You know that feeling when your brain has approximately 78623 tabs open?! You need to reply to an email, book an appointment at the dentist, order more dog food, finish your latest project at work and also research that idea you randomly had as you were drifting off to sleep last night - which of course you’ve forgotten what it was. 

When everything is floating around in your brain, even the smallest jobs can feel overwhelming. 

Enter: the brain dump! 

What is a brain dump? 

A brain dump is exactly what it sounds like - getting all ther stuff currently taking up space in your brain out onto a piece of paper. 

You’re not making a beautifully organised plan, or even deciding when you’re going to do everything, you’re basically word vomiting onto the page. 

Step one: Write down EVERYTHING

And I mean absolutely everything! 

Big work project? Write it down.

Need toothpaste? Write it down.

Been meaning to book that dentist appointment for months? Write it down! 

Don’t worry about whether something is important, urgent or even particularly sensible yet. The first job is simply to get everything out of your head. 

Step two: Sort the chaos.

Once you’ve emptied your brain onto paper, you can start by figuring out what all of it actually means. 

You could break it down into categories like:

• Top priorities

• I need to book/schedule

• I need to order/buy

• I need to contact…

• I need to research

• For another day…

Suddenly, one enormous cloud of ‘stuff i need to do’ starts looking a little more manageable.

Step three: Pick your actual priorities

Look at your list and choose the things that genuinely matter today. Not the things you COULD technically squeeze in if you worked at maximum productivity from 7am until bedtime. 

Choose the things that ACTUALLY need doing, everything else can wait. Yes… really!

Step four: Give yourself somewhere to put the ‘not now’ things. 

Writing the ‘not now’ things down somewhere means your brain doesn’t have to keeping shouting ‘DON’T FORGET THAT THING’ at you over and over again. 

It’s safely on your list, and being on your list doesn’t mean that it needs to be done immediately. 

Step five: Make the system work for your brain. 

There is no prize for having the most elaborate productivity system. If colour coding everything makes your brain happy, then do it! If you need stickers and a little treat as a reward? Excellent. 

The best planning system is not the prettiest or most-productive looking one. It’s the one you will ACTUALLY use. 

If staring at a completely blank piece of paper makes your brain immediately forget everything it had ever needed to do, I made the Ultimate Brain Dump Notepad to do the sorting bit for you. 

It has dedicated spaces for top priorities, things to book, things to buy, people to contact, things to research and, possibly the most important, things that can be dealt with another day!