Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Parking Lot


It never fails! I seem to think of all kinds of stuff to write about when I am at work. It’s not like I can just stop working and start writing (well, not really anyway) so I had to come up with a way to get those ideas and thoughts down on paper for later use.

Lucky for me I work for a company that uses and teaches the Six Sigma management strategy.  I was sent to the training a couple years ago. Among the strategies and tricks was the concept of the Parking Lot. A piece of paper kept handy during meetings to jot down stray ideas and topics that come up for later review.

I found an old legal pad with only a few pages left on it and decided it would be my Blog Parking Lot. I’ve been jotting stuff down ever since I got back from vacation.

I get all excited about the ideas and look forward to writing and fleshing them out…and then, at the end of an 8 or 9 hour day, I arrive at home and immediately crumple into a heap of exhaustion.  

So far I have two full sheets of yellow paper filled (front and back) with totally awesome ideas (no, really…they are awesome – I checked)…and not a single post to show for it.

SIGH

My brain goes a mile-a-minute when I’m not supposed to be writing for personal use but as soon as I have the time and am able…nothing.

It’s maddening really.

I have a quote on my desk at work: “You don’t find the time to write – you make time” ~Nora Roberts

This is my goal…make time each day to work on the ideas and thoughts that float around in my brain all day every day.

A couple weeks ago I suggested that someone write about the very thing that was causing them to suffer writer’s block…so tonight I took my own advice – for once. 

2 comments:

  1. I totally relate. I have a bunch of posts I want to write but its so much easier to scour the internet for videos other people made and repost that so they get a shout-out. I'm just being lazy but your post has inspired me. I'm gonna get something cranked out even if I have to staple my butt to the chair!

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  2. OMGsh, I do the exact same thing! My "Parking lot" is on Google docs so I can access it whenever and wherever...except for when I'm at home because there's no internet there. So it doesn't actually really work all that well for me. But even if I had access to all my great ideas, I'm always too dead by the time I get home to bother. And that is why I don't own my own blog.

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