule that for yet another day too.

By breaking my WR into small bites, I find I don't skip them because they are repelling me.

[Brent]

I do check my Someday/Maybe list every time I do a full Weekly Review. I don't always do a full Weekly Review, though. :blush:

Now, I don't always read over and concentrate on every single item in my Someday/Maybe list during that review, especially if my Project list is already overflowing with work. I will scan for possibly completed items and recently added items (which I'm more likely to have made some progress on or that may need more immediate attention). And I may pull out something just for fun.

[Oogiem]

Do others always scan their someday/maybe's during the weekly reviews? Can I give myself a little leeway on this?

I scan my someday/maybes at every review which may be more often than weekly. I've been doing at least a mini review about 3 times a week since mid Feb.

But it's partly because I'm struggling with 2 warring thoughts on how to handle stuff.

One is I should have only things I can actually do in one week on my NA list. And a similarly relatively small projects lists.

The other is load up the NA lists every project I will get to or could possibly be done in this basic season/weather or this month because I may have the opportunity to move a few projects along that weren't planned during my weekly review. Weather changes what is possible almost hourly.

The conflict between these 2 options means I've been looking at my someday maybe's a lot more often. Then again it's also spring, and we just bought a building in town that needs a lot of construction work we're trying to finish before lambing so my projects tripled or more since winter.

I'd vote for actually looking at them at least weekly. It doesn't take long to read the list. I did find though that I had to read it out loud, not skim it or I missed things. I've been reading my list to the sheep when I fill water tanks. I have a very attentive audience as I read it too. :-) I'll have to try to get hubby to take a picture of me and the flock GTD. I have a group of about 6 sheep who come over and stand around watching me when I'm reading out loud to them. Made me think of the flock of sheep in the Three Bags Full mystery. :-)

[clango]

Recently, after I read making it all work I become more selective. So, for me Someday/Maybe, is what it means. First Projects and then if I could or I would look at someday list

[abhay]

I recently decided to review someday/maybe monthly instead of weekly. Same reason: much longer than projects list; nothing is going to bite me; things don't change so fast. The month hasn't changed since, so I have not yet done it monthly!:)

[GTDWorks]

I've also found that by breaking my list S/Maybe list down into 3 separate categories, that it's much friendlier for me to review at times other than my weekly review.

Here are my S/M Lists:

*Someday
*Someday/Maybe-Work
*Someday/Maybe-Special Project

[ellobogrande]

Do others always scan their someday/maybe's during the weekly reviews? Can I give myself a little leeway on this?

IMO, a thorough review of S/M MUST take place during each and every weekly review otherwise you won't trust it as an incubation tool. If you don't look at it seriously each week, you might miss something that needs to be activated at a given point in time. S/M needs the same attention as the Project list during weekly reviews. That's NON-NEGOTIABLE.

In my experience, I've found that lots of people make the mistake of treating the S/M list as a "blue sky" or "fantasy" list so they don't review it each week (or at least not thoroughly enough). They forget the "Someday" part of "Someday/Maybe". There are things on that list that MUST happen at some point, just not right now. Some of those things may have implicit deadlines or narrow windows of opportunity (weather conditions, for example). Neglect to review S/M each week and you may miss the opportunities.

I review every item on that list blow-by-blow each week and decide "No, not now" or "Yes, time to move on this." If yes, I move the project back to the Projects list, decide the next action, and park that reminder on the appropriate action list.

- Luke

[Brent]

Thanks for the comments!


I review every item on that list blow-by-blow each week and decide "No, not now" or "Yes, time to move on this."

Out of curiosity, how many items are on your Someday/Maybe list?

[GTDWorks]

154 on my list - that's after a THOROUGH purge this week while on vacation.

[Gardener]

I divide the timeliness of my stuff into three levels. (I went through this in excruciating detail in another post recently, but I realize that this is pretty much what it adds up to.)

So there's Current, for what I'm likely to work on this week. Idle, for what must be done and I won't work on this week. And Someday/Maybe (actually labelled Lists in my system) for fairly blue-sky stuff.

So Current and Idle should get reviewed every week. I'd like Someday/Maybe to also be reviewed every week, but in my automated system they're marked for review only monthly.

Gardener

[ellobogrande]

Thanks for the comments!



Out of curiosity, how many items are on your Someday/Maybe list?

Current count is 116. It's been up to 150+. I jettisoned quite a few last month.

[abhay]

I divide the timeliness of my stuff into three levels. (I went through this in excruciating detail in another post recently, but I realize that this is pretty much what it adds up to.)


Thanks! I think it will suit me.

Regards,
Abhay

[sdann]

I think the posts in this thread are great. Although some may sound contradicting, I don't think they are. In the end it seems to boil down to what frees your mind. I think I'll create several levels of Someday/Maybe's, definitely look at the upcoming/definite(for now) Someday's (and put it on my weekly review checklist!)Then I'll try to look at all S/Ms, Maybe's included, at least 2 times per month. Another problem that I realize I have with my S/Ms is that my roles have shifted and quite a few things need to be weeded out (that's a project though). All in all I think I'm going to completely reorganize my S/M lists. I'm doing a weekly review this weekend, so I'll see how it goes.

[clango]

in my automated system
Gardener

Thanks for your interesting posts, even if you are now "just do it".....;) ...i have a question for you...what happen when you are outdoor? Do you have also a portable "hardware" as, I know, you don't like paper? How can you bring your coming idea?

[eowyn]

My personal project list is divided into
- this weeks projects (currently 5 items)
- this weeks thinking about / planning projects (this week 0)
- started and stalled (currently 12)
- someday (should be done sometime) (20'ish)
- maybe (pie in sky stuff) (30'ish)
- reading list
- woodwork project list (very long, mostly one day maybe stuff)

[Gardener]

Thanks for your interesting posts, even if you are now "just do it".....;) ...i have a question for you...what happen when you are outdoor? Do you have also a portable "hardware" as, I know, you don't like paper? How can you bring your coming idea?

If I have a quick thought, I email it to myself using my phone (an iPhone), and then put it in OmniFocus when I get back. (OmniFocus can be configured to grab these emails automatically, thus eliminating one step, but I keep forgetting the syntax. :))

If I want to sit down and scribble a bunch of thoughts, I'll write them on a notepad that I usually carry - I don't absolutely reject paper, I just don't like to rely on it. So since my process doesn't include "check notepad", I'll email myself a quick mail to remind me to get those thoughts off my notepad.

I also have the ability to move notes onto my iPhone, for occasions when I need information while I'm out, but that's fairly rare - the only thing I usually need when I'm away from my computer is a shopping list. So I have yet to buy and configure the iPhone version of OmniFocus. Most of what I do with my phone could be done with any phone with some organization and syncing capabilities, or any PDA.

Gardener