Thought holding

When an interesting thought springs in my head and the urge to make something of it happens, I hold the thought. Most of the time this holding process is forced by context switching. Unfortunately, I rarely have creative impulses during work blocks. Inspiration rarely strikes at the right time, doesn't it? Or when it does your kid erupts in your office, or you need to jump on a call in 2min...

One would think that in this day and age where note capture is available on voice command, dictation, or a tap away. Why would I engage in such a primitive practice and not leverage these modern tools?

Because most of my brilliant brain squeezes are mostly garbage. I've read about a similar strategy often referred to as the "creativity sink". A sort of filtering or distillation process to get to the good stuff.

That's not what I'm doing here. I'm actually hoping for things to get out of my life. By trusting that something important sticks, I'm engaging a sort of transcendental trust in "the process". This is an almost spiritual practice where I trust something above me to keep me on track and do what needs to be done.

As silly as it sounds, it's a lot of my brain power that I let run this way. I heard similar stories from new parents, constantly bouncing between baby and work. Dropping the ball is inevitable. Thinking you'll never drop it is delusional. So why not get comfortable with the idea of a few drops?

I held, lost, and came back to this thought for about a year.

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