This morning I listened to a voice memo that I made while I drove home from a hair appointment two months ago. It enlightened me. I’d forgotten I’d even made it. Sometimes driving time is a highly creative time for me. I think of writing lines that would fit right into the essay I’m working on, but by the time I stop driving I’ve forgotten it. On this day I decided to record it. I stopped in a parking lot so I wasn’t driving while recording. The main thought I wanted to get down was that I often don’t let myself flesh out ideas, I’m in too much of a hurry to get it finished. It’s all part of another essay, but what I wanted to remember was that I used a tool to further my writing (voice memo) that I’d never used before.

I teach 3rd grade full time Monday-Friday. My mind is so full of children, behavior plans, lessons, testing, distance learning, parent texts, and more that I often don’t even try to write. Yet I have those thoughts at curious moments, and I know if I could preserve them I would use them in my writing. Voila! The voice memo! I’ll use it more often now. I just hope the great ideas don’t come while in conversation with coworkers as even a voice memo can’t help me then.

Another thing that have helped me capture my writing while working somewhere else full time:

-Teaching myself to write down rough drafts with other people in the room. I did this all the time when my sons were growing up. It counted as family time if we were all watching TV, but I was jotting down rough sentences with plans to edit later when I was alone.

What are some ways you write even when your mind is full of other work plans?