Brain Dump

March 28, 2016 by Josh Medeski 3 Comments

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“Our brains are made to HAVE ideas, not HOLD ideas” – David Allen

The brain dump is a simple exercise that can help free up your mind to organize thoughts and make run for more creative ideas and getting into the flow of work without being held down by the thoughts in our head.

How to perform a brain dump:

Get out a piece of paper and pen
Set a timer for 10 minutes
Write until the timer is done

Resources:

Update: The GTD Trigger List document is no longer available online. Make sure to checkout my weekly review article (linked above) and look at my trigger list for inspiration.

About Josh Medeski

Josh is a husband, Front-End Developer at Medology, Writer, Podcaster, Productivity Enthusiast, Magician, Musician, Gamer and Introvert. He is dedicated to personal development and helping others live more fulfilling and intentional lives. He lives in Texas with his wife and pets.

Susy Medeski

Brain Dump is a practice writers have used for years. People often get “writer’s block” during this activity because it’s a new action. Great advise I received when I started this was to keep my pencil moving for the full 10 minutes, even if I had to write something like “I don’t know what to write.” The practice develops muscle memory and works to activate the brain on command. And it works!

Another this that helps is to have a visual list of trigger words available during this activity (work, family, school, church, etc) It helps prompt the brain during the dump.

Thanks Josh for this helpful information.
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Ray Sidney-Smith

Hey, Josh! FYI – here’s a link to the Incompletion Triggers list and the GTD Weekly Review checklist if anyone needs it: http://gettingthingsdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Mind_Sweep_Trigger_List.pdf and http://gettingthingsdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Weekly_Review_Checklist.pdf. Cheers!