Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

One reason for blogging is to clear ideas from the mind. Put them in the blog and they no longer rattle around up there. That makes room for the next ideas.

Why blog? There are many reasons. Here is one:

To clear the mind.

This is one thing that writing, any type of writing, does for me.

Ideas come to me. They come from many sources in many places at many times. This is something that I learned from writer and consultant Jerry Weinberg. He called it “noticing,” and that seems to be a good term. I notice things, lots of things. I have to disengage my “noticer” now and then to give myself time to clear my head.

Most of the time I record my noticed items on 3×5 cards. I carry these in my shirt pocket. Yes, I look like a nerd, but appearances have long ago disappeared as something that garners my attention.

Sometimes I blog about these notices.  Blogging clears my mind, and an empty mind is ripe for new notices. Now that this one is out of mind, on to something else.