124. Brain Dumping: Your Solution to Information Overload

A big part of being a writer is coming up with writing ideas. Honestly, writer’s block is a real thing. There are days when I have to publish articles and I am no where close to even having a small semblance of an idea.

I have spent countless hours staring at a white screen, hoping that a revolutionary idea will somehow make its way to my little old brain. It is however, a luck of draw. There are times something hits me and words start flowing. There are other times when the staring continues for extended periods of time & I end up shutting my laptop lid in despair.

That was until I came across this simple, yet effective notion. I am talking about brain dumping.

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

– Herbert A. Simon

The age of over-consumption

Today’s world is one of abundance.

We are consuming in gigantic amounts. Be it food or information, we have no limits on consumption, apart from the ones we impose on ourselves. The useful parts of food get assimilated in our body, which then gets converted to energy and the waste gets diverted for excretion.

Just like the food gets converted to energy, useful information (or the ones we consider useful) get converted to insight or action. Waste parts of our thoughts get lost in the deepest memories, or forgotten completely.

Now let’s say, we decide to only eat, without giving the body a chance to process. Not only does that lead to ill effects on assimilation, it impacts all other systems, especially excretion.

Lethargy, indigestion and general sickness are all caused due to bad eating habits.

But what about information consumption?

I have one response. How have you been feeling lately?

Just as a body bloated by excess calories becomes sluggish, a mind stuffed with unexamined data develops a kind of ‘cognitive constipation’. We are full, yet we are starving for clarity.

Brain fog, reduced attention spans, anxiety and even Brainrot are all prevalent concepts in the modern society. We are spending countless hours scrolling mindlessly through short form videos. An average adult spends ~4 hours per day on their cellphone.

We consider it entertainment, but our brain interprets every video as an additional piece of information. And this is just one form of stimulus we consume.

This is just consumption, without any pause for reflecting and determining what we want to do with this information.

Enter Braindumping

This is where brain-dumping can be of immense value. I am just as guilty of over-consumption; both food and information. But brain-dumping has been a Godsend for me. For those still wondering what brain-dumping means, it is exactly what it sounds like. You basically dump everything in your brain in a written format.

You could use a digital medium, like a notes app on your phone or computer. For me personally, writing with my hands has worked better. A few pointers on brain-dumping:

• The less you try to censor your thoughts, the better. The intention brain-dumping is to empty the mind of any burdensome ideas and thoughts.
• There is no “preferred” format (Not for me anyway). For me, it starts as an unstructured rant and eventually becomes more structured. For you, it could be a doodle, a to-do list or a combination of both.
• There is no defined frequency. Anytime you feel you need an outlet to drop off the heavy luggage sitting on your top shelf, you are more than welcome to use it.

PS: I did not invent brain-dumping. I merely discovered it.

Brain-dumping has shown tremendous benefits for its users, including lower cognitive load, reduced stress and anxiety, improved focus and productivity.

We have talked a lot about over consumption and under processing. This is where our brains actually have the window to process information. Writing is the slowest form of thinking. Writing about anything, forces you to think slowly, articulate effectively and communicate clearly.

So the next time you have a heavy mental load, use a simple piece of paper. As it appears, paper can support the load your brain was struggling to hold.

Don’t stare at the white screen waiting for a miracle. Open a notebook and dump the clutter. When you clear the ‘digestive tract’ of your mind, you’ll find that the laptop lid no longer feels so heavy to open.