I have always carried a note pad with me and have stacks of notebooks filled and semi filled with brilliant brain farts of being trapped in line/waiting for car repairs/airplanes/etc.
Now, that I am a laptop owner, I have it set up at the kitchen table and sometimes manage to scribble off a bit or two a few minutes a day. I prefer to have at least a half an hour, but have been known to sit through the night typing furiously away until my husbands alarm has gone off.
These moments of being in the zone are wonderful,and I usually end up with a *“dammmmmmm, that was great” *buzz the rest of the day, often not even needing java to get through to night. I even manage not to plant my kids in front of the electronic pacifier on the day after those mental binges.