So Many Ideas... Where to Put Them All

One of the things that feels hardest about writing is the period of time before putting the thoughts onto paper— or more accurately, the swirling complex tangled knot of all the ideas and things you are thinking that you have to parse out in your head to then even get to the place to start thinking about what goes down onto the paper...

The metaphor I like to use for this whole mess is a traffic jam. In a lot of ways, your mind is dealing with a fair amount of congestion— all the ideas you have are cars that are not only gridlocked and trying to pass each other, but also, the jam is so bad you might not even be sure what direction you need to go. 

So you need a parking lot. 

I first heard the phrase of a parking lot used in this way, when I was leading a workshop on productivity and organization. One of the participants used the phrase in reference to a running document she had to place her ideas. I realized that it was a great analogy to build off of, in thinking about our minds as traffic jams. These cars can include the ideas of future projects, the numerous tabs on your browser (guilty), the articles you said you'd read (also guilty), and the list continues. You need somewhere to put it because these cars are taking of valuable space in your mind and in trying to remember and hold them, you have less space to think about whatever you need to write (such as your dissertation). 

But not all garages are the same. Here are three things I've learned: 

1. You want to make sure your parking lot is searchable so that when you decide to come back to an idea, you can quickly find the things you were remembering. And, you want it to be searcheable because a tempting productive procrastination is to now divert all your time organizing your parking lot, versus doing the writing and thinking related to your original jam. 
   
   
2. The parking lot should be easily accessed. I used to have a document I could only open on my laptop, which was great... until I was out with friends and randomly thought of an idea. I had to write it elsewhere and then remember to move it, which became another car in my mind. Now, I use an app (Notion) and I used Trello beforehand. Whatever system that works best for you is the one you should use, but definitely consider one where you don't have to remember transfering or towing your car later to your parking lot.
   
   
3. The parking lot should be backed-up. I am not advocating for your parking lot to be on the cloud, but every so often (I do monthly), you should back up your parking lot in whatever form. If a hurricane or natural disaster wipes it out (or you lose your research journal, guilty), that would be devastating. When I used to write my ideas in a journal, I would take pictures and keep them in a folder. 

When I was writing the dissertation, I had 2 parking lots: one that was specifically related to the dissertation (like when I came across an article I thought would be great for the implications), and another that was my general parking lot. I certainly didn't have the maintenance to take care of more than those two, so props to you if you can. The bottom line: have a place to store your ideas because they, like you, are brilliant~