Textual coordination 1.6: Planning for later use

43 Folders has a post about Anne "Bird by Bird" Lamott’s writerly practice of carrying index cards at all times. I'm fascinated by the idea that we must "capture" our ideas in the moment to prevent their slipping away and that by having them on index cards, we can "use" them later. I'm even more interested to know how many of these cards, once written on, actually get used. I stage a lot of information just in case I might ever need it again. But often don't.

Staging 1.0

Just read someone's 100 Things list. What got me was, "Twenty-five. I have notebooks full of useless html that I haven't used yet."

See what I mean? We keep text for future use.

Oh, and "Thirty-two. I use post-it notes all the time. My wall beside my computer has about 10-15 post-its up there right now." People are strangely, almost fetishistically, aware of their habits of mediation.