Review the someday/maybe list to decide what activates

Look at your someday/maybe list and decide if anything is ready to become an active project.

Why it works

Someday/maybe is the system’s release valve: it holds ideas and projects that are real but not yet ready to be committed to. Without a regular review, the list becomes a graveyard — items added but never reconsidered. With a regular review, it functions as an incubation system: ideas mature until context, resources, and readiness align, at which point they get promoted to active. This gives the system a legitimate "not yet" category rather than forcing premature commitment or indefinite suppression.

How to do it

1. Open your someday/maybe list (or equivalent: backlog, later list, parking lot).
2. For each item, ask: "Is now the right time for this?" If yes, create a project and a next action.
3. Remove items that are clearly no longer relevant or interesting.
4. If you’re unsure, leave it — certainty will come or won’t.

Evidence

Incubation research in creativity (Sio & Ormerod, 2009) supports the idea that setting aside problems and returning to them after a delay can surface solutions; the someday/maybe review operationalizes a scheduled return to deferred commitments rather than abandoning them. (mechanistic)

The incubation evidence is primarily about creative problem-solving, not commitment readiness. The someday/maybe review is a GTD convention whose specific value is practitioner-established.

Common mistake

Treating the someday/maybe review as a guilt exercise ("why haven’t I started this?") rather than a neutral decision: activate now, keep incubating, or delete.