The steps
How to brain dump
To brain dump, you need a pen and paper, or the box further down this page, and about ten minutes.
- Set a timer for five minutes. A timer tells you when you may stop. If you are still writing when it rings, keep going until nothing more comes.
- Write one thing on each line, as it comes. Write tasks, worries, ideas and things you forgot. Do not put them in order, and do not ask whether they matter. If your mind goes blank, write “what else?” and wait.
- Sort the lines into three piles. “Do soon” is for things you will do in the next few days. “Later” is for things worth keeping that can wait. “Let go” is for things you cannot change, or have decided not to do.
- Write a day next to every “do soon” line. Add a time if you can, like “email Mark, Monday morning”. When a task has a day, you know when it will get done, and you can stop thinking about it tonight.
An example
What is an example of a brain dump?
An example of a brain dump is the list below. We made it up for this page. A woman called Nina cannot stop thinking on a Sunday night. She sets a timer for five minutes and writes 10 lines, in the order they come to her. Then she sorts them.
The brain dump, as it came out
- email Mark about the invoice
- Mom’s birthday is Friday, no gift yet
- the car is making that noise again
- the presentation on Thursday is not ready
- should I look for a new job
- buy milk
- why did I say that in the meeting
- cancel the gym trial before they charge me
- I never called Sam back
- what if the presentation goes badly
Do soon
6 lines
- Email Mark: Monday morning
- Mom’s gift: Wednesday at lunch
- Presentation: Tuesday, seven to nine in the evening
- Milk: Monday, on the way home
- Gym trial: cancel it tonight
- Call Sam: Saturday morning
Later
2 lines
- Car noise: call the garage next week
- New job: think about it on a free weekend
Let go
2 lines
- What I said in the meeting
- What if the presentation goes badly
Of Nina’s lines, 6 became tasks with a day, and 2 can wait. She let the other 2 go. One is about a meeting that is over. The other is a worry about the presentation. She has already planned two hours for it on Tuesday, and that is all she can do.
Try it
Do a brain dump right here
The box below is a place to do a brain dump right now. Start the timer, type one thing on each line, and then pick a pile for each line.
Time left
5:00
Nothing you type here is saved or sent anywhere. It stays on this page, and it is gone when you close or reload the tab.
Then sort
You have written 0 lines. Keep going until the timer ends, or sort now.
- Do soon
- Things you will do in the next few days. Each one gets a day.
- Later
- Things worth keeping that can wait.
- Let go
- Things you cannot change, or have decided not to do.
Prompts
What are some good brain dump prompts?
Good brain dump prompts are short questions you ask yourself when your mind goes blank. Read one and write down whatever it brings up. Here are 10.
- What do I have to do tomorrow?
- What have I been putting off?
- Who do I need to call, text or write back to?
- What needs to be paid, booked or cancelled?
- What am I waiting for someone else to do?
- What did I promise someone?
- What is broken, empty or running out at home?
- What am I worried about?
- What do I keep forgetting?
- What would I do this week if I had a free afternoon?
What studies found
Why does a brain dump help?
A brain dump may help because your mind keeps going back to things that are not finished. Two studies point that way. Neither tested a brain dump by that name, so read them as hints and not as proof.
An unfinished task keeps coming back until it has a plan.
In a set of experiments, people who had left a task unfinished kept thinking about it while they tried to read something else. When people could make a clear plan for the task first, those thoughts stopped (Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011). They had not done any of the work yet. That is why you write a day next to every “do soon” line.
People who wrote a to-do list before bed fell asleep sooner.
In one study, young adults wrote for five minutes before they went to sleep. Half of them listed everything they still had to do in the next few days. The other half listed things they had already finished. The first group fell asleep about 9 minutes sooner (Scullin and colleagues, 2018). The study covered one night in a sleep lab, so it is a small piece of evidence.
The test
How do you know a brain dump is working?
The test
Most of your “do soon” lines were done by the day you wrote next to them
for three brain dumps in a row.
A brain dump shows what you plan to do. It cannot show whether you did it.
A good way to check is to count the hours from what you write or say about your day. Most journaling apps stop at how the day felt. They do not show how many hours the things on your list took.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: the things on your list, work, sleep, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So you can see how many hours the things on your list really got that week. The app also has to-dos, with reminders: put your “do soon” lines there, and each one is ticked off when what you write about your day shows it done.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Presentation0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Presentation this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where do the findings on this page come from?
Both findings link to the studies below. We read each one for this page, the whole text or its summary. The example and the prompts are our own.
- Masicampo, E. J. and Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667 to 683.
- Scullin, M. K., Krueger, M. L., Ballard, H. K., Pruett, N. and Bliwise, D. L. (2018). The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(1), 139 to 146.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- Journaling techniquesTwelve ways to keep a journal, how long each one takes, and a picker that names one to start tonight.
- Morning pagesWrite three pages by hand every morning. How to do it, how long it takes, and what studies say.
- Feeling overwhelmedPut your list against the hours you actually have free.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a brain dump?
A brain dump is when you write down everything that is on your mind, in any order, for a few minutes. Then you sort what you wrote into three piles: things to do soon, things for later, and things to let go.
What is an example of a brain dump?
An example of a brain dump is a list like this, written in five minutes: “email Mark about the invoice, Mom’s birthday is Friday, the car is making that noise again, the presentation is not ready, buy milk”. Sorted, it becomes “presentation: Tuesday evening” and “email Mark: Monday morning” under do soon, and “car noise: call the garage next week” under later.
What is a 5 minute brain dump?
A 5 minute brain dump is a brain dump with a timer set to five minutes. You write down everything on your mind until the timer rings, and then you sort the list. It is short enough to do every day. Two good times for one are before bed and first thing at work.
What are some good brain dump prompts?
Good brain dump prompts are short questions you ask yourself when your mind goes blank. Four to start with: What do I have to do tomorrow? What have I been putting off? Who do I need to write back to? What am I worried about?
Is there an app for a daily brain dump?
A sheet of paper or the notes app on your phone is enough for a brain dump. If you want an app, look for one that lets you type or say everything quickly, and that shows later whether the things on your list got done. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers has to-dos with reminders, ticks them off from what you write or say about your day, and counts your hours from the same words.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.