Someday·Maybe

Someday/Maybe names the deliberate practice of setting aside an idea without either committing to it now or losing it. It functions as a holding place for future possibilities: a way to clear undecided matters from immediate attention while keeping them visible for later review. The distinction is consequential. A well-maintained list can preserve creative options and help them meet the moment when action becomes possible; an unreviewed “Hold and Review” pile instead turns the same promise of future attention into a source of numbness and resistance.

Definition and Purpose

Someday/Maybe is one of two incubation systems for matters that require no immediate action but are worth keeping. The other is a tickler file, which resurfaces an item on a designated future date. A list is suited to possibilities that may be reconsidered periodically rather than acted on at once: it parks projects that are impossible to move forward with now but not worth forgetting. This is not a category for everything unfinished. Its defining condition is that no action is currently required, while the possibility itself remains of interest.

The practice responds to the pressure created by unresolved matters. The mind’s short-term memory holds incomplete, undecided, and unorganized “stuff,” but its capacity is limited; when too much remains there, attention is disrupted by internal overload. Recording an undecided possibility externally gives it a place outside that limited mental space. The point is not to force a decision about every appealing idea. It is to make the decision to defer explicit and trustworthy, so the mind need not keep rehearsing the possibility simply to avoid forgetting it.

What the List Holds

The range of possible entries runs from substantial projects to personal interests. Examples include learning Spanish, getting Marcie a horse, climbing Mt. Washington, and building a guest cottage. A partial list also includes getting a bass-fishing boat and creating promotional videos of staff. Elsewhere, possibilities include a special trip, books to read, projects for the next fiscal year, and skills or talents to develop. These examples make the category broader than a backlog of work: it can preserve ambitions and sources of pleasure as well as deferred responsibilities.

Ideas can enter the list during a mind-sweep, when a person collects matters occupying attention but not yet organized into commitments. Some will be things the person is not sure they want to commit to at all. Rather than force a yes-or-no decision immediately, the system permits the possibility to be recorded and held for reconsideration. The book recommends creating the list in the chosen organizing system and populating it with the ideas already present. Starting to fill it can itself prompt further creative ideas, because possibilities have been given a visible place instead of being left to memory.

Review and Resurfacing

The list only works if it is reviewed periodically. A recurring scan during the Weekly Review brings its contents back into conscious awareness, allowing the person to reconsider which possibilities still matter and whether circumstances now permit action. Without that return, a list may technically preserve information but fail in its practical purpose: an item that never resurfaces is not meaningfully available for reconsideration.

A tickler file offers a different kind of reminder. It can function like mailing an item to oneself for receipt on a chosen day, and the calendar can serve a similar role. For example, a reminder can be placed on March 15 to note that taxes are due in a month, or on September 12 to note that Swan Lake will be presented by the Bolshoi at the Civic Auditorium in six weeks. A date-specific trigger suits something whose future relevance has a likely point of return; the Someday/Maybe list suits possibilities that need ongoing, periodic reconsideration rather than one predetermined reminder.

An earlier example clarifies the choice. A brochure advertises a local symphony’s upcoming season, and a program of interest is four months away. The person is unsure whether travel plans will allow attendance, but would like to go if in town. Since no immediate decision or action is possible, the program can be incubated rather than confused with an active commitment. Its future value remains conditional on the schedule, and the system’s role is to let that possibility reappear when it can be reassessed.

Creative Possibility and Action

Someday/Maybe is not a discard pile. The book emphasizes that its entries may become some of the most interesting and creative things a person takes on. A possibility written down can shape attention: when an opportunity arises, it is easier to recognize and seize if the idea has already been identified as something worth considering. The book’s examples of learning to play the flute and learning to sail big boats began in this category. They illustrate how a deferred idea can eventually become part of lived activity, without the list itself guaranteeing or requiring that outcome.

The list draws on two sources in particular: the creative imagination and current projects. A person can inventory what might be desirable someday if time, money, and inclination permit, while also noticing possibilities suggested by work already underway. Lists of wines, restaurants, or books can sit at the boundary between reference and Someday/Maybe: they are available to consult as reference, but may also be reviewed to prompt an experience later. This overlap does not erase the distinction between action and nonaction. It shows instead that a possibility can be preserved for value and variety without becoming a present obligation.

The Cost of Neglected Holding

The chief danger is allowing Someday/Maybe to collapse into a vague “Hold and Review” file, drawer, or pile. People may place material there on the assumption that they will get to it when they have time; in practice, the material is often held but not reviewed. The resulting stack can acquire numbness and resistance, and the value of incubation disappears when conscious attention is never brought back to its contents.

A catchall holding place also conceals misclassified material. On examination, some contents may be trash; others may belong in Read/Review, in reference files, on the calendar, in a tickler file, or among matters that already have next actions. Some items may need a next action now rather than indefinite deferral. Processing such a drawer or file can reveal that nothing actually belongs in it. The distinction between a maintained Someday/Maybe list and an undifferentiated bucket is therefore operational, not cosmetic: one preserves choices for deliberate review, while the other hides decisions and obligations in a mass of unexamined material.

The system’s significance rests on holding two ideas together: a possibility need not become a commitment today, and postponement need not mean forgetting. Regular review supplies the link between those ideas. Without it, the list is merely storage; with it, deferred possibilities remain available to be accepted, revised, or left aside when their time comes.