Productivity Series - Brain Dumps

 

By Chief Editor and Blog Manager- Amanda-Jane Turner

We have one life to live, let's live it!

Those who know me are aware of how eclectic, many and time consuming my interests are. I work full time, I am often studying (fulltime), I am an active volunteer, an artist, I manage this blog and have my own blog, I am working on a book and, have the usual home/family/pets considerations.  I rarely feel rushed and usually get all my tasks done on time to high quality and have time to use twitter and read a few books a week.

No I am not superhuman, although that would be cool, and I seriously need to think of my super hero name ... SuperNerd (?), GeekGirl (?) .... Please leave a comment if you can think of a good super hero name for me!

How do I juggle all the things I do? How do I have time to read a few novels a week? How do I sleep with all these ideas hurtling through my brain! How do I not forget what I need to do!

I go 'old school'. I use hard copy note books, diaries and planners to manage all the many things I do. I also use electronic calendars for meeting reminders at work and back them up by ensuring my trusty Filofax, 'Little Purple' has them all noted as well.  In fact I am bit of a stationery addict, as can be seen by a post featuring me over at Philofaxy recently! .... but I use all of my binders, notebooks and planners to ensure I have a good system to get everything done.

Brains are amazing. You think your computer is efficient as it can handle many tabs open on the browser? Your brain is so many more times amazing than that! Your brain is managing an entire system automatically (breathing, swallowing, blinking, circulation, for example) while your conscious and subconscious work as well. 

Always thinking! 

The down side to these amazing brains is that sometimes you can become overwhelmed with all the ideas and tasks and thoughts! Idea overload can stop you being effective. You are overwhelmed with ideas and things you have to do for work, for home, for someone else, to buy, to clean, to read .... and are becoming anxious in case you forget something important that you need to do. 

Enter the magic of the brain dump.

My filofax is the hub of operations, my little brain companion. Everything is loaded into it and it contains an index to let me know which notebook I need to go to for any specific topic. I cart it with me everywhere and have pages just for brain dumps. 

At the end of the day, after our evening meal, the dogs have had their walk, and our work clothes and lunches are ready for the next day, I spend ten minutes to go over brain dump pages and put the notes into the relevant areas and check my schedule for the next day. This ten minutes is also my time to have a cuppa - so an after meal cuppa and check of my brain dump, multi tasking!

Just as we iron our clothes and get our lunch and work bags ready for the next day, I make sure I know what is in my schedule and To Do lists.  I keep my filofax next to me on the bed side table in case I have a thought at night, so I can brain dump it on paper and go to sleep knowing I will not forget as it is written down.

My Trusty Filofax

If an idea, task or thought is niggling at your brain and you are worried you will forget, write it down. Brain dumps do not have to be neat, they are just places to capture ideas as they fly across your brain. Put them on paper, email them to yourself, use an electronic note system, something that works for you to dump the thoughts down so you can relax!

Everyone needs to find the way that suits them to ensure their time is managed well and their random thoughts of tasks to do are captured. I like aesthetically pleasing, creative and functional paper based products, others may prefer to use Google Calendar or their phone reminder apps. Let us know in the comments how you manage your time and capture your ideas.

(c) AWSN 2018

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.