This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #82.

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Driving (and Parking!) Your Thoughts

By Shawn Tuttle

Imagine walking into your favorite grocery store with a cookie craving. You know exactly where to go—far end of aisle 3 on the right—Pepperidge Farms Mint Brussels ®, mmmmm. Hey, some coffee would be really good with these. Head back to the deli to pick up a 12oz cup of French Roast. Back to the 10-items-or-less-checkout line and you’re in and out of the store in less than 10 minutes.

Just think of how different your shopping experience would be if the delivery trucks just dumped their shipment in the middle of the store. No aisles, no shelves, just a big pile. Ridiculous, yes? Bad news: that’s how a big mess of jumbled thoughts in your head are organized (or not organized, as the case may be). Things to do, reminders, things to get, phone numbers, and other unresolved issues form an amorphous cloud that drain your energy during the day.

While it may not seem like that big of a deal, it does have a very significant impact on you. That monstrous pile of stuff in the middle of the store gets in the way of where you want to go. It makes it difficult to put your hands on what you need.

In terms of your mind, these rampant thoughts rob you of your good energy and have a nasty habit of leaving you open to distractions. This leaves you feeling brain-fried and wondering where the day went. Ugh.

Good news! Most of the thoughts stampeding across your mind can quite simply be parked elsewhere. The simple solution: You write down the random thoughts that pop into your head and then return your attention to the situation at hand. Your mind has the satisfaction of seeing it written down for future reference and lets you get back to work.

That sounds plenty easy, yes? But where are you going to write it down? This is the linchpin that makes the difference between a solid system or more disorganization later on.

The next time you walk into the store with a cookie craving, you head straight to the cookie aisle ready to fast track to check out—but no, the cookies you want aren’t there. There are the coconut macaroons and the Nilla Wafers… where are the Pepperidge Farm cookies?

You look all over the cookie section, maybe they’re at the end of the aisle. Nope, not there either. You check the next aisle, left and right sides. Ugh! where the heck are they?! You have an appointment coming up, you gotta go. Where are those cookies?! Where’s the manager!?!?!

For too long, we’ve let our thoughts drive us around silly. You can regain control of the driver’s seat by capturing those thoughts and consistently parking them in a retrievable place.

Let’s get practical

What you want is an easy-to-use, reliable method to consistently park your ideas and reminders.

Cookies in the cookie aisle, zucchini in the produce section, and milk in the refrigerated area. Just as different foods have different storage requirements, different types of info can be parked in different places. Since there are a few variables and steps to consider, we’re talking about setting up a system.

The primary benefit of using a thought-capture system is that it relieves your mind of the burden of tracking thoughts that bombard you over the course of the day. No more loitering thoughts crowding the mind! You’ll have more creative energy for projects and problem-solving by simply clearing the aisles.

There’s a 2-point test for deciding where to write down your thoughts:

1. Is it easy?
2. Can you get right to the info you need, when you need it?

Walking across the house from your home office to the kitchen just to write, "Pepperidge Farm Mint Brussels – 5 packs" on the grocery list is not easy. Writing on post-it notes, scraps of paper, and the backs of envelopes is easy, however, it does not typically make for fast finding later on.

If you answer “yes” to both test questions then it’s a good place.

What about when you have a good storage place for your lists, like your computer, but don’t have it turned on or with you at all times? For this very reason, I strongly encourage you to carry a blank journal—notepad, planner, whatever you like—as long as you carry it with you always. Then download your collected reminders at the end of day during daily download time. (Your daily download time is for reviewing the day and provides the perfect opportunity to deposit info into its proper place.)

Your own personal parking garage

There are two sets of decisions to make when designing your own system:

1. What lists to use – Find the middle ground between too specific and too general.
2. Where to store them – A general rule of thumb is close to where you’ll use them.

Below is a summary of your options, including a brief description of my own locations and lists, to jumpstart your setup.

File folders are particularly good for the ones that are a response to printed materials like brochures, fliers, newspaper clippings, or magazine articles. I just drop the printed material directly in it, sometime with a note attached to reflect a specific idea that was triggered.
Examples: Local resources, speech ideas, travel ideas, art project ideas.

Spreadsheet is great for goals-oriented lists since you have the flexibility of cutting and pasting. I have one file for all of these. I park each list on a separate worksheet, and then name the tabs for easy reference. This can be replaced by online lists (ex. a Google spreadsheet/document) if you use multiple computers.
Examples: Current projects, upcoming projects, home repairs, marketing ideas, and the future year planning calendar.

The Notes section of the digital daily planner (for ex., Entourage or Outlook) syncs to my smartphone and thus I have them with me when I’m out and about. This can be replaced by your carry-around planner if you aren’t into the smartphone and sync technologies.
Examples: Movies to rent, groceries/things to get, and gift ideas for friends and family.

Online bookmarks (in your web browser) are especially nifty since you can group them by subjects. Your blog and news tracking can be tracked by RSS tools such as Yahoo or Google feed.
Examples: social media, podcast sources, financial, local resources, reference (ex. dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia etc).

Online reminders such as BirthdayAlarm.com which sends you an email reminding you of upcoming birthdays.

Digital voice recorders relieve you from typing or writing. Some people prefer, and my co-editor Lance swears by, the digital voice recorder. Remembering that retrieving the info easily is one of the criteria of a good system, digital is crucial because you get a multiple-folder feature (you can usually download onto your computer, too). For example, Lance has different folders designated for screenplay ideas, political essays, one for his current main project, and then one for quick reminders that gets cleared daily. As in his case, this tool is great for those, like writers, who have an abundance of extensive story ideas.

These suggestions represent a variety of formats to accommodate your work style and habits. To begin, you may want to stick with technologies you are comfortable with. Once your habits are consistent, you can look into other storage technologies if you are feeling limited.

There’s no need to expect all of your info to be organized in the same way. The goal is to get the info out of your head with minimum disruption and then for the info to be where you want it when you need it. As you regain your peace of mind, you’ll remember that you are driving the shopping cart of your thoughts, not the other way around. Now about your cookie obsession…

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.