Afterthoughts

Put the words after and thought together, and you get a really clean compound word.

What are the thoughts after, you might wonder? One meaning is that it’s after a big decision has been made, so you’re supposed to be done with the main thinking part. Then, you have an afterthought—something that might have come in useful earlier.

Afterthoughts can also be less important to the thinker in question, like when a writer adds an appendix at the end of a book. This is a very common way the word is used today—as an add-on that matters less than the main content.

This makes it seem like you have a period of thinking, and then you just sort of stop. Then, the afterthoughts come.

You can certainly stop focusing on something with your full attention, but that hardly means you’ve stopped thinking about that thing. Ever notice how you can switch to a completely different task for a while, and sometimes a solution will come to you? There’s a productive side to letting your mind relax and wander for a bit.

Psychologists call this the incubation effect.

I remember puzzling over some business-related problem all day, and then I’d cut the grass for a while. Suddenly, I’d have a better solution to the problem that previously seemed insurmountable. Or, I’ll go for a walk and listen to an audiobook before realizing a solution is starting to interfere with my ability to focus on the book.

Afterthoughts can also happen after a really big decision is made. Suddenly, you have the perspective of hindsight. Suddenly, some of your decisions seem hasty in retrospect.

It’s not like they’re really after your thoughts—those never truly stopped.

As an afterthought, would you leave a comment for me to let me know whether you’ve had any afterthoughts lately?