I was clearing out my garage storage this morning. I found a dusty stack of folders from an old project.

It reminded me of choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Tharp started with a simple cardboard file box, labeled with a project name. She dropped in raw fragments, research notes, and physical artifacts as she uncovered them. It is that cheap container that absorbed the anxiety of the blank page. Whenever she felt blocked, she did not look at the blank wall. She looked into the box.

I used to stall on new idea because I tried to organise them too early. I stuck with clean tags and perfect stucture before the idea had time to breathe.

Here is what I do.

I use a single blank note for any new concept. When I am testing a new trading metric or a writing angle, it gets one page. Just raw data without tags, folder or linking.

For the first two weeks, it is just an open bucket. I drop in raw text fragments, messy screenshots, and half-baked thoughts. The only rule is containment.

I review the note once it starts to feel heavy. That is when patterns show up and filtering actually has something to work with.

I did this last month with a newsletter angle I was testing. After a two-week mess, one evening I could actually see which ideas had legs.

At the moment, I am exploring Twyla Tharp’s work on sustainable routines in The Creative Habit. Her focus on building unglamorous, blue-collar habits over creative genius is solid and worth the time.

Just another coffee thought from Gav.