The Super Simple Way to Beat Overwhelm
A “brain dump” will bring you some peace
What if I told you there was an easy way to decrease feelings of overwhelm and anxiety. Like taking the trash out of your brain? I’m here to tell you that a brain dump may be just the relief you’re looking for.
What is a Brain Dump?
A brain dump is when you write every single thing that’s on your mind down on some paper. There are no set “rules” to the exercise. The idea is to get thoughts out of your head so they stop bouncing around and pricking your consciousness like an annoying gnat buzzing near your ear.
The first time I ever tried this was when I was reading Getting Things Done (GTD), the productivity classic by David Allen. I was a new mother, working a new job, with a new house that needed furnishing and I was crumbling under the stress of juggling all my obligations.
The first step in GTD is to “collect” uncompleted tasks, projects, and goals. It’s basically making a mammoth to-do list that contains every conceivable task you might want to get done.
I wrote out every single thing that had been nagging me. From the urgent like making some baby food to the aspirational like re-painting the first floor. I wrote things I knew I had to do, things I thought I should…
