Brain dumping: This is how your brain will be free again in a few minutes

The brain dumping method will help you clear your head. By writing down your thoughts, you can concentrate better and switch off. We’ll explain how it works.

Brain dumping: That’s behind the term

Brain dumping is a method you can use to organize the chaos of thoughts in your head. Unresolved tasks, fears, annoyances or mental restlessness often trigger stress. It is therefore helpful to write down everything that moves you in the morning after getting up or in the evening before going to bed.

Take as much time as you need to write down your thoughts. If you can’t think of anything else, then you’ve probably collected everything important. Many people find it helpful to write down their own ideas on paper. But it is also conceivable to record your ideas with a computer program or in the form of audio recordings. Let yourself be guided by your personal needs.

The next step follows with some distance: the systematization of the thoughts. It’s best to start doing this the following day after your head has calmed down. When organizing, you can divide your thoughts into different categories, for example separated into private and professional areas. You can write down all your worries, fears, ideas, dreams, goals, problems, tasks, questions and longings.

It is entirely up to you how you implement this step. For example, it is conceivable to present your thoughts in the form of lists, tables, a mind map or a diagram. There are no universal templates for this. Instead, you should choose the variant that suits you best.

prioritizing your thoughts

Then you determine the importance of the individual problems and tasks by setting priorities. Do not neglect your private problems within the family, relationship or circle of friends. Under certain circumstances, these worries can also have a negative effect on your concentration. It can also help to solve private worries before professional tasks. A good method for this is the Eisenhower principle. To do this, you divide your thoughts into four categories:

1. important and urgent
2. important but not urgent
3. unimportant but urgent
4. unimportant and not urgent

The importance of individual tasks depends entirely on your individual situation. Upcoming deadlines or important appointments can help you prioritize the related to-dos higher than others. This could be, for example, the deadline for a term paper or the presentation of a large project. On the other hand, household chores such as washing clothes or cleaning windows may be less important.

How does brain dumping actually work?

Brain dumping is designed to help you reduce stress and become more balanced. In this way you can counteract constant exertion, fatigue and depression. However, more research is needed to get to the bottom of the effects of the method. In principle, three different variants of brain dumping can be distinguished:

• Morgenbuch: The name already reveals something about the method behind it. As soon as you get up, write down all the thoughts that go through your head. Most of the time, these are unstructured ideas that are only organized on paper.

• To-do list: A to-do list is a very organized form of brain dumping. After all, it’s listing all your unresolved resolutions and tasks. These can be of a private or professional nature.

• Teamwork: Braindumping works not only alone, but also in a team. To do this, set a specific task or a given topic in advance, on which everyone can record their ideas – for example on sticky notes. It makes sense to only write down one line of thought on each piece of paper. You can later present and discuss the ideas you have collected on a flipchart.

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