The notebook closed after a difficult thought gives the thought a place outside your immediate attention.

Writing something down changes where it lives. A worry held only in your head has to be carried continuously, because letting go of it feels like losing it, while a thought on paper stays put whether or not you are looking at it. Closing the cover is a way of saying that it is safe and it is not now.

The next time something difficult keeps returning, put it in a specific place: a page, a note, a line in a file you will actually open again. Then set a time to come back to it, so that setting it down is a decision rather than an escape.