Brain Dump

[TLDR: This will hopefully help you sleep. I suggest you designate a notebook for this exercise. Alternatively, you can use a note-taking app on your phone or computer. Next, write/type out everything in your brain. Everything you’re trying to remember, everything you want to do, everything you’ve got in process. Everything everything.]

Read more: Brain Dump

I call this the brain dump. Call it what you like.

I suggest designating a physical notebook for this task because the act of writing something out seems to help. I suggest one with a spiral binding so you can tuck a pen in there. But if you’re more comfortable with an app on your phone or a program on your computer, do what’s best for you. (Note that I said “designate” because you might already have a bunch of notebooks sitting around in your house that are “too nice to use” or only have a couple of pages filled in from some other project. Use one of those.)

Now write/type out everything you’ve got spinning around in your brain. Everything you’re trying to remember, everything you want to do, everything you’ve got in process. Everything everything. Nothing’s too small, nothing’s too big.

Do not try to organize it. Do not worry about grammar or spelling or punctuation. Just write until you can’t think of anything else to write, then wait until another thing pops into your head and write more. One item per line will make it easier to read in the future, but it’s not a requirement.

The challenge with trying to remember things is that your brain keeps refreshing items so that you don’t forget them. The act of refreshing, over and over, contributes to that feeling of racing thoughts that often interferes with sleep.

By dumping all of that stuff out, you’re telling your brain, “Hey, it’s OK, we’ve got this. The information is safe. You can stop trying to keep it all fresh.”

It may take a couple of attempts over multiple days to get everything out of your head and for your thoughts to slow down a little. We’ll talk about what you do with all of these thoughts soon.