Final week I shared An Exercise to Scale back Burnout (and Extra): Begin a Record of Each Single Factor You Do at Work. The aim of that train was to see ALL of your duties in a single place so you would stop burnout, handle expectations, fight imposter syndrome, and understand your price.
This week, I’ve an analogous train for you, however that is extra for occasions when your mind is totally overwhelmed with the issues you must do (or cluttered with stuff you simply suppose it’s best to do).
Regardless of being a giant list-maker, there are nonetheless occasions after I can’t maintain up to the mark each professionally and personally – there may be all the time that *one factor* that I keep in mind at 2 o’clock within the morning.
That’s after I must do a mind dump.
Brain dumps are very simple. You simply write down just about all the pieces that involves your head.
There isn’t any proper or improper technique to do a mind dump. Some folks prefer to fancy it up with totally different colour pens and inventive fonts, however you do you.
I exploit a notepad and a pen I took from a resort – decidedly NOT fancy.
Whereas some will encourage you to only begin writing, I draw a line down the center of the paper. Then on one facet I write work-related ideas like easy to-dos or concepts for weblog posts or webinars, and so on. And on the opposite facet is home-related concepts like make a health care provider’s appointment, work out the again yard, refill canine’s prescriptions, meal concepts, and so on.
This fashion if I don’t do the subsequent step, there may be nonetheless some order to the dump.
After getting your entire ideas out, you then want to determine the way to arrange them. You may switch them to a different to-do checklist, arrange them by precedence, or use sticky notes, a highlighter, or some kind of color-coding system on the identical piece of paper. Once more, do what works for you.
Being somebody who has anxiousness, my mind is consistently “speaking” to me which makes it onerous to maintain observe of issues. A mind dump helps me focus and get all the pieces out. And normally, as soon as I write it down, it will get executed.
When you nonetheless aren’t fairly positive the place to begin, Diary of a Journal Planner shares some prompts in How To Do A Brain Dump:
- What have you ever been nervous about?
- What do you retain forgetting to do?
- Did one thing go improper along with your day/week?
- What actually labored as we speak/ this week?
- What duties by no means appear to get executed?
- Is there an upcoming occasion or special day?
- Are there any massive objectives you retain laying aside that may make a giant distinction to your life. Perhaps you wish to take up yoga, begin a brand new health routine or lose just a few kilos.
- Is there one thing you’d like to study?
See extra prompts in that put up.
Some folks mind dump each day or weekly. I solely bran dump after I understand I’ve forgotten to do one thing a number of occasions or after I get that “AHHHHHH” feeling in my mind when it might’t maintain one other factor (or possibly that’s simply me).
Let me know you probably have tried mind dumping and the way it labored for you!
