RUSH: Suzette in the Woodlands, Texas. I’m glad you called. You’re up first today. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you so much. Mega dittos and prayers to the infinite power. And my question is, we all want to be as articulate and accurate as you are when we’re discussing topics with our friends and family. Are there any tips that you can pass along to us about organizing your Stack of Stuff and how you do that?
RUSH: Ah. It’s funny you should ask about that. Let me give you the process by which I do this each and every day. I’ll do this as briefly as I can. Starting the night before — that’s when show prep begins, and that’s when I start reading things and looking at things. And things I find interesting I print to the printer here that’s right behind me. And then I promptly forget about it. And I do that for two to three hours a night, get up, get here at the time I arrive and start doing the same thing over and over.
I start looking at everything that I rely on as a source. Things that interest me, I print them. And then about 11 o’clock I stop what I’m doing and I go grab everything out of the printer and I start organizing it into probably four different stacks based on the kind of news it is. And then I put those stacks together and at about 11:45 I stop, and that’s the show, or it used to be.
But now the news is breaking and made throughout the three-hour program, and so prepping it is an entirely different process. I still do it the way I’ve always done it. What I’m really blessed with, Suzette, is a good memory. I happen to know everything I’ve put in these stacks. The one thing I can’t keep track of sometimes is which Stack something is in. But I know I’ve got it somewhere here, and I think the key to good organization is passion.
You know, I love being informed. I love having things at my fingertips. I love being able to tell people off the top of my head things that I know. And that’s just passion. That’s having a desire to do it. Organizational skills I think are something that are different from person to person to person. I find every person has a different way of organizing things, and I’ve just developed a system here over 30-some-odd years that works for me. And, interestingly, it’s all individual pieces of paper. I don’t use a computer once the program starts.
I use a computer exclusively to prep. But once the program starts, it’s all individual pieces of paper. I have to remember where things are. But my memory comes in handy and I have to know pretty much everything in the stacks. I just have to go get it to get the exact wording now and then. But I’m blessed. I’m blessed with that kind of skill set, and it works perfectly, this kind of application, doing a radio program like this.
CALLER: How are you able to recall stuff from long ago? You seem to always be able to bring it up right at your fingertips.
RUSH: You know, that’s a good — I think that’s another thing that — every one of us has different skills that we are blessed with or good at. I have been blessed that the skill set I have is 100% applicable and useful to my job. And because of that I have spent so much time perfecting it and learning how to make it work for me that I’ve got years and years and years of experience here. And, you know, how do you account for a good memory? This is where my profound belief in God comes in.
When I say that I’ve got talent on loan from God, that’s part of the recipe. It’s one of the things that I mean. I’ve got specific talents here that are exclusively applicable to this program. And who knows why I’m able to remember something from 30 years ago. I mean, I wish I knew what the synapses occurring in my brain were. All I know is that instantly I have the recall. And it’s just a blessing. I wish I could tell everybody else how to do it, but I can’t. And I don’t hold it against you who can’t. I don’t hold it against people who can’t do it. I just realize it’s something I’m better at than most people.
CALLER: Well, we will continue to reference you regularly.
RUSH: Well, I thank you. I appreciate the question. And I know the answer is a little insufficient. You’re looking for some magic-bullet answer. I’ll think about it. It’s just something that I can do. It’s just something that happens. And it’s probably necessity, something that I have to be able to do in order to do my job at what I consider to be a superior level. I appreciate the question. I really do and the comment.
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