Get those thoughts out ofyour head and onto the page.
Do you ever wake up in the morning with a million thoughts racing through your head?
You may be thinking of your to-do list, assignments you need to do at work, or countless other things.
These types of thoughts often course through your brain repeatedly and cloud your mind.
If you’ve experienced that mentally cluttered feeling, you’re not alone, but brain dumping may be able to help.
Brain Dumping: 3 Important Reasons to Try It
What is Brain Dumping?
According to Merriam-Webster, a brain dump is “the act or an instance of comprehensively and uncritically expressing and recording one’s thoughts and ideas.”
Simply put, brain dumping lets you get as many thoughts as possible out of your head and onto a page.
If you’ve never done a brain dump before, this may seem like an odd or intimidating exercise.
But brain dumping is uncomplicated, and there are at least three important reasons to try it.
Why You Should Try Brain Dumping
According to a study conducted by Queen’s University, humans average 6,000 thoughts per day.
We don’t even realize that we’re even thinking many of these thoughts. That may be a good thing.
Many of us attempt to keep thousands of ideas organized on sheer brainpower alone.
The majority of us are unsuccessful in this endeavor.
Other conditions, like anxiety, can also exacerbate the feeling of racing thoughts and a cluttered mind.
Add the distractions of things like devices, our jobs, and other life occurrences, and it can feel nearly impossible to keep up with everything.
However, a straightforward solution can help with racing thoughts. Enter, brain dumping.
What are the Benefits of Brain Dumping?
It Declutters Your Mind
Similar to the fresh feeling you get when you declutter your house, brain dumping is like decluttering your mind.
Getting errant thoughts out of your head and onto the page helps free up crucial space in your brain.
Doing a brain dump can also improve your memory. Brain dumping takes the pressure off your memory rather than forcing your brain to remember random thoughts (impromptu grocery list, anyone?).
It Boosts Creativity
Freeing up space in your mind helps to allow for creative thought processes.
Once you clear out mundane and repetitive thoughts, you may be surprised at how creative your thinking gets.
When you no longer force yourself to remember menial work tasks or chores, ideas for the novel you always wanted to write or a great business idea may reveal themselves.
It Helps You to Organize Your Thoughts
If you’ve ever felt scatterbrained while trying to create goals or organize your thoughts, brain dumping can be a massive asset.
Getting ideas out and onto paper allows you to survey and manage them as needed.
Having clarity regarding your thoughts is especially helpful for essential tasks like goal-setting or creative ventures.
How to Brain Dump
You don’t have to follow any “proper” steps or rules to get the benefits of a brain dump. You can improvise and experiment as much or as little as you’d like. The entire purpose of the brain dump is to get thoughts out of your head.
- Choose a time: Brain dumping can be done during any portion of the day, although the most popular is the morning. Whenever you need to clear your mind, do a brain dump.
- Just start writing: The simplest way to do a brain dump is to take a blank sheet of paper, set a timer, and let your mind go. Write everything that comes to mind onto the page.
- Let it flow freely: Don’t limit or edit yourself while writing. The purpose of the exercise is to clear as much as you can from your brain onto the page. Even if you end up writing about how stressed you feel or your tentative lunch order, that’s progress. The key is to write down everything you’re thinking, no matter how trivial it may seem.
- Don’t judge: While it may be easy to do so, try not to be critical. Your natural inclination may be to stifle things and not write them down. Try to avoid doing this. The thoughts you don’t want to write are often just the ones you need to get out of your brain.
- Go digital: If you’re more digitally inclined, consider doing a brain dump using the Notes app on your phone or a blank word processor page on your computer.
- Look it over (or don’t): Once you’ve done a brain dump, you may choose to read over what you wrote. Reading what you wrote is entirely optional. There could be new or fresh thoughts within the finished product. However, don’t beat yourself up if your writings don’t contain gems. Remember, brilliance is not (necessarily) the goal. Alternatively, some people choose not to read brain dumps which is also totally fine.
The Takeaway
Brain dumping can be an essential tool for anyone that wants to maximize brainpower and gain clarity.
Consider doing a brain dump every day for a week to try it out.
Remember to write freely and leave as much as you can on the page.
With consistent brain dumping, you’ll be sure to bask in having a clearer mind in no time.
Want more personal growth guidance? Check out these articles:
4 Simple Strategies To Nix Morning Anxiety And Own Your Day
