While been steady at low/mid Eq (in this retreat), I still struggles hard with freq. lost in thoughts.  Tried noting, been aware, tried categorization, but all work to a limited extent.

Then I played this little trick on my mind (partly inspired by stream of conscioussness fictions): Everytime a thought appears, and I'm able to notice it, I'd add (in my mind) "says Dawg", "thinks Dawg". Eg. "(mind chatter) damn I need to respond to that email", "says dawg". "why is she doing that to me", "says dawg", etc. etc.

Even when thought are not appearing - given my active thinking mind, I'd keep asking "whatsup Dawg" (in clear soundbytes), like every five seconds, and usually just pops up random thoughts (in typically muted sound).

Experiments in last few sits have been astounding: staying mindful prob at 95%-99% rate (vs. my usual 60 - 85% range). 

The adv. of this vs. just noting it as "thought", or "planning thoughts" seems:
a) less disruptive and more playful.  When I note sth. as a plain "thought", it seem to interrupt the thought train and "says Dawg" does not. I prefer to able to meditate on those soundbytes. 

b) slowly dis-charge emotions from *the scenario*.  Thoughts that're most embedded (thus hard to observe) have high emotion charge or "I-ness" - e.g. memories of "I" being embarassed. Re-assigning them to Dawg everytime, seem to help from that persp.

Anyway - love to hear feedbacks and other tricks people use!