Does your mind ever race so much you can’t think clearly or focus? Mine does! It’s almost like my brain is so jumbled up with ideas there’s a proverbial traffic jam and nothing is getting through. Instead of working I might stare off into space, pace, or babble incoherently to anyone that will listen. Apparently I cannot hold onto all of these different ideas in my mind and work at the same time, indeed I must de-clutter.
One sure fire way to de-clutter my mind from overwhelm like that is to do a brain dump. Of course I do this in my journal. In fact, the last pages of my journal are dedicated to brain dumps. Sometimes I’ll fill up over a page in 1 session. Other times I’ll write down just a handful of ideas. Either way, my brain dump pages are the inbox of my journal.
Ideas go into my brain dump to ensure I capture them and integrate them into the rest of my planning efforts later. Otherwise I’m prone to forget when it counts or worse, be drawn to switch tasking (news flash there’s no such thing as multi-tasking). Keeping and using the brain dump in my journal enables me to stay focused
in the moment and maximize my limited resources in the future so I can get more done with less.
So, instead of getting mired in feeling overwhelmed, do a brain dump – you’ll thank me later! Oh, and check out this list of prompts to help get the juices flowing sometimes when I start to do a brain dump, it’s like all my ideas evaporated and prompts help to lubricate my thinking so I can get them out of my head and onto the page).
Turn to the last page in your journal
Write Brain Dump at the top & the date below
List every idea, no matter how big or small, that’s on your mind
Use prompts to help you recall ideas to add to your brain dump
After you take a few minutes to complete your brain dump, you can go back to your regularly scheduled programming assured that your ideas now have a home…then when you sit down to plan for your day/week/month you can review your brain dump and integrate those ideas accordingly, viola! Also, having the brain dump in the back of your journal ensures quick and easy access the next time you need to quickly jot an idea down, no fumbling as you look for the right page.
What’s Rosabella Consulting Up To?
We’ve been busy working on our campaign to promote entrepreneurship and literacy these last few weeks. We’ve recently distributed over 10 copies of A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide to libraries in Northern Colorado, updated our map and are finalizing plans for a big back-to-school push we’ll share more about soon…it’s all very nerdy!
In the meantime, please join me in thanking our campaign sponsors, Motherlove Herbal Company, DaVinci Signs, Chippers Lanes, Exodus Moving & Storage, and Inner Balance Chiropractic. Also, special thanks to the Ricardo Family, and Alicia & John for their very generous support of our campaign as well. We are very grateful to these companies and individuals for their generosity!
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