In the words of the 90s vocal group En Vogue, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow”.

Learning how to brain dump is so freeing and a truly useful tool for collecting your thoughts.

We’re living in days and times where it’s normal for many of our lives to be busy and for our minds to be full of the world of things that are constantly swirling around. We often have little idea of how to sort through all these thoughts, understand and, importantly, organise them. A brain dump permits us to get all of this out and afterwards offers a simple method for coordinating each of the contemplations, assisting with figuring them out.

As an over thinker and perpetual planner (I’m what you might call a typical Virgo), I live day to day, holding a lot of information in the forefront of my mind. And as you might imagine, I tell myself that EVERYTHING is important and a priority.

Resulting in continuous overwhelm, fatigue and procrastination… Ahhhhhhhhh!

So…

What is a brain dump?

brain dump

noun

: the act or an instance of comprehensively and uncritically expressing and recording one’s thoughts and ideas (as on a particular topic) Instead, Shafer recommends doing a brain dump—getting workflow, ideas, commitments, and to-do lists out of your head and onto a physical list and calendar.

How do brain dumps actually help your life?

Brain dumping has proven itself to be a mighty tool in getting a powerful grip on all that consumes my mind. It provides the unloading needed in order to maintain capacity, especially for those things that pop up unplanned in life.

Getting the ‘stuff’ out of our heads and visually in front of us is so liberating, as this allows for the thoughts to be distanced from us, consequentially creating a pressure release that ultimately allows us to feel lighter in our whole being.

Brain dumps can be most helpful when we’re stressed/anxious. It can also help us with focus, and to not forget things, improving what we remember.

Now that you know what brain dumping is, let me break down how to brain dump.

How to do a Brain Dump?

OK, so brain dumping is very simple.

Find a quiet spot that you can occupy, preferably uninterrupted for at least 10 minutes (even if it means hiding in your bathroom or car) away from your family, friends, pets, etc.

Get a pen and paper or use your notes app on your mobile phone to list EVERYTHING that is on your mind and at the forefront of your thoughts.

Once you’ve dumped out everything that has been clouding your mind, read through your list and seek to find the sense and themes in it all.

On another piece of paper or note page in the phone app. Think about the patterns and themes that may have started to reveal themselves from the first page and create categories for them, for example work stuff, family stuff, home stuff, etc.

Once everything’s organised, take some time to find logical and reasonable solutions for each topic.

The solutions may not come to you immediately and that’s perfectly fine as they should come to you, eventually.

The key success in this process is the brain dumping itself!

And there it is, very simple yet highly effective.

I hope that this post has informed you of how beneficial brain dumps can be for your mental health and that this has given you inspiration to start your own version of brain dumping!