What Is A Brain Dump?

A brain dump is an exercise of writing everything we can think of down on a piece of paper or in a word document. We can then use this exercise to help us go back to sleep or to pick the next quick realistic, manageable step (short task) that is important to achieve.

How To Complete A Brain Dump.

Firstly, start by getting all your thoughts, to do’s, shopping list items, phone calls and emails you need to send, etc., out of your head. Everything you can think of or what is playing on your mind in those few minutes. I’d set aside about 15 minutes for this task. By doing the brain dump it will afford you some sense of relief as your mind will begin to relax and realize it doesn’t have to keep everything to the fore. It can begin to know these items, things or people don’t need to be solved or dealt with straight away. That’s it! It’s that simple.

We can use what we have written to help use solve a problem as we can go over the facts and challenge them or see the facts from the other stuff crowding our mind. It will free up some space in our head so we can sleep. Or we can use it to see patterns to our thoughts or beliefs.

When To Use A Brain Dump.

It’s okay to use this technique at any time of the day even if you have things planned out in your diary. Doing a brain dump gets everything out of our heads so we don’t need to hold on, solve right away or deal with them right now. We get time to think about what is really going on and then act more in our best interest.  When are some useful times to use a brain dump?

1. To Help Us Relax.

If you are working then I suggest you do this twice a day. Once, when you finish work to clear your mind of work stuff and before the evening routine kicks in. It’ll also help you be more present if you are not trying to keep work related stuff in your head. You’ll be more focused and relaxed at home as a result.

The second time I advice using a brain dump is before you go asleep. It gets everything you could possible think of down on paper and out of your head. If you forgot to send an email, make a call, or need to do something for the children, etc., then write it down in the brain dump instead of trying to remember it all night.  Finish with 3 things you’re grateful for. This will also help to raise your happiness levels.

2. If You Are Struggling To Complete Tasks (Work/Home)

Stop, take a breath and 15 minutes to write everything down. It’ll be more a more productive thing to do than trying to continue procrastinating anyway. Then pick a 5 minute task to begin with from your list and then move on to the next quickest task, and so on. You’ll feel better even taking small steps to get going again. We can also use the brain dump to see where, and with what, we might ask for help or delegate or delete off our “to do” list. That way you are helping yourself to feel not so overwhelmed by everything you think you have to do.

3. To See Our Thinking Patterns.

When we get into the habit of using a nightly brain dump we can begin to recognise any negative thinking patterns we might have. Using the nightly brain dump to get everything out of our heads each night will help us to relax more. Then we can start to see any patterns in our thinking. When we see the patterns we can use this information to raise awareness firstly. Then accept our thoughts, behaviours, feelings and identify physical sensations in our body. Lastly we can take action to change. By doing the brain dump we realize we don’t need to carry everything around in our heads and enter into the rumination cycle which destroys our self-confidence.  We can let them go and focus fully on what we want to do next. Hopefully challenging the negative thinking and being proactive in our steps going forward.

Even if you don’t use the brain dump for any of the above, simply getting into a habit of using it each night will help improve your sleep. So why not give it a go tonight?

My Books.

The topics and tips I give in my workbooks The Building Blocks Of Self-Care and Building Acceptance Into Your Life will all help you build your own self-confidence. You can purchase them on Amazon or here.