As human beings, it’s more than natural for us to struggle with overthinking or daydreaming while working, more so when we actually want to focus on some activity for once.

Students often face distractions like upcoming projects, practicals, activities, melodies, song lyrics, news articles, random observations, pending decisions, irrational fears, unresolved worries, and worst-case scenarios, all of which make single minded focus a far-off dream. We can’t just turn off our brains, and studying with all the uproar in our heads feels like an impossible task.

This is where a mindfulness technique called “Brain Dumping” comes to our rescue. Also known as a mental declutter or a mind spill, brain dumps are unbelievably good when it comes to cutting out the distractions in our head.

Given below is a simple and precise guide to the Brain Dump Technique for the overwhelmed student. I hope that what you read next helps you in whatever small measure. 

What’s a Brain Dump?

Brain dumping is a variation of the mindfulness technique of journaling. Journaling is a key tool for introspection. It is generally deeper and more detailed than a brain dump. On the other hand, brain dumping is a short and simple practice that helps us merely declutter our mind. It is not a fancy exercise and often requires nothing more than a paper, a pen, and a minute or two.

For such a simple activity, brain dumping relieves stress and makes “being in the moment” far easier than ever. Being in the moment is key for some happy productive work hours. 

How to brain dump effectively?

All that you need to do now is “spill”.

Jot down the “headlines” and “subheadings” of what’s bothering you. Sketch a rough to-do list for any pending tasks that you are afraid of forgetting. Note down the name of the friend you had to call but remembered only after you sat down to study.  

There are no right or wrong ways to brain dump effectively, but since we are students here, time is of the utmost importance. 

So, as you sit down to brain dump before a study session, prevent yourself from falling down the rabbit hole of vents or self-reflections (we journal for that) and keep the following in mind: 

1. Set a timer accordingly.
2. Use whatever means to get the point across.
3. Set a time to get back to your list later.

To elaborate on the points given above…

The thoughts swirling through your mind are of various types. 

Some may be as simple as an upcoming task or a problem in your workspace that you are noticing right now. 

Others may be of a more complex nature, such as a criticism from a teacher or a caretaker that felt unfair, a situation with your friends that is negatively impacting you, academic insecurities, overthinking everything that might go wrong with your future life, or ruminations on how you might turn out to be the greatest failure of the family yet (don’t worry, it happens to the best of us).

Now, the complex ones are what I call the rabbit-holes. One topic leads to the other and before you know it, more than half an hour was spent just brain dumping, you didn’t even begin studying!

To prevent this, set a timer for your brain dump session. It should take about 10 minutes at most.

And I repeat, there are no right or wrong ways to brain dump effectively. Use whatever means necessary to get the point across. 

You may use bullet points, or you may even doodle, or use mind maps or flowcharts. You may write down mini-paragraphs for some vents or you may just jot down a word to remind yourself of a particular thing later on. 

Let it be dirty or unorganized. Remember that it’s your mind that you are organizing here.

You must also remember to get back to your list later sometime. Most people prefer going through their list after their work or study session is over. Now they can act on everything that was bothering them earlier instead of letting those thoughts affect your productivity. 

You can either do the same, or you can set that as a break.

Cross off the random thoughts and observations, or rectify any required things. Get up and complete any “two-minute” tasks on the dump (tasks that will take two minutes or less to complete), or organize some of the other tasks into their respective to-do lists. Recognize which particular topics need more attention and remind yourself to devote a journaling session to these topics.

That’s it. These are the very basic guidelines that you need to keep in mind for a helpful brain dump session. While a 100% distraction-free study session after this is certainly never guaranteed, I sure do hope that the technique discussed here alleviates your focus by even a mere 50%.

Below are some brain dump ideas to get you started...

1. How are you feeling currently?
2. What are some potential distractions in sight?
3. What are some things that you absolutely need to get done by today?
4. What are you planning to do after this study/work session?
5. Any homework or assignments that you remembered just now?
6. What do you keep forgetting to do?
7. What are you worried about?
8. What tasks never seem to get done?

In the end, remember that getting distracted is part of the normal human experience. What matters is how self-aware you are about it, how soon you come back to the present moment, and how you keep doing this again and again for every time that you get distracted. Happy studying ;)