

Managing Someday/Maybe Lists with OmniFocus
April 11, 2018 | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT
Learn how to use OmniFocus to manage lists of things that youâd like to consider doing in the future, but that arenât actionable in the present. In the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, David Allen refers to these lists as âsomeday/maybe listsâ.
Overview of Live Session
This session is all about managing someday/maybe lists at a practical level and how you can use OmniFocus to ensure that these lists are reviewed periodically.
While someday/maybe lists can be stored in OmniFocus, it may be more practical to store at least some of these lists outside of OmniFocus. Weâll explore a variety of different scenarios and help you determine what will work best for you. And by participating in the live session youâll have the opportunity to ask questions and share your insights.
Capturing, Organizing and Getting Creative
As you process items that youâve captured in your inbox, youâll inevitably encounter things that that are not ready for action. This could include something as simple as an idea for a blog post to lofty dreams such as building a beautiful home by the sea or starting a new company.
Itâs important to have one or more places to keep track of all of the stuff that you want to revisit in the future.
Itâs equally important that you be intentional about reviewing these future aspirations. If your psyche trusts that youâre going to look at what youâve captured on a regular basis, youâll likely find that youâll have a greater capacity to focus on current projects and actions without pie-in-the-sky ideas stealing your mental focus.
As you review what youâve captured you can tap into your innate creativity and let your imagination soar. Youâll decide what to keep, what is ripe for further exploration and what to remove from the list. If find you accumulate more ideas than youâre likely to be able to accomplishing a lifetime, it might be time to give some away and/or start to think about expanding your team.
David Allen on Someday/Maybe Lists
In the book âGetting Things Doneâ, David Allen coined the term âSomeday/Maybeâ. He shares how ââŚit can be useful and inspiring to maintain an ongoing list of things you might want to do at some point but not nowâ. He goes on to say that ââŚthis is a âparking lotâ for projects that would be impossible to move on at present but that you donât want to forget about entirely. Youâd like to be reminded of the possibilities at regular intervalsâ.
“Activating and maintaining your Someday/Maybe category unleashes the flow of your creative thinkingâyou have permission to imagine cool things to do without having to commit to doing anything about them yet.”
â David Allen (from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity)
What Youâll Learn
Attend the live session and learn:
- Why itâs important to have someday/maybe lists.
- Advantages to storing someday/maybe lists in OmniFocus.
- Advantages to storing someday/maybe outside of OmniFocus (e.g. in apps like Evernote, Trello and Apple Notes).
- How to manage someday/maybe lists that are shared by a group of people (e.g. your family or a team at work).
- How often you need to review someday/maybe lists.
- How to use OmniFocus to ensure that both your individual and shared someday/maybe lists get the appropriate amount of attention.
- Best practices for reviewing your someday/maybe lists.
- Best practices for creating OmniFocus projects based on someday/maybe lists.
- And moreâŚ
Recommended Prerequisites
Especially if youâre new to OmniFocus, itâs recommended that you watch the recording of the Start Smart with OmniFocus session before attending this live session. You might also want to watch the recording of the OmniFocus: Beyond the Basics session.