Brain dump 101

What is brain dump? It’s exactly what it’s called.

It is the removal or anything and everything that comes to mind on as many pages of paper it takes without thought or any kind of specific order.

Simplified: Taking it all out without thought.

Benefits: Immediate clarity and relief.

Who is it for: Anyone that has a mind and uses it today.

Proof: Trial is free

Every once in a while I go through this process to get a grip on my life and thoughts and stop to ask the important questions and see where I’m going and why?

Am I driven? Or am I the driver? Am I on a plan or am I someone’s plan? Do I know what the F is going on?

Usually I have several projects going on at once, and usually non of those projects see the end of the road. Taking on too many ideas and projects as a freelancer can be daunting, ask any freelancer.

The absence of formality and timing is a bummer! It’s one of the costs of the free roaming life one chooses away from rigid corporate structures.

My father tells me:

For every benefit in life there’s a payoff, for every choice you make a sacrifice… so, choose wisely it could take a lifetime.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Radadi

So what is this mind dump excercise I speak of so wisely as if I’m the expert behind its existence and usage worldwide…?

It’s something you will thank me for if you’ve never practiced it the way I will show you now, yes, you will thank me and I’m grateful.

There are two ways to do this:

Creatively

Take a blank, non ruled paper; write down the following phrase and circle it: Everything on my mind now, date.

Now draw a line out of that circle and write whatever comes to mind first.. and another line under it with whatever comes out and so on.

To add some flair and pizzazz to it circle the thing and try not to describe it in over three words, less is better.

Keep going and don’t stop for 25 minutes. Keep your writing small so it fits one page, if it doesn’t make space for all by making longer lines away from what’s already there and keep going.

Quick & Dirty

Same as above but without the circle, just keep writing till you fill the whole page. No guidelines here, simple one after the other writing works great!

Keep going till the page can’t breathe anymore from what is hovering inside your head. The basic idea is to take it all out.

Fill in the empty spaces, try and make the page beg mercy! And guess what? NO MERCY!

When you are done with whichever way you choose, stop, lean back on your comfy chair or go make an espresso or tea and come back to check out your work of art.

What do I do next?

Well, that’s up to you. You have three options now:

• Look at it. Admire it. Take a big sigh of relief. Then start to analyze and separate the things into categories and get your act together. Place what you find into important, very important, dated material, discard stuff, not important and you get the drift!
• Look at it. Admire it. Feel great about yourself for taking the time and effort to do yourself something good in this time of distraction and confusion at the speed of tech! File it for later, or never.. and continue with your day.
• Look at it. Admire it. Burn it. Feel awesome and alive with nothing floating around in your head not captured 😉

The idea was to rid yourself of all that confusion in the fastest and least expensive way possible and feel great every once in a while.

Job accomplished!

What do you think? Any ideas? Wanna share some of your own techniques that can help us? Please do share … and have a wonderful day!