8 Easy Brain Dump Ideas

If you’ve been here awhile, you might know that I LOVE making lists. I make lists for any and everything. While I love all lists, my very favorite type of lists to make are “brain dumps”. Read on to find 8 creative brain dump ideas to use when you are feeling overwhelmed-free printables included!

What is a “brain dump”?

A brain dump is taking all of the ideas, tasks, worries, thoughts, etc, in your head and “dumping” them onto paper. The point is to get all of the things that might be causing you stress or anxiety out of your head; just the simple act of writing them down can help make you feel less overwhelmed!

Why different types of brain dumps?

You might be thinking that a brain dump sounds pretty easy and self explanatory- and you would be right! However, for me, a traditional brain dump still feels overwhelming, even after having all of my thoughts transferred to paper. I always am left with the question of- what do I do with all of this information?!

It’s overwhelming looking at a big list of ideas and tasks, without a plan to take action. Here is where I can help! I have tried tons of different brain dump techniques over the years. Here are 8 of my favorite brain dump ideas that not only give you an outlet to unload stress, but help give you a plan to tackle your list- once and for all!

“Top 3- easy 3- next 3” brain dump:

This is my very favorite type of brain dump to do and the one I use most often! I use a regular piece of paper and fold it in half. On one side I do my “brain dump”- on the other I designate tasks to the following categories: top three, easy three and next three. “Top three”= tasks that are time sensitive or need to be done in order to complete other tasks on my list. “Easy three” = tasks that I can do quickly to help me gain momentum if I am not feeling motivated. “Next three” = tasks that I want to accomplish after my top three are complete.

I then fold my paper in half so that only the “top three, easy three, next three” side is visible. This helps me not feel overwhelmed by looking at a my huge list of “to dos”.

You don’t have to use sticky notes for this style of brain dump, but I personally love it because I can move or remove them and keep using the same piece of paper until all brain dump tasks are complete!

Energy level brain dump:

I came up with this style of brain dump during my first trimester of pregnancy when I was majorly struggling with energy in motivation. This gave me some options to do, based on my current energy levels and helped me feel like I was getting something accomplished! You can find the template I used on this post.

Priority brain dump:

Sometimes with brain dumps it is hard to figure out what is most important, because everything feels important! Ranking tasks in order from low to high priority not only helps you prioritize, but if you use small sticky notes, you can remove or move them up or down as things get accomplished! I have a whole post about this method that you can read here (it also includes a printable version!)

Weekly brain dump:

Brain dumps are never completed in just one day (at least not for me!) so I created this method to help me spread the tasks out over the course of a week. I start by completing the “brain dump” side and each day I choose 3 tasks that I want to complete from that list. Some days I am able to complete more (which I then just cross off) and some days I have to add tasks that aren’t officially on my “brain dump” list. Either way, this helps give me a plan, yet doesn’t create a sense of overwhem, since I am just focusing on three tasks a day.

Click here to download this free brain dump printable!

Weekend brain dump:

Whenever my husband and I both have a free weekend, we usually spend it getting stuff done around the house! I made this brain dump last weekend and it was really effective for us.

I started by writing all of the tasks that we hoped to accomplish on post it page flags. Once we had our list made, I divided up the tasks between Saturday and Sunday. As we completed tasks, we moved them to the “done!” side.

Again, using the page flags made our list flexible as things came up AND we we will be able to reuse this spread over and over again, just with different post its.

Themed brain dumps

The brain dumps that I listed above are great for when you have a lot of tasks from many different categories! Sometimes I find that it is helpful to have a brain dump for a very specific category though. Here are some of my favorite examples:

Meal planning brain dump:

This printable helps you brainstorm different meal and snack ideas based on what you already have in your fridge, freezer and pantry. You can find more information, as well as the free printable on this blog post.

House project brain dumps:

We have a LOT of house projects on our to do list. It was feeling completely overwhelming and we didn’t know what to do first. I made a brain dump like this for each room in our house that we are working on. This has really helped me from having to keep a constant mental list AND is easy to share with my husband!

Big goal brain dump:

Finally, I want to share this brain dump that I made at the beginning of 2020. I knew that this year I wanted to focus on “simplifying” ALL the things. But I wanted to have a game plan that would help me actually accomplish this lofty goal. I sat down and listed all of the spaces, routines and “stuff” that I wanted to simplify this year. Getting it all down on paper really helped me clarify my goal and set my intentions for this year. You can read more about my simplifying journey here.

And that’s it- for now! I hope to add to this post as I come up with more brain dump ideas, because given my love for them, I’m sure that I will 😉

Make sure to tap or hover and save an image from this post to Pinterest so that you can refer back to it!