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> When your list is hundreds of items long, and GTD tells you to prioritize every week, that is unsustainable. One of the nice things about GTD is that you mak

> When your list is hundreds of items long, and GTD tells you to prioritize every week, that is unsustainable. One of the nice things about GTD is that you make everything explicit. It quickly becomes obvious when you have too many active projects, nudging you to decide which project are really worth doing. The same goes for having too many next actions. > It's the GTD for the non-work stuff that explodes. Great if you're actually getting all that non-work stuff done, but I just can't imagine you're doing hundreds of non-work items each week.

BeetleB 4y ago
> It quickly becomes obvious when you have too many active projects The issue I'm discussing isn't the number of active projects, but the number of someday/maybe projects. > Great if you're actually getting all that non-work stuff done, but I just can't imagine you're doing hundreds of non-work items each week. See paragraph above. The issue I'm complaining about is that GTD tells you to review the Someday/Maybe list often (e.g. every week). I'm pointing out the infeasibility of that. Culling the Someday/Maybe list is fundamentally problematic in GTD, as the whole point is to get these ideas out of our head and into a list somewhere.
- quesera 4y ago
  A simple (if impure) solution is to add a secondary "Someday/Maybe" list. Call it something like "Eventually/Remotely-Possible". Limit your S/M list to a comfortable number of entries, and drop the ones that don't make the cut to E/RP. Review S/M regularly, review E/RP only when curious, or when one of the items becomes of renewed interest. I'm an archivist by nature. I don't like to delete items. E/RP can grow to thousands of items, and that's OK. Occasionally one will be revived. The rest will be keep each other company.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    I think the complaint isn't that one couldn't try different ways to manage the problem, it's that the system doesn't address it at all.
    - BeetleB 4y ago
      Yes, precisely. I've found solutions similar to the other commenters. My complaint is: 1. This is a common problem - I'm not unusual. 2. GTD's approach to this problem doesn't really work - hence everyone here listing how they solved it in a way that differs from GTD (i.e. not reviewing it weekly).
    - quesera 4y ago
      I don't see this as an issue. I don't think I've ever met a system that fully addressed all requirements of all participants -- in any category of systems. There's no pretense to divine scripture here. Adopt the good bits, avoid the dogma.
- notaclevername 4y ago
  My strategy to handle a too-long someday/maybe list is to clarify how often I want to revisit the list. I have a list to review weekly, a separate list to review monthly, quarterly, etc. I have separate lists for someday/maybe date night ideas, vacation ideas, professional development ideas, and so forth. Someday/maybe exists to get something out of my head and into a trusted place where I know I’ll see it again at an appropriate time. If I know that I only need to see something quarterly (or when planning a date night), I don’t need to revisit during every weekly review. What I find is that, when I have more distance between reviews, it is easier to call the list organically. After a quarter, I haven’t thought about some of those items for months and I can easily say, “Actually, that doesn’t sound interesting any more.”
- bachmeier 4y ago
  I don't agree. You're describing tickler items. If you make a decision that you should revisit the potential item in two months, it goes in the tickler for that time. Indeed, that's exactly why the tickler exists.
  - BeetleB 4y ago
    No, I'm describing Someday/Maybe. If you're not sure when or even if you'll do a project, it goes into Someday/Maybe, and you're supposed to review this list regularly. Tickler file is for when you'd like to be reminded of something. So yes, if indecisive about a project, you can let it sit there. However, if you decide you won't do it any time in the near horizon, you move it out of tickler files and into Someday/Maybe. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course. One could treat the Tickler file as equivalent to Someday/Maybe, but for me that would be horrible. I can't imagine having to deal with hundreds of items spread across only 43 folders.

BeetleB 4y ago

> It quickly becomes obvious when you have too many active projects The issue I'm discussing isn't the number of active projects, but the number of someday/maybe projects. > Great if you're actually getting all that non-work stuff done, but I just can't imagine you're doing hundreds of non-work items each week. See paragraph above. The issue I'm complaining about is that GTD tells you to review the Someday/Maybe list often (e.g. every week). I'm pointing out the infeasibility of that. Culling the Someday/Maybe list is fundamentally problematic in GTD, as the whole point is to get these ideas out of our head and into a list somewhere.

quesera 4y ago
A simple (if impure) solution is to add a secondary "Someday/Maybe" list. Call it something like "Eventually/Remotely-Possible". Limit your S/M list to a comfortable number of entries, and drop the ones that don't make the cut to E/RP. Review S/M regularly, review E/RP only when curious, or when one of the items becomes of renewed interest. I'm an archivist by nature. I don't like to delete items. E/RP can grow to thousands of items, and that's OK. Occasionally one will be revived. The rest will be keep each other company.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  I think the complaint isn't that one couldn't try different ways to manage the problem, it's that the system doesn't address it at all.
  - BeetleB 4y ago
    Yes, precisely. I've found solutions similar to the other commenters. My complaint is: 1. This is a common problem - I'm not unusual. 2. GTD's approach to this problem doesn't really work - hence everyone here listing how they solved it in a way that differs from GTD (i.e. not reviewing it weekly).
  - quesera 4y ago
    I don't see this as an issue. I don't think I've ever met a system that fully addressed all requirements of all participants -- in any category of systems. There's no pretense to divine scripture here. Adopt the good bits, avoid the dogma.
notaclevername 4y ago
My strategy to handle a too-long someday/maybe list is to clarify how often I want to revisit the list. I have a list to review weekly, a separate list to review monthly, quarterly, etc. I have separate lists for someday/maybe date night ideas, vacation ideas, professional development ideas, and so forth. Someday/maybe exists to get something out of my head and into a trusted place where I know I’ll see it again at an appropriate time. If I know that I only need to see something quarterly (or when planning a date night), I don’t need to revisit during every weekly review. What I find is that, when I have more distance between reviews, it is easier to call the list organically. After a quarter, I haven’t thought about some of those items for months and I can easily say, “Actually, that doesn’t sound interesting any more.”
bachmeier 4y ago
I don't agree. You're describing tickler items. If you make a decision that you should revisit the potential item in two months, it goes in the tickler for that time. Indeed, that's exactly why the tickler exists.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  No, I'm describing Someday/Maybe. If you're not sure when or even if you'll do a project, it goes into Someday/Maybe, and you're supposed to review this list regularly. Tickler file is for when you'd like to be reminded of something. So yes, if indecisive about a project, you can let it sit there. However, if you decide you won't do it any time in the near horizon, you move it out of tickler files and into Someday/Maybe. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course. One could treat the Tickler file as equivalent to Someday/Maybe, but for me that would be horrible. I can't imagine having to deal with hundreds of items spread across only 43 folders.