Braindump Journaling: A 5-Step Guide To Take Control Of Your Thoughts

I used to feel anxious all the time.

I remember when I used to overthink every little situation.

• What if I’m unable to complete all the tasks in my to-do list

• What if I fail to capture that important piece of information from a podcast

• What if I don’t buy this book and I might need the information in it 3 days later

You can see from the above patterns that the what ifs sound pretty stupid.

It damaged all the aspects of my life from relationships to work to creativity. I was in all over in my head with these thoughts, resulting in absent mindedness in the present situation.

If you’re feeling the same way, you’re not alone.

After trying tons of productivity hacks and tips, I finally found the one that worked like magic.

Brain-dump journaling.

If you’re hearing about this for the first time: Brain-dumping (or brain-dump journaling) is the act of capturing all your thoughts, to-dos and worries on a piece of paper (or a notion document) and review them.

After trying tons of productivity hacks and tips, I finally found the one that worked like magic:

Brain-dump journaling.

If you’re hearing about this for the first time: Brain-dumping (or brain-dump journaling) is the act of capturing all your thoughts, to-dos and worries on a piece of paper (or a notion document) and review them.

Once you see all your thoughts, your brain understands the fact that the information is captured somewhere.

So, it’s free to think of the task at hand and Prioritize different things according to the situations around you.

This can be done in the form of:

• Morning pages

• Pre-work session

Morning pages is like a stream of consciousness where you let your thoughts flow.

[Tim Ferriss Example to drive the point home]

Pre-work session braindump is like a list of to-dos that you need to get to and prioritize them accordingly.

Before we get in the HOW, let’s first jump in the WHY:

• Improved productivity

• Leads to new ideas so you can make new connections

• Brings order to chaos

• Mental clarity and reduced brain fog

Now that you know what it is, let’s see how you can use it:

• Step 1: All you need is a pen and paper

This is the simplest hack you will ever come across which doesn’t require any tools, hacks, or fancy apps to get started.

All you need is a pen, a paper & the ability to think and write.

If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend getting a dedicated journal so you it’s easy for you to start recognising thoughts and patterns overtime.

Avoid going digital for at least 30 days.

• Step 2: Start a 5 minute timer and dump everything you know about the topic

Literally anything that your mind comes up.

The key is to start small and then grow gradually. Remember, the easier it is to get started, the more likely you are to stay consistent.

Don’t judge your thoughts.

At the end of the timer, you should have a chaotic page of madness that doesn’t make sense to anybody else but you.

• Step 3: Categorize the list

Once you’re done with the timer, take a 5 minute break.

The reason being you’ll find everything urgent and important the moment you write it.

The longer you wait before organizing your thoughts, the better it is for you to be non-judgemental of your thoughts.

Categorize the list into urgent, primary and secondary tasks.

• Primary = Tasks that are less urgent by should be done within a day or two

• Secondary = Tasks that are not urgent at all and can be postponed to later in the week

• Urgent = Tasks you need to get to right away

• Step 4: Add 3 most important tasks in a short list

Your short-list (or the urgent list) should have no more than 3 tasks at once.

The more you do this, the easier it gets for you to prioritise tasks that are urgent and important.

Keep in mind though that the task list shouldn’t exceed more than 3 tasks at a time.

• Step 5: Repeat the above steps

So, to recap, we covered:

• What is braindumping

• Type of braindumping

• How you can start using it right away

And that's it for this week.

I'll be back Saturday breaking down viral tweets and threads as usual.

Just wanted to try my hand at something new this week.

So, see you next time.

Cheers.

Kush.