We simply can’t fill our brains to the brim and expect it to hold everything well
A brain dump is exactly what it sounds like—a chance to get everything out of your brain and onto paper. You not only create room in that pretty little head of yours, you process and organize exactly what you need to do going forward.
How to Brain Dump
In it’s purest form, brain-dumping is simply creating a list of unconnected thoughts on a page.
I like to make a list of bullet points, then jot a thought or sentence next to each one. If I have more to say regarding a specific bullet, I just keep writing. If I have something to add a little later down the page, I will draw an arrow back to the original thought.
Quick Note: Don’t worry about being organized at this point. Just write. It’s okay to be messy, because we are going to process everything later!
How to Process Your Brain Dump
After your brain dump is complete, take a quick break so you can come back with a fresh perspective. Then it’s time to get organized.
Delete. Delete. Delete. I’ll let you in on a little secret—you do not have to accomplish everything that comes out of your head. In fact, I would encourage you not too! Select a Red or Black pen, and cross off anything that is not reasonable for you to do. If it’s a legitimate “someday” task, keep it. But it’s better to be ruthless now than later.
Pull out a blank page and draw four quadrants. Label them as follows:
A) Urgent and Important – Tasks that go here are your first priority and should be accomplished within the next few weeks.
B) Important, but Not Urgent – Tasks that need to get done, but don’t need to be done right away.
C) Urgent, but Not Important – Tasks that seem urgent {like email and social media}, but really are not that important.
D) Not Urgent, and Not Important – Consider deleting or adding to your “Someday” list.
Migrate all relevant tasks from your Brain Dump over to this Task Management Page. Do this until all tasks are written down in their specific quadrants according to color. If you have a lot of tasks in a specific category {like Home}, you may want to create a single Task Management Page for that category.