Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We don’t have to “throw away” or discard ideas. We can always put them in a place to visit later.

I have lots of ideas for writing, speaking, and generally contemplating. I don’t always have the time to use the ideas right now. That is fine.

I save them for later, i.e., I put them away in a place to visit later.

This was a difficult concept for me at one time. It plagues many persons. I think of something. I must convey it, right now. It doesn’t matter whether it “fits” with what I am doing now, I must convey it, right now.

There are many places to put away or save an idea. I like 3″x5″ cards. I like notebooks (the paper kind that I write with pens and pencils). I like computers as well, but not as well as the other things. I use Evernote most of the time. I have files in a file cabinet (love those manila folders).

There are days when I flip through all my ideas. There are days when I “need” to write, so I grab an idea somewhere in the stack of cards or pages of a notebook or files in the file cabinet… and I write.

This has been a good habit for me. Put away (for now). Later, maybe, I’ll use that idea from days ago. Perhaps when I retire from one thing I will take up the practice of writing all those papers and books and things.