The busier our lives get, the more information we have to store in our brain and the more we risk forgetting or losing valuable information. As your head begins to drown in information overload, it becomes more difficult to recall the information you need, almost impossible to write it into a tangible form and therefore, more difficult to act upon that information. If this is the position you are finding yourself in, if you are finding yourself in procrastination city, or are looking for ways to boost your productivity, you could very well benefit from using the Brain Dump method. But what is a brain dump?
What Is a Brain Dump?
So, what is brain dump? Let’s take a look at the brain dump definition:
A brain dump is the process of unloading all thoughts and ideas out of your brain and into a written, concrete form.
You can write these thoughts and ideas down onto paper, you can use a notes app on your phone or you can use any other process that works best for you. You just need to make sure you are able to both note down your thoughts and ideas and organise them. This means that whichever medium you choose, it should always be accessible to you. This is why a small pocket notebook will probably be much better than a laptop.
Doing this should leave you with a number of tasks and projects that you either need to action now, soon or in the future. Some ideas and thoughts you will be able to delete immediately if they do not require any action on your part (and by action, this includes a general follow-up, so if you do still need to follow up something, it’s classed as an actionable item!)
How To Use a Brain Dump?
Now we know the answer to the question, what is a brain dump? We can move onto explaining how to actually use a brain dump. The good thing is, you don’t actually need any fancy tools or apps to use brain dump, literally a pen and paper will suffice. Although you can use an app or any other software that you find helpful in terms of helping you to plan your workload.
Once you have all of your thoughts and ideas written down, you can sort through them and note or take actions, e.g.:
• Schedule tasks on your to-do list.
• Archive anything that isn’t immediate into a ‘future’ list.
• Delete anything that’s unnecessary, unimportant or is now in the past.
Brain Dump Tips:
• There are lots of different ways you can make brain dump notes. Whichever method you choose is absolutely fine, as long as you can take it with you wherever you go. So if you use a pen and paper, you will need to take that with you.
• As above, any method you choose to take notes is absolutely fine, but don’t use too many different methods, otherwise you’ll end up with a number of lists to work from and this could potentially get more confusing for you. If possible, try to make all your notes in the same place.
• Regularly review your list to make sure you haven’t left something unactioned for a long time, and to make sure the things appearing on the list are items you do need to, and at some point will action.
Why You Should Use Brain Dump?
There are lots of benefits to using the brain dump method. These include:
• By removing all the information from your head, you are freeing up your mind and allowing it to focus on specific tasks. Trying to store too much information in your head can actually have a negative impact on your productivity.
• With an actionable list of items, you are better able to manage your workload and your time.
• Looking at a list helps you to prioritise work.
• You’ll feel less overwhelmed.
• You have the satisfaction of removing completed items from the list. This sense of accomplishment is a fantastic way to boost your productivity.
• You don’t forget anything.
Now you know what brain dumping is and how to do it, give it a try, you might find it as addictive as we do!