2955: How to Do a Brain Dump to Declutter Your Mind by Antonia Collins of Balance Through Simplicity on Resetting Your Life

[00:00:00] It's a minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily Episode 2955, How to Do a Brain Dump to Declutter Your Mind by Antonia Collins of BalanceThruSimplicity.com and I'm Justin Malik.

[00:00:13] I'm going to keep this intro nice and minimal for minimalist Monday so let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:00:19] How to do a Brain Dump to Declutter Your Mind by Antonia Collins of BalanceThruSimplicity.com

[00:00:30] One of the most effective ways of getting clarity and focus is to get your thoughts out of your head and down onto paper where you can organize them and take action.

[00:00:40] If you're feeling overwhelmed, check out this post on how to do a Brain Dump to declutter your mind.

[00:00:45] What is Brain Dumping?

[00:00:48] A Brain Dump has got to be one of the most unattractive names for something that works wonders when you're feeling overwhelmed or up to your eyeballs and things to do and remember.

[00:00:58] Very simply, a Brain Dump helps you get all your thoughts out of your head and onto paper.

[00:01:04] This will have two really important benefits.

[00:01:07] Number one, it'll declutter your mind so you can focus and think clearly.

[00:01:11] And number two, seeing your jumbled thoughts on paper will enable you to organize, prioritize, and take action on them.

[00:01:19] How to do a Brain Dump to Declutter Your Mind.

[00:01:23] Number one, grab some paper and pens.

[00:01:26] Any paper will do at this stage or you can use your favorite notebook.

[00:01:30] You can either use just one pen or go for different color pens for different areas of your life like kids, school, work, family, relationships, money, and health.

[00:01:42] It might help to see it all color coded when you look back on what you've written, but in my experience, it makes it a bit more difficult to continuously write down as much as you can.

[00:01:52] If you have to stop to choose the right color, you're more likely to lose your train of thought.

[00:01:57] Simplest is often best so I'd advise just one pen but if you work better with color coding then go for that.

[00:02:05] Number two, write down all your thoughts as they come to you.

[00:02:10] Don't worry about the order in which you think about them.

[00:02:13] Often the biggest problems or issues will come out first but if something small comes to mind, just write it down.

[00:02:20] Don't worry about whether you've spelled it right or the sentence is grammatically correct or if it makes sense to anyone else reading it.

[00:02:28] As long as you can read it back and you can understand what you've written, then that's fine.

[00:02:33] Just get everything down onto paper and out of your head.

[00:02:37] Number three, you now have a visual list.

[00:02:41] You can see everything clearly and visibly in front of you so you don't have to worry about remembering all of it in your head.

[00:02:47] Your mind should be filled with less mental clutter as all your thoughts are now on paper rather than whirling around in your head.

[00:02:54] You can see exactly what's been stressing you out or worrying you.

[00:02:58] Are you starting to feel any better and a little less overwhelmed?

[00:03:02] Number four, organize your thoughts.

[00:03:06] Now you can start to make sense of what you've been thinking, make some order out of what you've written,

[00:03:11] and put in place plans to change or make things happen.

[00:03:16] How you do this will depend on how you've written your list.

[00:03:20] If you've written it in list form, maybe with bullet points, then you could just use this list and tick things off as you do them.

[00:03:27] Or if you've written a whole essay, you might want to rejig this into a list format,

[00:03:32] ticking each point in turn and forming it into a separate line or bullet point.

[00:03:37] You could highlight different areas of your life in different colors.

[00:03:40] Or you can make separate mini-lists for each area or simply reorganize your list by order of priority

[00:03:46] with most urgent or important things at the top.

[00:03:50] And number five, take action.

[00:03:53] Whatever strategy you use to organize your thoughts,

[00:03:56] find a way of breaking it all down into bite-sized chunks that you can now take action over one point at a time.

[00:04:03] Try to address each point, deal with it, and then tick it off or cross it out.

[00:04:09] There's an emotional release that happens when you cross things off a to-do list

[00:04:13] and you feel you've done them and got them out of the way.

[00:04:16] When is it helpful to brain dump?

[00:04:19] If you're feeling buried under your thoughts, there's too much going on and you can't think straight,

[00:04:24] then it's definitely time to do a brain dump.

[00:04:27] Brain dumping can also be very therapeutic and helpful when you just need to work through a problem or situation.

[00:04:34] Now, sometimes you do think of things at the very moment when you can't do much about them.

[00:04:39] If you haven't got pen and paper in hand or 30 minutes of free time, don't worry.

[00:04:44] You can do a brain dump anytime and anywhere, even if it's in the car waiting to pick up the kids from school.

[00:04:51] Just use the notes section on your phone and brainstorm some thoughts.

[00:04:55] You can pop them on your main brain dump list later.

[00:04:58] The benefits of decluttering your mind.

[00:05:01] Next time you're feeling frazzled, try a brain dump.

[00:05:04] It won't solve all of your problems, but it's a great trick to help you try to get rid of your mental clutter

[00:05:09] relatively quickly and easily to free up your mind.

[00:05:13] These are just some of the main benefits.

[00:05:15] Number one, organize.

[00:05:18] Use your brain dump to put your thoughts into some sort of organized order

[00:05:22] so you can see easily what's been on your mind.

[00:05:25] Number two, act.

[00:05:27] If you do a brain dump regularly, you'll be able to identify patterns of regular thoughts and worries

[00:05:33] and find ways to address these things so you can make them easier and simpler.

[00:05:38] Number three, clarity.

[00:05:40] It'll help you get clarity on what's going on in your life, things you're worried about,

[00:05:45] areas that need a bit of work, or when it's time to make some bigger, more strategic changes in your life.

[00:05:51] And number four, focus.

[00:05:54] It'll help you get focus and be able to concentrate on what's really important to you in life.

[00:06:00] It'll help you find a way to spend more time and energy on these things

[00:06:04] rather than get caught up on what's just clutter.

[00:06:07] A little challenge for you now.

[00:06:10] Why not grab a pen and paper and try a brain dump now?

[00:06:13] Just write down all the thoughts that pop up in your mind.

[00:06:17] You might be aware you've been thinking or stressing about some of them,

[00:06:21] but is there anything that you've written down that you didn't realize you were thinking about

[00:06:25] or was troubling you?

[00:06:31] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:33] How to Do a Brain Dump to Declutter Your Mind by Antonia Collins of balancethroughsimplicity.com

[00:06:39] Thank you, Antonia.

[00:06:41] I first heard about this exercise in college.

[00:06:44] A more unorthodox professor of mine actually had us do it in class

[00:06:49] and the instructions are pretty similar to what Antonia described,

[00:06:52] but with a slight change and that was that we weren't allowed to stop writing

[00:06:57] and it would be timed for maybe five minutes or max ten.

[00:07:01] If we couldn't think of anything to say,

[00:07:03] we were not allowed to pick up that pen or pencil from the paper,

[00:07:06] we just have to keep going and write,

[00:07:09] I don't know what to say over and over again.

[00:07:12] But one thing you'll realize is that the brain usually will fill it with something

[00:07:16] if it goes blank.

[00:07:18] It's pretty rare that there isn't some kind of thought floating up in our heads.

[00:07:21] Even if it's, I don't understand the purpose of writing, why am I doing this?

[00:07:26] So while yes there might be a space where you don't know what to write,

[00:07:30] sure enough something will pop in and you can keep going.

[00:07:34] It's crazy how quickly our minds fill the void.

[00:07:37] And I find it super helpful before bed,

[00:07:39] more like Antonia said when it just feels cluttered up there.

[00:07:43] It's easy to do but in my experience has great benefits.

[00:07:46] So how do you recommend giving it a try?

[00:07:48] It's been a while since I've done it so I'm going to have a go at it tonight

[00:07:51] and declutter the mind.

[00:07:53] Hopefully you'll declutter along with me.

[00:07:55] And with that, have a great rest of your minimalist Monday.

[00:07:58] Thank you for being here.

[00:07:59] And I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.