Knock Knock Bang

earn guitar, shoot a short film, build an app. Most people carry a long list of things they've said they want to do, and every one left floating in their head turns into a little guilt.

This episode is about the someday-maybe list: one place to park ideas you like but aren't acting on yet. Parking an idea is a decision, and deciding feels very different from avoiding.

Key ideas

• Ideas left in your head start to feel like commitments you never signed up for.
• Half-finished projects wear down how much you trust yourself to follow through.
• Deciding to park an idea counts as following through.
• The list only works if you look at it, and deleting an idea you've lost interest in is a fine outcome.
• Some ideas need a slow burn. This series sat on Knock Knock Bang's someday-maybe list for about two years before it became a project.

Terms from this episode

• Creative esteem: how much you trust yourself to follow through on your own ideas.
• Slow burn: letting an idea develop over a long time, and checking new things you learn against it.

Do one thing
Think of an idea you've been feeling guilty about not starting. Write it on a list called someday-maybe, and leave it there.

Listen next
Episode 4: The Weekly Look-Over, the habit that keeps the someday-maybe list alive. If it's been a while since episode 2, it's worth another listen. That's where someday-maybe first showed up.

Sources and credit

• Getting Things Done, David Allen
• Tiago Forte, “How to Use Evernote for Your Creative Workflow,” Forte Labs, 2015. Source for the point about people not seeing themselves as productive, and for the slow burn, including Richard Feynman’s dozen favorite problems.

Most lists are a pile of open loops written down. This episode is about clarify, the step that turns that pile into decisions: what each thing is, whether it's actionable, and what the very next physical action would be. It runs real examples through the questions, from a quick text to an essay, a race goal, a late-night app idea, and "learn to code."

DO ONE THING

Pick the vaguest thing on your mind, the one that's been sitting there longest, and find its next action: something you could start in thirty seconds. You don't have to do it yet. Just name it.

LISTEN NEXT

Episode 3: Someday-Maybe, the list for ideas you want to keep without committing to them. And if episode 1 went by fast, it's worth a second listen, since this episode builds on open loops.

KEY IDEAS

- Clarifying comes down to a few questions: What is this, really? Is it actionable? What's the outcome? What's the next action?

- If something isn't actionable, it has three places to go: trash, reference, or someday-maybe.

- A real next action passes one test. If you had the time, the place, and the energy, could you start right now with zero more deciding?

- Watch for fake actions like "work on the essay" or "research training plans." They're usually projects in disguise.

- A lot of what feels like procrastination is a task that was never defined.

TERMS FROM THIS EPISODE

- Two-minute rule: if a next action takes less than two minutes, do it now instead of tracking it.

- Area of interest: something you care about over time, with no finish line (more in episode 9).

SOURCES AND CREDIT

- Getting Things Done, David Allen (2001)

GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. Knock Knock Bang is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.

Knock Knock Bang is a design and systems studio in Madison, WI. knockknockbang.com

Ever feel like you're behind on something but can't say what? This episode introduces Getting Things Done and the claim underneath it: your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. It covers open loops, the five stages of the system, and why separating deciding from doing matters more now that starting things costs almost nothing.

DO ONE THING

Think of the thing that's nagged at you most this week and write it down somewhere outside your head. Then notice what happens to the nagging.

LISTEN NEXT

Episode 2: Clarify and the Next Action, where a pile of real stuff gets clarified, item by item.

KEY IDEAS

- Anything you've half-committed to and haven't written down somewhere you trust is an open loop. Forty of them add up to a constant sense of being behind.

- Making a specific plan for a goal stops it from nagging at you, even before any of the work is done.

- GTD runs on five stages: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, engage.

- GTD separates deciding what something means from doing it. Skip the deciding, and whatever's newest and loudest gets your attention.

- The payoff is being present: when everything's handled, your full attention can go to what's in front of you.

TERMS FROM THIS EPISODE

- Open loop: anything half-committed, not done, and not written down somewhere you trust.

- Next action: the very next physical thing you'd do to move something forward.

- Project: any result that takes more than one step.

- Someday-maybe: a list for ideas you want to keep without committing to them.

- Weekly review: a regular look over everything, so the system stays trustworthy. (The series calls it the weekly look-over.)

- Mind like water: attention that responds to each thing at the right size, then settles.

SOURCES AND CREDIT

- Getting Things Done, David Allen (2001)

- E. J. Masicampo and Roy F. Baumeister, "Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2011)

GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. Knock Knock Bang is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.

Knock Knock Bang is a design and systems studio in Madison, WI.

https://knockknockbang.com