Clearing the Mental Clutter :: How a Brain Dump Keeps Me Sane as a Mom
Let me introduce you to the one thing I HAVE to do to keep my head on straight as a busy mom. Everyday I’m juggling a million things at once — school events, drop off and pickup, meals, activities, work deadlines, household tasks, and trying to somehow squeeze time in for myself. There are days when my brain is so overwhelmed and I can’t even stay on top of my thoughts. When I get to that point, I know what I need: a brain dump.
A brain dump is exactly what it sounds like — getting all those random thoughts out of my mind and dumping them in one place. For me, my one place is old school pen and paper. For you that may be a planner, digital tracker or your notes app, whatever works for you! When I’m overwhelmed, I force myself to take the time to get all the to-do lists, tasks, worries, ideas and thoughts OUT of my head.
For me this gives me almost instant clarity. No, everything is not solved or handled in that moment. But it is at least clearly laid out in front of me to help me prioritize and plan. Once everything is out of my head and in front of me, I can organize it all and plan where I need to focus.
Doing a brain dump is essential to staying on top of everything for me. With so many demands of my time and my thoughts, I can no longer mentally juggle everything. I really do use it for everything. So categories of things I get out in a brain dump are: various to do lists, shopping lists, household tasks, seasonal tasks, my budgets, goals, calendaring, etc. I use brain dumps to break down larger vision or projects into more manageable tasks that I can find time for. This helps be get to all those larger projects I just keep putting aside because it feels too big (like reorganizing my closet).
The hardest part about using this brain dump technique is actually taking the time to do it. For me, I often wait until I’m feeling overwhelmed to do the brain dump. But it’s best that I do it routinely before I get to my burned out phase. For work tasks and my weekly planning, I have started to carve out time to do this brain dump on Sunday before I jump into my week. I don’t have any rules set for myself, just a goal to get everything on my mind down on to paper and then I work on sorting through it all and prioritizing what’s important and what can wait.
This super simple practice has been a game changer for my time and my sanity also. It is key for my type A personality and helps me feel more in control and less frazzled. With a clearer mind and plan, I feel more confident about tackling my life instead of just winging it and handling things as we reach the last minute. If you are overwhelmed with a cluttered mind and looking for a way to tackle it all, I highly suggest incorporating a brain dump. At least give it a try and see if it helps you regain at least some control of the chaos.
