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!

This is funny. I would say if you feel it's working for you, go for it...

I sometimes think of 'noting' as "not-I-ing". Anything that occurs, simply note that it's not you.
This thought is not me, this feeling is not me, all of these weird, complex sensations... none of this is "I".

Sounds kind of like what you are doing with the 'sup Dawg' stuff...

I have to say, I think you'd idea is pretty brilliant. From the sounds of it we are at a somewhat similar stage of our practice and in my last practice log I'd commented that my focus needs to be on disembedding from thoughts and/or finding a way to related more skillfully to thoughts, mindstates, etc., which are continuing to create a strong sense of self. The thing about my practice is that focusing hardcore on body sensations got me through the A&P, then somewhat broadening the focus to include the entire body and the environment got me into EQ, but being in EQ doesn't necessarily mean that a practitioner has developed maturity in how they relate to thoughts, mindstates, etc., and I am now concluding that it is in EQ where those "mind" skills need to be refined and honed. I liked your idea so much that I'd convinced myself that I was going to use it but then ended up not doing so but trying some other techniques. I think that point is that we each need to experiment and be creative to find what works for us and that is exactly what you are doing. All the best to you in your practice. If you get streamentry before me, I'll buy you a virtual beer.  

Sup dawg, 

I recently heard a talk from Monastic Academy where the speaker mentioned that someone there was having good results from just constantly labeling everything in their experience "Dog". This wouldn't happen to be you would it?  Would be funny if more than one person stumbled upon this dog technique. 

Another thing that helped me is trying to ask "If I could choose what to think, why would I have thought this thought?" 
This is probably not what your comment is about but it helps me to stay grounded, when shit gets a little bit rough