Brain Dumping for Dummies

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Have you heard of "Short Term Brain Dumpiing"? What's a brain dump - you might be thinking...

A brain dump is a complete transfer of knowledge about a particular subject from your brain to some other storage device. The device could be paper or a file on your computer. And short term brain dumping is the process of relieving the pop up thoughts that occur hundreds of times per day and interrupt normal thought processes - causing you to forget the very things you are trying to remember... here's how to stop the pop ups... Often bloggers refer to their blog as a brain dump, and those who keep journals or diaries do the same.

The term brain dump is also used by college students of late. People preparing for an exam might "brain dump" by writing out as much as they can just before a test and brain dump Web sites for exam preparation are popping up on the web.

A more extreme application of the term involves the attempt to store all of one's knowledge on a computer. It's a cult - ish idea that this storage of all your thoughts, hopes, dreams and knowledge will outlive you yet allow you to live forever in virtual reality. Scary.

But what I'm talking about today is the idea of "short term brain dumping". Many of us are living super charged lives, with high energy home lives with kids, dogs, etc... and professional lives that require us to be "on the edge" virtually morning to night. Have you ever noticed that when you have a lot "on your mind" your brain keeps giving you "pop ups" reminding you "pick up the dog at the vet", Call Ted Frankle, etc... but with so many deadlines and hundreds of thoughts spinning around in your head at any moment, these "pop ups" become interruptions into your normal thought processes and tend to make things worse rather than being the simple reminders that your brain intends.

It's fairly simple to reduce the amount of thought "pop ups" by simply brain dumping when your "to - do" list is "too - long". Don't confust this with keeping a calendar or a day runner - this is totally different. The key is to make sure that you reconnect with your brain dump at least every hour. If you think you can do this - it will set you free!

Here's how it works:

Always carry a small notebook.
Be short but descriptive. You don’t want to look at it later and ask yourself, “What was I talking about?”
Start by listing everything that is on your mind in the order you think it.
When you have a "pop up" thought - stop right there and put it at the bottom of the list.
Every hour or so - consult the dump book - see if anything is complete and cross it off. Think about whether you have had any pop ups since last postin and if so dump them. Noting things more than once is OK - the key is to write it down at the end of the list again - in the hopes that it will set your mind free for awhile.
See if there is anyting on the list that you can or should do right now.
Now get on with it. When you get a pop up of something that's in your dump book try to remind yourself that you don't need to worry because it's "on the dump list".

Over time you will see that your dump list has become a pop up blocker and your mind is free to concentrate on the thing at hand without interruption.

Try it and let me know if this works for you.