Buzz
If your to-do list is overflowing with tasks that are meant to be done 'someday,' it’s time to either schedule them or remove them entirely from your list.
I follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, which encourages creating a 'someday/maybe' list for tasks you aim to complete at some point in the future. (Maybe.)
This approach also recommends a weekly review of all your pending to-do lists, including your someday/maybe list. So every week, I go over tasks like 'renew passport' and 'research how to speak at FinCon' and decide that these would happen 'someday' (like renewing my passport, which isn’t expiring until June 2020) or 'maybe' (figuring out how to speak at FinCon).
I decided to impose a new rule on myself: anything on my someday/maybe list must either be scheduled or removed. In essence, 'someday/maybe' becomes either 'this exact day' or 'not at all.'
For instance, I will finalize the DS-82 Passport Renewal Application on November 1. On November 4, I’ll review the FinCon website for speaker application details. These tasks are now added to my calendar and ready for completion on the assigned dates.
Conversely, I’ve chosen not to sift through my books and figure out if I want to sell any. This task had been lingering on my someday/maybe list for almost a year, but now it's been removed. I no longer need to ponder every week whether it’s still something I want to do, because I’ve already decided it’s not a priority for me at this moment.
This leads to the obvious concern: what if November 1 arrives and I haven’t completed my passport renewal? I’ve been using a scheduled to-do list for over four years (meaning every task has a designated date and time), so I have a system to reschedule tasks that aren’t completed on the originally planned day.
I simply find the next available time slot on my to-do list and move the task there.
In some situations, I determine that a particular task no longer holds any value, and I completely remove it from the list.
I recognize that this task management approach might not suit everyone. However, here's an additional tip for those looking to implement a similar method: consider scheduling your someday/maybes for a broader time frame, such as a specific month, rather than a specific date. Since I can’t predict my workload a few months ahead, setting items for 'December' rather than a precise date like 'December 8' works better. This is part of my general approach to long-term planning; I already have a list of things I know will need to be done in December, and closer to the end of November, I’ll allocate specific dates and times for each task.
No matter how you organize your own calendar or to-do lists, the key is to get as many tasks off the 'someday' list as possible. It feels rewarding to finally tackle something that's been hanging around for months, but even more satisfying is deciding that you’ll never do it.
Moreover, clearing items from your to-do list (whether you complete them or not) opens up space for new opportunities—and a fresh batch of things you’d like to tackle someday.
