A brain dump is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You just dump everything that is in your brain on the page. Sometimes for me it helps to give the page a kind of silly title like "why am I so freaking stressed?" or "What's gotta get done?". The biggest thing with brain dumps is that they are in no way meant to be perfect. They can be bullet points or paragraphs, on paper, or on the computer, it is all about what works for you! They are just so that you can get the stuff out and on the page. What you decide to do after the brain dump is up to you. I like to break down what I wrote out and sort it or make a list (depending on what is in the list), from there I can break it down further into more bite-sized chunks. That being said, please, for your sake (as I learned the hard way), don't use your brain dump as a list. Often times if you need a brain dump, you are feeling overwhelmed, and if you jump right into the brain dump like it is a list, you might be right back where you started.Â
(And Mrs. LaVallee is a great person to talk to if you want to learn more about how to just get your mind on the page!)