Clear Your Mind with a Brain Dump
Get all those jumbled thoughts out of your mind and onto a page
Do you ever feel like your brain is crammed full of ideas, to do lists, goals, deadlines, appointments, and lots of other stuff?
If you do, you know how hard it is to create anything from that place of overwhelm.
But fret not, there’s an easy way to extract all that data by doing a brain dump.
What’s a Brain Dump?
I learned this method in a class I took a long time ago, but it’s still the simplest way I’ve found that works.
So, it’s just like it sounds. You sit down with a pen and paper and just write down everything that comes to mind. It doesn’t matter what it is, just write it down.
I think pen and paper is best for this because of the mind writing connection, but you can also type or record it on your iPhone or Android phone in the Notes app. But try it with pen and paper first to test it out.
Here’s how to do it:
Find a comfortable, quiet place and grab your favorite notebook and pen.
Set a timer for 10 minutes for your first time. You can set it for longer periods later.
Write down everything that comes into your mind and just let the thoughts flow out on the paper. Keep writing until the timer goes off.
Now here’s the fun part. Read over the notes and look for common threads and any ideas that stand out to you. You can draw arrows or circles around them to show how they connect.
You can then organize your notes into general categories like personal, work, creative and goals. I like to put my “genius ideas” in the Walling App so I can see them all visually.
Now draw a big star by anything that really excites you. You can take action on these ideas first.
Whenever you feel stuck, you can do this again and again.
Takeaway: Doing a Brain Dump can be very freeing and get your creative juices flowing. Have fun with it and see what happens!
Linda Locke is a writer, mentor/teacher and Lead Editor for the Midform Publication on Medium.
A friend of mine turned me onto Microsoft To Do, which I suspect is similar to the app you use. It works, but I keep adding to it and not much comes off, lol.