The Benefits of A Brain Dump Journal

Our world is progressing at a faster and faster rate. More to-do’s are headed our way than ever before.

Instead of just having a usual home and work life, we now have emails, a ton of social networks, goals, side hustles, hobbies… the list is endless. With each of those categories come more things on our mind at any given moment.

I first heard about brain dumping through David Allen’s famous Getting Things Done (now usually called the GTD system) book.

The general idea is that at the end of every day you sit down with a blank piece of paper and write down every single thought and To Do rattling around in your mind from the day.

By doing this, you create a clear mind so you can look at your thoughts objectively and be able to put them in order so you can plan your next day. By having your mind constantly try to remember the things you have to do, it makes you exhausted and unable to focus. It can also wreck your sleep if you stay up trying to remember it all. Getting it all out on paper gives you the ability to deal with it.

Ideally, you take these thoughts and To Do’s and put them in your system so you can deal with them (or delete them) down the line.

What to use

Now, most people use digital calendars and organizing systems. However, there’s something important to be said for using good ol’ fashioned paper.

Few people I know have the discipline to work at their computer and fight the temptation to not just check social media for “five minutes” – which always turns into more than five minutes.

Your brain dump needs to be almost religious in nature, where you take the time away from your daily distractions and really think.

That’s why I recommend just a regular notebook you can find at any local department store. Some people like to use fancy notebooks, but I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of hesitancy to truly dump everything out because they want their notebooks to look aesthetic and almost Instagram-worthy.

Fight against perfection.

What to write down

While I love the idea of writing down all the To Do’s rattling around in your mind, there’s a huge benefit to reflecting on your day, life, and goals. This list from David Allen’s site is a great list to go over while you do your mind dump. This is an even deeper interview on the process.

So while you write down everything on your mind, ask yourself questions such as:

• Am I working toward my goals? If not, why?
• How could I become more productive?
• What matters most to me and am I making time for it?
• What do I want my legacy to be?
• If I lived this day over and over where would I get in life?
• Am I bringing my full self to each day?

This is also a perfect time to write down the little things that are bugging you. In most cases, even if you’ve written something down before, it’s better to write it down multiple times than ignore it complete.

Look ahead at things coming down your schedule to see if there are things you need to prepare or get ready.

Something to keep in mind is that this process can feel overwhelming when you suddenly have a list of 50+ things to do. Keep reminding yourself that these are not things you have to do now. You can even wait a few days to organize it all if needed.

Some things in your mind will also be attached to emotions and hard to deal with objectively. For example, if you just went through a break up, that’s going to pop up often. While there are things you can do to deal with those emotions, sometimes they’re just things that need time.

Don’t feel guilty about anything you write down, whether it’s an emotional issue or a task that you’ve written down for months in a row. Treat this exercise as objectively as you can.

How to organize it

This is where all of the worldwide planning systems differ.

You can base your system on GTD, Franklin Covey, Bullet Journal… the list is endless.

However, the essential thing with any system is to update it daily and make sure you’re getting the important things done. If important things are slipping through the cracks and you’re updating it every day, it might be time to look at a new system.

For me, I like to organize my brain dump by category. At the moment, I don’t have clear-cut projects, I just have areas where I try to keep everything organized.

I have probably too many categories, but some general ones include: Finances, fitness, clients, blogs, family, social life, etc. I keep each category as a board in Trello.

Then I take each category and organize all the To Do’s by time and priority. This system doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for me and is a quick way to get started if you don’t have a system yet.