How Brain Dumping Can Improve Executive Functioning In Diverse Learners

There’s a saying that our brains are designed for thinking, not for remembering things.

Without a strategy (like brain dumping), when our brain’s get overwhelmed with information, they force us to spend the vast majority of our energy in reactive mode, which can feel a lot like herding cats.

This is not optimal.

For the sake of our own sanity, we need all of our cats in one place, or at least in a relatively confined area.

Keeping doors and windows closed Brain dumping aims to help solve this.

If our house (or apartment God forbid) is the best place to contain all 30 of our cats (yikes!), then a piece of paper, notebook, Word document, etc. is the best place to contain all of our thoughts.

Ok, let’s forget about cats for a second and establish a real definition for brain dumping…

Brain dumping is the intentional act of freeing up space in our brain by dumping its contents (not literally of course) out regularly on a sheet of paper so that our brain’s can do what they’re best at like Problem solving, critical thinking, turning our thoughts into reality, among other things.

And it’s no secret that those with developmental delays generally tend to struggle more with things like working memory, planning, task initiation and organization.

In this post, I’ll show you how to improve those things by performing a brain dump and hopefully answer some common questions along the way.

Where did the Brain Dumping Strategy Come From?

As much as I’d love to take credit for it, brain dumping is not something I came up with.

There’s some conflicting information out there about the origin of the concept but the general consensus seems to be that the term “Brain Dump” originated with David Allen’s book called Getting Things Done. In the book, however, he calls it a Mind Sweep, but it’s essentially the same thing.

While the book does not speak directly to those with diverse learning needs, the strategies within can be generalized as such.

So I will attempt to adapt the strategy more specifically for those with diverse learning needs by breaking down the process step-by-step.

How To Brain Dump Effectively

Step 1 – Dedicated A Block of Time

Depending on how many thoughts you’re trying to wrangle or how overwhelmed you feel, you’ll want to make sure you have enough time to complete this activity without feeling rushed.

Many people have reported that they can perform an entire brain dump in 30 minutes while others need upwards of an hour.

The more often you brain dump, the less time you’ll likely need each time because your backlog of thoughts will naturally decrease overtime as you perform the exercise regularly.

Step 2 – Eliminate Distractions

This exercise will not work if your attention is divided. The whole point of brain dumping is to get everything out of your head, which will be impossible if new things in the form of distractions/interruptions keep getting added.

So…

Put away your phone, computer and screens of any kind. Print out the steps in our free template below if you need to.

Find a location that is quiet and communicate to the people you live with that you will be unavailable for the next X amount of time.

Step 3 – Gather Some Supplies

Now that you have some time blocked off and distractions are away, gather a couple supplies.

To brain dump, you will need:

• A piece of paper, notebook or our free template (download below)
• A pen

Step 4 – Title “Brain Dump” & Date The Page

With your piece of paper in front of you, write the title and date as shown below.

Step 5 – Write Down Every Single Thought That Comes Into Your Head

Now, when I say every thought, I mean every thought. Not like journaling though. More like a list. Aside from that, there’s really no right or wrong way to do it. Just empty your head with everything that’s on your mind.

When I did this exercise this morning, I included the following thoughts (image below too):

• I’m really hungry
• My back hurts
• I’m overwhelmed but I don’t know why
• I need to fill out contract application paperwork for DVR
• I need to fill my bird feeders
• I’m anxious about driving to Tacoma today
• I need to clean my room
• Finish brain dump blog post

As you can see, my list isn’t necessarily just a list of to-dos. This is where my version of Brain Dumping differs from the method explained in David Allen’s Getting Things Done book because it also lists how I’m feeling and what’s causing me overwhelm, if known.

Sometimes, you won’t know what’s causing you overwhelm and that’s ok. What often happens for me is that once I get a few easily identifiable things written down, the space freed up in my brain naturally allows me to identify those last few overwhelming items that were originally unclear.

Step 6 – Categorize Your Brain Dump Items

The next step is to group like items into categories. That will allow you to batch tasks to save time later.

It’s important to keep your categories relatively broad because the more categories you have, the more overwhelming the list becomes, which defeats the purpose of this exercise.

When categorizing, I found it helpful to use a different color for each and simply writing it in parentheses next to the task, without reordering anything.

• I’m really hungry (physical health)
• My back hurts (physical health)
• I’m overwhelmed but I don’t know why (emotional health)
• I need to fill out contract application paperwork for DVR (business)
• I need to fill my bird feeders (chores)
• I’m anxious about driving to Tacoma today (emotional health)
• I need to clean my room (chores)
• Finish brain dump blog post (business)

Step 7 – Break Down Items Into Smaller Tasks

Now, here’s where we really start breaking things down.

First, I’m going to ask you to put any items like “I’m overwhelmed and I don’t know why” aside and focus your attention on tasks with tangible action steps for now.

Next, get a new sheet of paper and pick the item that’s causing you the most overwhelm at the moment. This will likely be an item that you’ve been putting off for a while or where the stakes are high. Cleaning my room is a good example of this.

For many, including myself, “clean my room” is too big and too abstract, and when things are too big and abstract, they simply don’t get done, because overwhelm sets in.

When we break down big tasks like cleaning my room into smaller action steps, it’s important for each action step to be just that: “one action step”

Instead, let’s focus on the actual action steps required to clean my room.

1. Put dirty clothes in laundry basket
2. Make my bed
3. Put dishes in the dishwasher
4. Throw away trash
5. Wipe off surfaces
6. Vacuum floor

For me this is sufficient. For you, this may look a little different, depending on your specific needs.

For example, you may need to break down “wife off surfaces” into a few additional tasks like:

• Get paper towel
• Get cleaning spray
• Etc.

Step 8 – Repeat Step 5 For All Remaining Tasks In That Category

We focused on Cleaning My Room which falls in under the Chores category.

So, before switching gears to another category, let’s list out the steps to the other item in the Chores category.

In my case, it’s filling the bird feeder.

My detailed task list for filling the bird feeder may look something like this:

1. Get bird seed from garage and take out outside
2. Take step stool outside
3. Take down bird feeders
4. Fill bird feeders with seed
5. Hang bird feeders back up
6. Put seed and stool away

Step 8.5 – IMPORTANT NOTE

I want to stress that it’s entirely possible that not every item needs to be broken down and that you should gauge your own individual needs when going through steps 5 & 6.

For some, an item like “Fill Bird Feeder” may require no additional action on your part. For others, a detailed list may be required.

The default should be: do what works for you.

Step 9 – Add Due Dates (and times if needed)

After you complete steps 7 – 8.5, decide which tasks can be done today and which need to be scheduled.

I wrote a blog post about how to decide which items to prioritize a while back but in short, things that are important to your goals (psst, that goal may include feeling a sense of stability and less overwhelm) and REQUIRE immediate action should be done today. Other tasks can be scheduled for later.

Write the date and time next to each applicable item (pictured above).

Step 10 – Add Tasks To Planner or Task Manager App

Pick a centralized location to store all your scheduled tasks. I use a free app called 2do, which is available for iOS, Android and Mac, but a lot of people I’ve talked to really like Todoist.

Traditional planners like this one are also a great option.

Don’t overthink it. Just pick something and go with it 🙂

Step 11 – Check In With Yourself

Ask yourself 3 questions:

1. How do I feel emotionally?
2. How do I feel physically?
3. Do I feel like my brain now has more capacity to think than it did before doing a brain dump?

Hopefully the answer to the 3rd question is a resounding “YES!”

Remember That Everyone’s Capacity is Different

I alluded to this earlier but it bears repeating that this strategy can (and often should) be adapted to your individual needs and capacity for herding cats (a.k.a. your thoughts).

If the act of brain dumping the way I outlined causes you more overwhelm, then adapt it to make it work for you.

I can’t stress this enough.

For example, you may not need step 7 if you’re able to look at a big task like cleaning your room and know exactly what you’re supposed to do.

When To Use The Brain Dump Strategy

This is also a very individualized topic.

Personally, I do a weekly brain dump on Sunday evenings and do smaller brain dump sessions throughout the week as needed.

Some people ritualize the brain dump exercise by making it part of their morning and/or evening routine.

Listen to your emotions and what your brain is telling you. If you are a routine-oriented person, maybe a daily brain dump would be useful.

If there are certain times of the week you notice greater overwhelm, schedule a brain dump to take place before them.

2 Additional Tips To Consider When Brain Dumping

Tip 1 – Be Mindful of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

I’m not going to go over this in-depth right now but it’s important to note that it’s pretty much impossible to get needs met higher in the pyramid (pictured above) before getting needs met lower in the pyramid.

For example, without food and shelter (red), you can’t really have personal safety and health (orange).Consider this when prioritizing which tasks to prioritize in your brain dump exercise.

To use my brain dump as an example, I’ve color coded each item with the corresponding color on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

• I’m really hungry
• My back hurts
• I’m overwhelmed but I don’t know why (safety)
• I need to fill out contract application paperwork for DVR
• I need to fill my bird feeders
• I’m anxious about driving to Tacoma today (safety)
• I need to clean my room

So, addressing the red items should take precedence over everything else, if we’re using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as our barometer.

Tip 2 – Done in 5 Minutes? Do it now.

Another way to decide which items to prioritize is by how long, or in this case, how short, they take to complete.

If you haven’t already committed yourself to another task and you’re not sure what to do next (assuming your physiological needs have been met), then see if there are any items that can be completed in 5 minutes or less.

And if so, do them now.

You’d be surprised how much you can accomplish in 5 minutes.

From my list, each of the items in red below would likely be able to be completed in 5 minutes or less:

• I’m really hungry
• My back hurts
• I’m overwhelmed but I don’t know why
• I need to fill out contract application paperwork for DVR
• I need to fill my bird feeders
• I’m anxious about driving to Tacoma today
• I need to clean my room

Now You!

Well, that’s pretty much it. I hope after reading this article, you see the value in brain dumping.

I created a simple spreadsheet for performing your brain dumps. The only parts it doesn’t include are steps 8 & 9 since people’s preferences are so varied when it comes to planners and such.

Just enter your email below to have it delivered to your inbox.

And if you’re looking for one-on-one assistance, learn more about our executive function coaching here.

Thanks for reading and be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts.