What is a Brain Dump?
Do you always hold onto ideas in your head? Do you often catch yourself forgetting the ideas you come up with or even struggle to come up with new ones? Or are you stuck on a problem? My friends, if you answered yes to these questions, you need a brain dump.
Never fear, this isn’t something weird, but something useful anyone in any industry can apply. Deep down all of us are idea/thought machines. But, our brain is only capable of holding onto so much at one time. This is where the brain dump exercise comes in.
Every morning I sit down and write everything taking up space in my head. Any illustration ideas, blog posts, projects, things I need to get done. I scribble it all down into my dedicated Field Notes sketchbook. It is a rough to-do list for myself. I even do this in my drawing sketchbook. I write down anything I want to draw or try and make in a corner. As I draw, I check things off my list. If it doesn’t fit on that page, the unchecked items get moved to the next page. At that point, I revaluate if I actually want to do something with this idea. Ideas never move more than 2 pages for me.
I’ve noticed myself getting more done and coming up with more ideas. I used to let ideas ferment in my head for awhile before even writing them down. That usually led to me never following through with the idea or I would eventually forget about it. Since, I get inspiration for drawings in the real world, I usually have to keep track of ideas on my phone and then transfer them to my notebook.
Brain dumps can be useful when trying to work through a tough time or problem. It sometimes can provide clarity or show us we had the answer the whole time. The key is not holding back when writing things down. You’ll only get closer to the solution if you’re being honest with yourself.
Here is how you can get the most out of a brain dump-
Write anything and everything down. You can always cross ideas off later. It might evolve into something else. You never know.
Keep it organized and legible! It doesn’t help if you can’t keep track of your list or if you can’t read it.
Do this everyday at a minimum. I do it anytime I sit down at my sketchbook.
Give your poor brain a break and give this a try. Let me know how it has helped you or will help you!