Keep your head on straight by brain dumping!
This week officially starts the second half of the year!! Can you even believe it?!
It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for me so far, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. So I wanted to share with you one of the tools that I use almost daily to keep my head on straight. It’s only when I stop using this tool that I start to feel like I’m drowning in my schedule!
And that tool is Brain Dumping.
It’s not just making a to do list, and it’s not just journaling, it’s a specific method of clearing out your brain and then organizing the mess. If you are at all busy or working on specific goals, or you just feel overwhelmed and like your brain is buzzing most of the time, then you need to be doing this at least weekly if not daily.
So how do you Brain Dump?
There are a few different ways to do this, but what matters most is that you find a system that works for your brain. In this blog I’ll show you all the different ways you can utilize this tool and make it work for you!
Before you get started, here are a few tips that will make this work even better:
It’s important to tackle this when you’re in the right mindset. Something as simple as taking 2 minutes to do some breath work can make a massive difference! You use different parts of your brain when you’re in your Sympathetic Nervous System versus your Parasympathetic Nervous System. Just a few cycles of breathing in for 4 counts, holding for 4 counts, then breathing out for 7 counts can calm your body way down.
Use pen and paper. It uses a different part of your brain when you physically write things down. If that’s just not possible for you, you can still do this digitally, but if at all possible, pull out a notebook.
If you have a spicy brain and maybe struggle with ADHD, make your list while you’re doing something mindless with your hands. Fold laundry. Doodle. Crochet. Play Tetris. Think about your list while you’re mindlessly doing something else and then stop and add to your paper as things pop up.
Do what you can to put away other distractions while you’re brain dumping. Put your phone in Do Not Disturb. Maybe put on headphones and listen to some Binaural beats for focus. If you have kids, do this after they go to bed or before they wake up. Or put on a show for them and let them know you need some quiet time.
Now onto how to Brain Dump most effectively. The point of this exercise is to take all of the thoughts and reminders and to do’s that you have buzzing around in your brain and to dump them out onto a piece of paper. It’s amazing the peace and silence you can have when you do this.
STEP ONE:
Take a few deep breaths, get comfy, and start adding things to your paper. You don’t need to organize it all unless that helps your brain .. the point at first is just to dump it all out!
WHAT TO ADD:
To Do’s: This is E V E R Y T H I N G that comes to your brain. Nothing is too small. Nothing is unimportant. Maybe you suddenly remembered that your snow shovel is broken but it’s July and you won’t need it for months .. if it’s in your brain, write it down. If you need to go to the post office later today but you know you won’t forget; still write it down! You want all of it out of your head and onto paper.
Worries and concerns: These are all of the things you’re worried or stressed about. This isn’t a journal entry; you don’t need to explain what it is. Only you need to understand it. If you’re worried about Bobby’s grades because you’ve noticed that he’s been slacking on turning in his homework, just write down “Bobby’s grades.” It doesn’t need to be longer than one sentence.
And for your worries or concerns, they don’t need to make sense. It could be that you’re worried your car is going to break down even though it’s been running great. Even if you know it’s something irrational, if it’s in your head at all, write it down.
Just this first part of the process can feel really good. And for some people, this first step is enough. Just getting their list outside of their head is enough for them to feel lighter and move on with their day.
If you struggle to fall asleep at night, then this is a great thing to do before you go to bed. If you struggle to stay on task throughout the day, then this is a great thing to do first thing in the morning.
If you’re a very busy person or a more scheduled person then you’ll definitely want to do this next part of the process.
STEP TWO:
Once you have everything written out, now it’s time to prioritize it. Go through your list and find some way to indicate which things are most important. You can use different colored highlighters, you could add stars, you could underline… whatever makes sense to your brain.
It’s important to take your time with this and be reasonable. Something may be important but not time sensitive and so it can go farther down the list. Something else may not be as important, but it’s time sensitive so you’ll want it higher on the list.
For instance, maybe it’s not critical that you organize your linen closet this week. But maybe it’s driving you crazy and you can’t seem to focus on anything else until that’s done. If you can’t let it go, then it goes higher up the list.
You also want to cross out things that just aren’t necessary right now. If your list is just too long, maybe worrying about organizing your linen closet just isn’t important right now. It’s important to recognize what you need to let go of.
Or maybe it’s a task that you can delegate. Your flower bed needs to be weeded but it doesn’t have to be you that does it. Could your spouse or kids or a neighbor kid looking for odd jobs help you out?
Go through your list and determine what is important right now and what isn’t.
STEP THREE:
Now that you have your priorities figured out, you’ll want to figure out how much time each task will take you. You may be tempted to jump in and start doing some of the smaller tasks, but don’t! It’ll take you out of your flow!
Write down next to each item how long it will take to accomplish. And be reasonable! It’s better to slate too much time for a task than not enough. If you need to research recipes for meal planning but you also know you’ll get sucked into reading blogposts on Pinterest, make sure you give yourself plenty of time for that. Know yourself and how long you take to accomplish things. Write down the reality, not the hope.
STEP FOUR:
Now you’re going to take it to your calendar! And maybe your calendar is all on your phone. Maybe you’re old school like me and have a paper planner. Maybe you hate calendars so you just write it out on a note on your phone. However it makes sense to your brain but is done in a way that it won’t get lost, you are now going to add each item to your schedule.
This is why it’s a must for me to do a brain dump at the beginning of each week. I love to sit down on Sundays and map out my whole week. I try to leave extra space each day for incidentals, and its also important to schedule in time for things that fill your cup too!
Once everything that is a priority on your list gets added to a day or time during the week, now you have an outline for each day. You can then glance at it before bed or when you wake up in the morning and you know what needs to get done that day.
It frees up SO much space in your brain! Plus, it helps you to be the most productive with your time, which is crucial when you feel like your time is limited!
If adding everything to a calendar feels like too much, then just try writing it all down first. That might be enough for you! But if you still feel like your brain is buzzing and overwhelmed, then try the full process and see if that helps.
Now what to do about your worries or concerns. Sometimes it’s enough to just write it down. It’s like the concern feels lighter or less important just seeing it written down.
But if that’s not enough, then maybe you want to journal out your thoughts around it. Maybe you need to schedule in a coffee date with a friend who could talk you through it. Or maybe it’s something you need to do more research on or find a professional to help you work through it.
EXTRA CREDIT STEP
Especially if this is a practice you adopt for every day, then something you can add in that can have a major positive impact on your brain is GRATITUDE.
Looking at everything on our plate can make us feel worse at times, but when we stop and take a moment to sit in gratitude for every small little joy in our life, it can completely change our mindset.
And it can be the smallest thing! You can be grateful for the way the light is coming in through the window. Clean laundry. Your favorite song and how it makes you feel. That first cup of coffee. Your favorite notebook.
There are endless things to be grateful for, but if we don’t intentionally point those things out to ourselves then it’s really easy to miss them. Just by intentionally looking for them each day, your brain will start to draw your attention to them more often throughout the day. Those moments are so important to stop and sit in, especially during busy seasons.
Let me know if you try this! Or if you have a different way that you brain dump and it works for you, share that too!
