Introduction

Lately with the amount of information overload, added to our already stressful house tasks, studying, projects, work, meetings, social life... we can sometimes feel overwhelmed. You might struggle to get a single task done either because of lack of concentration, or because you can't stop thinking about those open loops in the back of your mind. You might feel frustrated since you can't manage to finish the tasks you start because you can't stop jumping from one thing to another. It might even be hard to get sleep even when you're feeling tired, just because your mind can't shut down. This is when brain dumping comes in handy.

This post contains

🧠 What is a brain dump
📓 How can you brain dump
🔋 Benefits to brain dumping
📌 Conclusion

What is a brain dump?

“the act or an instance of comprehensively and uncritically expressing and recording one’s thoughts and ideas (as on a particular topic).” - Merriam Webster Dictionary

In other words a brain dump is simply dumping your thoughts anywhere, from a journal, to a word document to a napkin, with no specific direction in mind.
It is a term commonly used in the productivity area as it helps with just that. The purpose of this is to de-clutter your mind and have a clear view of what needs to be done or what's on your mind without the noise of your brain. It doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't have to be neat or in any kind of order.

How can you brain dump?

There is really no proper way to brain dump as it just writing stuff down. You can open your notes app and just start listing things, you can get a piece of paper and just write things down as they come. As long as you feel that it works there's no wrong way to do it, there are no rules.
Nevertheless, there are advantages to following some kind structure (always adapted to what works for you).

Time

Brain dumping is the most beneficial when you are feeling the most overwhelmed. However, you don't need to wait until your brain is about to burst to do it and it's actually better if you don't. Brain dumping everyday when you wake up can help you start the day with a clear mind and an overview of things you have to do that you can later use to plan your day. In addition, brain dumping before you go to sleep can be even better, it is a way of shutting down your brain's thoughts, letting you sleep peacefully.

Place

In terms of location, you should do it in a place where you know you won't get distracted and you can be relaxed. In terms of where to write everything down, it varies to what you like. Writing things down with pen in a notebook might be more therapeutic than typing it on your phone but it doesn't really matter as long as you can go back to it in case you want to cross things off or just see what you wrote.
Some people have a designed journal for this where they just write the date and can write or draw things things without it looking nice, just for the sake of clarity.

How

The most straightforward way would be to make a bullet point list, bu you could make a mind map, a table...

What

As I've said before, there're no specific things you have to write about, just what comes out. However, it's sometimes hard to get things out, to help your thoughts flow you can follow some prompts, such as:

• What do you keep forgetting to do?
• What tasks never seem to get done?
• Is there someone you keep meaning to contact?

And many more you can probably find on the internet.
Another thing that can help is using a trigger list. A trigger list is basically a list with more lists of things areas in your life were you could potentially have something to do (school, life management, events, around the house, to buy, contact, work...) and with this it can trigger your memory (hence the name).

Benefits

• - Gives you mental clarity since you've cleared up headspace
• - Organises your thoughts
• - Reduces stress and anxiety (mindfulness)
• - Motivates you to get things done since you know what has to be done
• - Increases self-awareness of thoughts
• - Reduces the number of things distracting you from achieving work flow during the day, improving focus and concentration

Conclusion

Brain dumping can help you bring order to the chaos of today’s information overload, helping you concentrate, view tasks and complete them. But just remember the point is for you to destress and gain clarity, if it feels like a task to brain dump then you're doing it wrong, keep it simple and let your brain flow.