What it is
The parking lot is a single, always-visible scrap of paper (or one open note) where you write down every random thought, task, or worry that pops up while you're doing something else. The act of writing it down releases your working memory from holding it.
You're not handling the thought. You're parking it. You'll come back to the parking lot later.
When to use it
- You're trying to focus and your brain keeps surfacing other things
- You're in a meeting and unrelated tasks keep pinging your attention
- You're falling asleep and remembered something you have to do
- You're mid-conversation and want to remember to look up something later
How to do it
- One parking lot, always in the same place. A sticky note pad next to your laptop. A specific section of your notebook. One note in your phone titled "Parking Lot." The location must be reliable.
- Write things down without judging or organising. Just dump.
- Don't act on the parked thought until your current task is done. That's the whole point. You're trusting future-you to deal with it.
- Review the parking lot at a fixed time (end of work day, end of week, whenever). Triage. Most things will be irrelevant. Some will matter.
An example
I was writing a report and kept getting interrupted by my own brain: "I need to call the dentist. I never replied to Sam. The car rego is due. What's that bug at work?"
Each one was a tiny disruption that broke the writing flow. None of them were urgent.
Started a sticky note next to my laptop. Wrote each one down as it surfaced. The writing continued. End of day, I had a list of 11 things. About 4 actually mattered. Did those, ignored the rest.
The flow stayed intact. The list dealt with the worries.
When this fails
- The parking lot moves. If sometimes it's a sticky, sometimes a Notion page, sometimes your phone. Your brain doesn't trust the system and keeps holding the thoughts itself.
- You never review it. Unreviewed parking lots become anxiety storage. Set a fixed review time.
- You act on parked items immediately. Don't. That's just interruption with extra steps.
Try it this week
Put a single sticky note next to wherever you do focused work. Every time your brain surfaces something unrelated, write it down. Don't act on it until you're done. Notice whether your focus changes.