[00:00:00] This is episode 41 on the Balancing Busy Podcast, and I’m Leah Rele talking to you about my favorite simple strategy. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, this is what I use when my brain is just, it’s at capacity, like, I can’t fit anything else in, and I’m worried I’m starting to lose things. If you’ve ever had to untangle a ball of Christmas lights or a necklace, that’s what I feel like it feels like.

[00:00:27] Like you’re pulling and you’re, you’re trying to figure out what connects where and what you should be grabbing first, and you’re hoping you’re not making it worse. Worse sometimes. That is what our brains feel like, and so whatever that happens, This is what I use because I’m just feeling too much stress.

[00:00:46] There are too many things and the pressure is building up. But I will say, even though most often I’m using it because of a stress component, I also absolutely use these. In a very different way, which is when I’m super giddy and excited because I have some new project, some new thing that I wanna do, and I need to take all of the ideas that I have around that project and I need to organize them so that I can know exactly where I’m supposed to start.

[00:01:17] We are talking about brain dumps and how we can use them to create greater focus, minimize stress, and just see more clearly. The next right steps and before you dismiss this episode thinking, oh, I, I know how to do brain dumps. I know you do. I totally know you do. But I’d love to share how I use them because I know I can give you a couple of tips and tricks just to make your brain dumps even more effective.

[00:01:45] I was trying to think back to the first time I taught about brain dumps and it was at my very first workshop ever. I love how powerful these are and really I can go back even further than that. I see brain dumps as being so effective, , but especially for those who are dyslexic or a d d, I’m both those who maybe get easily distracted, who are constantly carrying and holding on to all of these different things, and it’s keeping you up at night. It’s adding to your stress. I grabbed onto these so early in some form.

[00:02:20] I didn’t know it was called a brain dump back then, but I remember using these in high school because I was getting all of these different assignments and tasks from different teachers, different classes, and I needed a way to prioritize them. So let’s get in to the power of the brain dump.

[00:02:37] Brain dumps are simple, but they’re also incredibly effective method for organizing all of your thoughts, reclaiming your focus, and being able to know what you should do next. And maybe that is the most powerful thing, because if you’re. Feeling stuck. A brain dump can get you unstuck. I use brain dumps every time I need to get the thoughts out of my head and into an organized format that’s going to allow me to clearly see what should come first.

[00:03:35] So that’s whether I’m doing a brand new project, I have some big new course or idea that I need to flush out or it’s, there’s just too many things going on in my head and maybe we’re talking about there’s home things and work things and parent things. Spouses things and family things, and I just need to get all of that chaos that is stirring around up in my head and I need to get it.

[00:03:59] Now, I think there’s really two different kinds of brain dumps. There’s the emotional brain dump where you’re almost using it like a therapy session, like a journal, and you’re just dumping out all of the feelings. I’m gonna be focusing on organizational brain dumps. This is what I love. This is what I use.

[00:04:16] So to start a brain dump, we simply dump it all out. It’s the equivalent of dumping a puzzle out onto the table. You just let everything fall out. There’s no judgment, there’s no concern. Where it all lands, you’re just letting it all dump out onto a piece of paper. I always use paper and pen, but you could literally use a greaseboard sticky notes, your iPad or your your remarkable, anything that you like to use, you’re just getting all the thoughts out with no concern about where they fall.

[00:04:48] We’ll get to that part next now. It’s all messy and it’s time to tidy it up, and I’m going to actually start with something that is not what you’ve normally heard, but I think it’s so important and it’s really powerful. Instead of starting with what is the most important thing, that’s actually gonna be step two for us.

[00:05:09] Step one is going to be asking ourselves if there’s anything that we can just remove off the list completely.

[00:05:16] James Clear has a quote that goes something like, the best form of time management is saying no. So let’s just start by looking at everything we’ve dumped out and seeing if there’s anything we get to just say, no, thank you. That does not even need to be done. That is not a priority. We have an incredible.

[00:05:36] Podcast episode with Lighty Clouts about the power of subtraction. It’s episode 17. He has an amazing book called Subtract, and it’s just this idea that when there is a problem, our go-to instinct is to figure out what we need to add. Oh, what do I need to do in order to solve this? But what if more often?

[00:05:58] There’s actually going to be greater power in subtracting, but our minds just don’t go there naturally. So that’s where I want you to start. You’re looking at this big messy list, and the first thing, is there anything that you get to just slash you can cross out. You can say, Nope, don’t, don’t need to do that.

[00:06:16] Now that we’ve hopefully removed a couple of things for you, now we’re gonna start looking for those highest priorities. And what I’m looking for is the obvious, keeping with my, my puzzle analogy. And what I’m looking for is the obvious. If we’re keeping with my puzzle analogy, we’re looking for the corners, right?

[00:06:35] We’re looking for the frame that’s gonna go around. These are those most important tasks. They might be urgent, they have a deadline attached to. Or they’re just obvious first steps. They are the things that will make the biggest impact possibly, or they have a deadline attached to ’em. When I’m judging based on biggest impact, I am really looking for two things to be solved.

[00:07:04] Can it make me more money? Can it save me more time? And if there are several tasks where I’m saying, oh, well these are all higher priority because they can do those things, then it just becomes, well, which one can save me the most time? Which one could make me the most money? And those are going to naturally rise up and become higher up on the list.

[00:07:25] So I’m just looking at this big dumped out mess of items. And I’m starting to give them a number. I’m starting to say, okay, well this one definitely needs to be number one. This one’s number two, and it’s messy. I’m gonna probably decide that something is number three, and then read down. And realize, oh shoot, this should actually be three.

[00:07:47] So the first one just became three B, and the new one becomes three A, because no one’s seeing this but me. This doesn’t have to look good. It doesn’t have to have any capacity that is understood by anyone other than me. Sometimes I’m using a highlighter and I’m kind of highlighting the biggest priorities.

[00:08:04] Sometimes I’m just numbering. It’s whatever works and visually makes sense for you. Then I start moving these items into their proper. What we’re trying to do is we’re going from the chaos and we’re bringing all of these thoughts into a linear format where we actually can see step one, step two, step three.

[00:08:26] Sometimes it’s obvious because there’s a natural progression. If I am thinking about a podcast episode, well, I need to research and create the podcast. Copy first, then I would record it. Then it would go to get edited. Then we would create the show notes, then we would create the graphics. There’s this very, very natural order.

[00:08:51] Sometimes it’s that simple, and so I’m working to figure out the order within that area. Maybe those ones are gonna look like three A, B, C, D, E, f, G. There might be other things that I’m like, well, this needs to be done cuz it is due today. So that is number one. And maybe another thing is something that I’ve been really wanting to do.

[00:09:11] This is the working on your business, not just in your business. This is gonna save me time, it’s gonna make me more money. So I’m gonna push that up as a higher priority and give that the two spot. So you can see I’m starting to get this sense of where everything is gonna go. There are things that are really fast and simple.

[00:09:30] These are two minutes or less. I’m gonna probably move a lot of those onto my daily. Five. These are the top five things I wanna get done that day. But the bigger items, the items that I know are gonna take a chunk of time for me to do. I actually start scheduling right into my calendar. So I see that number two is gonna maybe take me about.

[00:09:54] 30 to 45 minutes. So I block in 45 minutes on my calendar and list out what that item is somewhere in the week, depending on if there’s urgency or what it is. But I’m literally moving these items right into my calendar. So if you were to look at my calendar right now, you would see that there are blocks of time scheduled.

[00:10:17] Create YouTube video, create and schedule. Uh, Facebook reels. There are things that I’m blocking into the schedule because once I dumped them all out, I thought, okay, well, where are these gonna fit? And I actually start making room right in my calendar and blocking out my week with these different action items that I want to get done.

[00:10:39] Now, there’s going to be things typically left over on. Brain dump list. So I’ve moved some of the things to my top five, like, oh, these are the first five things. I’m gonna do those today. I’ve moved some of ’em and actually scheduled it into my calendar, but often I have additional things that are just sort of sitting on the list.

[00:11:00] Those go into an. Organized format. Again, I’m prioritizing them, starting with the number one spot going all the way down, and then those go out of sight. So typically I’m transferring over to either the Remind app or the notes app. That way I can see it from anywhere, whether it’s my computer, my laptop, my phone, so they’re somewhere where I can access it anywhere.

[00:11:22] I don’t have to worry that, oh shoot, I forgot my notepad at my office and now I don’t have my list. But I don’t want it to be something I’m looking. All the time. I, if it was a piece of paper, I’d literally put it in a drawer. In this case, it’s moving into notes, and then I’m closing that because I don’t ever want to work off of a huge to-do list.

[00:11:43] It’s too discouraging. You never get to the bottom. So even if you’ve been really productive, It doesn’t feel super productive. So instead I take the most important tasks, I move them to my daily five. Those are gonna be the top things I schedule other things in that are gonna be bigger chunks of time, and then I put that list away and tomorrow I can grab the next five items, move those to my daily five, and I can work to make progress off this list.

[00:12:09] I feel like the only time when that really doesn’t happen is day bef before a vacation, and then somehow we miraculously can get. 30 items when normally you can’t get through more than three. It’s incredible. I love the idea.

[00:12:23] It’s Tim Ferris’s idea. If you could make every single day, like the day before vacation Oh wow. The amount we could get done. And I don’t know if that’s fully sustainable, but that really is how I try to. My days, but just in short chunks, like I’m gonna be so productive. I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna make so much happen, and then I’m out, and then I am walking away, I’m closing the door and I’m, I’m moving on to the other things.

[00:12:48] Using brain dumps, it becomes really easy for me to take all that chaotic messiness and organize it where I can see a clear first step and a clear last step. 

[00:12:59] If you are finding yourself in one of those moments where there’s just too many thoughts, Rushing around in your head, try the brain dump, and if you find yourself you’re going to sleep at night and there’s all these thoughts, dump it all out. Just wait to organize till the morning. The biggest thing is your brain is worried you’re going to forget these different things.

[00:13:21] It is so important. You can’t forget this. So it keeps rushing back to the forefront. Dump it out onto paper and then you can give yourself permission like, okay, okay brain, we got this. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna forget. Now it’s written down and then you can rest. And then in the morning you can take all of those thoughts and get them organized.

[00:13:39] So there’s my take on brain dumps and how I use organizational brain dumps to keep me focused. Use a brain dump when you’re planning your next project. Work with it when you’ve got too many thoughts in your head.

[00:13:52] But the key is to stop trying to remember all the things in your mind. And instead get them onto paper, let them out so that you can relieve that stress on your brain that is trying so hard to recall and bring these up even at really inopportune times because there’s this fear that you’re going to forget something that is important.

[00:14:15] That is this episode of The Balancing Busy Podcast. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. If you have not yet, please take a moment and make sure you’re subscribed and downloading the episodes so that I can keep giving you needle movers that are going to help you balance the busy, but with more.