Having a lot of things battling for space in your thoughts can be very confusing to the extent that you have a lot of ideas of what you need done but just can't pinpoint which to begin with. There are people who have a habit of springing up new ideas almost on a moment by moment basis i.e. before one idea can completely form in their head, another is already forming. Now if people with this tendency do not pull a handle somehow on their thinking process, they can end up in a jumbled up mess viz a viz frustrating confusion.
Now this does not have to be the case. Certain actions you take can help your thoughts develop into something sensible enough to act upon. How can this be done? Simply by pouring out every forming ideas unto a page of say a notebook, and then continue on the notebook as more thoughts on this idea come up. Sometimes an idea could come to what looks like the end of it and you realize another idea starts forming sometime later. If this is the case, there is no problem about that. All you do is what you did with the earlier idea. Pour it unto your notebook again. Just continue with this process. This does not normally happen all at once or in the same day. Therefore it is a good idea to have your notebook handy and something that you can log around with you anywhere you go.
Pouring all your forming thoughts on a page is what is called 'Brain Dumping'. An act of off-loading thoughts from your mind and putting them onto something physical from where you can organize those thoughts to make some form of sense. That something physical which could be a note book for instance is called a 'Brain Dump'. Just like how you would empty a load of washed laundry from a laundry basket onto a surface like a table or bed and begin sorting through it and folding away or pressing what needs to be pressed. Hoping this explanation makes some sense.
What you could do is sort through the pages of your brain dump when you have the time to sit at a table which normally should be daily as much as possible, and try to match all thoughts for the same idea and see what you can do with them from there.
Thoughts that are useful which are left in your head, have the tendency to be forgotten, and so brain dumping helps you keep a clear head. When your thoughts are loaded, you tend to be easily distracted and anxious. I mean it endangers you in certain instances. For instance, it is so not a good idea to have a head full of thoughts that are not yet attended to while behind the steering wheel. It is okay to have thoughts to some extent but you would feel more at ease to know that you won't loose those thoughts. There are instances of people struggling to ensure that an idea they just had stays in their head and is not forgotten until they have time to act on it. But you would feel much better if you have some place handy where you can quickly take a note on that idea before you loose it. Brain dumping keeps you away from stress mode.
Everyone can do with brain dumping at what ever level or age. It helps keep you organized and focused. Your brain dump can also become a reference point for you every now and then. I use a mini leather covered refillable notepad. Mini because I needed something so small that it could fit into almost all of my bags and purses but big enough that it could last for a while. Having a small notepad for brain dumping gives you a feeling of having your life in order and that is a comforting feeling and it boosts your confidence.It is quite helpful if before you go to bed each night you sit and write out thoughts you had that were not yet written on paper. Write and write until you feel you have de-congested your mind. After that it is okay to thumb through the pages of your notepad or notebook and do some work in trying to put some of those thoughts into some form of plan or project. Now the part of thumbing through and working on your pages is not necessarily something you need to do before going to bed but emptying your thoughts helps you get a good night's sleep. How about that-insomnia?
Now not everything you pour out from your mind must be a plan or goal or whatever. Brain dump is not a planner system per se but a way to just clean out your mind, so what is expected that you should have in your brain dump could range from annoying thoughts, documentation of your feelings and much more.
There are people who use other means of brain dumping like typing it on a computer or a phone notes section. Well that is so not for me. I am still very comfortable with good ol' notebooks. This does not mean that I am hard core notebook in every thing but I am one person who has a hard time doing away with the paper. I feel that physical books are still very important and relevant in our times and and still have a future.
Often times, brain dumping on papers rarely show up again in your thoughts to distract you. Once captured on a page, you have it captured and under control.
Do you practice any form of brain dumping? I would love to know about it in the comments section.
Drop a comment if you practice any form of brain dumping.