How to Make Your Bullet Journal Brain Dump More Productive

Declutter Your Mind with a Bullet Journal Brain Dump Spread

Have you heard of a brain dump spread? If you can relate to having so many thoughts, ideas, and tasks swirling around in your mind that you can’t help but feel overwhelmed, then it might be time to do a brain dump spread in your bullet journal.

What is a brain dump? It’s a page layout you can do in your bullet journal, planner, or notebook to help you unload everything you have on your mind. A brain dump spread will help you declutter your mind, and you can also turn a brain dump into an actionable list to help you conquer the mountain of tasks and to-dos you have.

In this post, I’ll cover exactly what a brain dump spread is, why you should do a brain dump, how to fill one out, how to organize a brain dump, and how to turn a brain dump into an actionable list.

What Is a Brain Dump in a Bullet Journal (and How It Helps You Stay Organized)

A brain dump is a no-judgment journaling method where you can offload everything you have in your brain onto paper. And if you hate the way brain dump sounds, you can call it a mind unwind!

It’s a free space in your bullet journal to write down your ideas, tasks, to-dos, reminders, thoughts, and anything else that comes to mind.

While a brain dump can include to-dos, it is not a to-do list!

A to-do list is an organized list of tasks, while a brain dump is definitely not organized, and it isn’t just restricted to tasks.

When should you use a brain dump?

Any time you feel overwhelmed! It might be a good idea to start regularly doing a brain dump before you get to the overwhelmed stage by doing a brain dump spread in your bullet journal before bed, in the morning, at the beginning of the week, or whenever you feel you’re able to get overwhelmed.

A brain dump is great to pair with some reflection prompts, like these journaling prompts you can write about, even when life feels boring.

The Benefits of Having a Brain Dump Page

There are many benefits of creating a brain dump spread in your bullet journal, so let’s go through three of them:

• Emotional benefits
• Creative benefits
• Practical benefits

Emotional Benefits of a Brain Dump

By transferring your busy thoughts onto paper, your mind becomes decluttered, and you start getting clarity. This clarity leads to reduced anxiety and stress because you’ll be able to clearly see what’s going on, which will allow you to focus better.

Creative Benefits of a Brain Dump

Once you offload your thoughts, ideas, and tasks into a brain dump, your brain will have space to see the big picture, and you will have the space to think about creative projects and creativity in general. With the reclaimed space in your brain, you’ll get back more focus, too.

Practical Benefits of a Brain Dump

While a brain dump layout in your bullet journal is a free space to be messy, it also provides you with a great opportunity to turn your brain dump into an actionable list once it’s all written out. If you organize a brain dump, you can prioritize what’s important to you or get rid of what isn’t important.

Research shows that journaling helps reduce anxiety, and a brain dump can be a part of that. These are just a few benefits of a brain dump in a bullet journal. In our bullet journal-inspired planners, every month has a blank themed page that is perfect for use as a monthly brain dump spread.

How to Fill Out a Brain Dump Page

Making a bullet journal brain dump page is easier than you think. All you have to do is pick a page or space in your bullet journal and spend some time writing everything out.

I recommend setting a timer for 5 to 10 minutes and writing everything that’s on your mind. Don’t bother editing, categorizing, or ordering anything at all. Think of it as a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise.

It can be helpful to write out your thoughts using bullet points so you can later organize your brain dump, but for now, don’t think too much about how to fill out your brain dump. Just fill it out.

A brain dump is supposed to be messy because that’s what our thoughts are actually like in our brains.

If you find yourself stuck while trying to write things out, use these color-your-own stickers to color something small while you think, or you can do some doodles in the margins to get your brain going.

You can also look at a trigger list, which is a list of topics meant to think about categories, and see if anything pops up. JashiiiCorrin over on YouTube has a great video about it here.

Some quick brain dump ideas for your bullet journal include errands, projects, reminders, and goals.

How to Organize a Brain Dump Page

Once everything is written out, it’s time to get out some markers or highlighters.

Scan over your brain dump to see what categories start to form. Some ideas for categories are: work, school, home, relationships, art projects, tasks, goals, personal, errands, reminders, pets, home, friends, etc.

Pick 3-5 categories and assign those categories to some colors. If you select too many categories, you may become overwhelmed with choices, so try to limit it to just a few.

Use those assigned colors to highlight your bullet points to organize your brain dump into something more ordered. If something falls into more than one category, pick whichever feels more right. You can always change where you categorize tasks later.

As you organize your thoughts, you might notice that some of these are simply thoughts and not actionable tasks. If a certain thought is taking up too much space in your brain, this is a great opportunity to journal and examine why it’s taking up so much space.

How to Turn Your Brain Dump into an Actionable List

Once you’ve finished your bullet journal brain dump, it’s time to turn it into an actionable list.

On a new page in your bullet journal, create a couple of headings with the categories you chose and start rewriting your brain dump into organized sections.

Once you’ve finished filtering your brain dump into sections, you can determine how important these are. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you go through your categorized brain dump:

• Which ones need to be prioritized?
• Which ones have a deadline or need to be done soon?
• Which ones are easy and quick to do?
• Which ones can I get someone else to do?
• Which ones are ideas for later?

These questions will help you make your brain dump productive, as you can move things into a weekly or monthly schedule. A future log spread in your bullet journal or a premade planner gives you the structure to put tasks far into the future! You can also use mini icon stickers to mark when something is important.

FAQ: Bullet Journal Brain Dump Tips

What’s the difference between a brain dump and a to-do list?

A brain dump is a messy and unorganized dump of thoughts. It can include tasks, but it’s not meant to be a task list to check off like a to-do list.

How often should I do a brain dump spread in my bullet journal?

You can do a brain dump page whenever you start to feel overwhelmed or distracted. Some people find a lot of benefit in doing a brain dump every day, but I personally find that doing a brain dump once a week is beneficial.

What tools can I use for my bullet journal brain dump?

All you need is paper and a pen or pencil! But if you need a bit of visual interest, you can use highlighters, DIY color stickers, mini icon stickers, and decorative stickers.

Should I keep my brain dumps in the same journal as my bullet journal planner?

Yes! It’s helpful to keep it all in the same place so you can refer back to your brain dump and track progress in your bullet journal or planner. Our bullet journal-inspired planners have a decorated note page that’s perfect for a monthly brain dump.

Find Your Focus with a Brain Dump Page

Creating a brain dump in your bullet journal can help you organize your thoughts, reduce stress, and make space for creativity.

Try adding a brain dump spread to your bullet journal-inspired planner to help you declutter your mind and stay organized. A bullet journal brain dump layout will help you organize the thoughts swirling in your mind and get you to a place where you can do something about it.

If you do decide to create a brain dump page in your bullet journal, I would love to see what you come up with! You can leave a comment below or find me as TabletAndQuill on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

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