Use This Journaling Strategy to Clear Your Mind

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

Journaling is a popular habit among successful people. It is a great way to plan out what you want to get done in the future. And it also is a great way to write out your thoughts and feelings to better understand them.

For these reasons and many more, journaling is a great habit to include in your daily life.

There are many different strategies for journaling and they all serve different purposes. Today, I wanted to write about my personal favorite journaling strategy. 

You see, my journal has a name. I call it the “Brain Dump.” The name comes from a strategy that I call “brain dumping”, which I use each time I journal. 

When I journal, there is usually a single purpose it serves: to clear my mind. 

Having a clear mind provides so many benefits. It makes you focused, calm, relaxed, relieves stress, and more…

So, what is brain dumping?

Brain dumping is the process of quickly writing your thoughts into a journal to get these thoughts out of your mind. 

The strategy is to write whatever comes to your mind. It could be about any topic or multiple topics. The thoughts that won’t go away, the thoughts that pop up in your mind multiple times throughout the day. And more…

There is no specific prompt to write about. This can be difficult for some people who find it easier to journal with a prompt to write about. However, brain dumping is about getting whatever thoughts you are having out of your mind. Its sole purpose is to clear the mind.

You brain dump to release your thoughts and bring you inner peace.

I write about the problems I am struggling with and how I can solve them. I recap my day if it was eventful. I write down thoughts that I have and want to expand on. I write down observations I make about the world. Or I write out goals that I want to accomplish and plan out how I am going to get there. 

How do you brain dump?

Brain dumping can be in any form of writing that works for you. 

You could write in one large block of text. You could write in paragraphs. You could write in bullet points. You can write very short sentences. Or you could write long sentences. And so on.

I often find myself combining writing forms, writing paragraphs with bullet points mixed in.

The grammar doesn’t need to be perfect here. You’re just writing to get thoughts out of your head. In fact, not worrying about grammar when you’re brain dumping helps get your thoughts onto the paper easier and faster.

You want to get your thoughts out quickly, developing a steady stream of thoughts flowing from your brain to the paper.

You can write for just a few minutes, or you could spend an hour or more journaling. 

Go ahead and stop writing when there is nothing left on your mind. Or stop if there is nothing else you find worth writing down.

You can then analyze your written thoughts if you want to explore them deeper. Or you can walk away, and call it a day with your journaling. It’s up to you to decide what you want to do with your thoughts after they’ve been written down.

Repeat this process when you’re journaling the next day. Or come back to your brain dump later in the day and continue where you left off. You can write down some more thoughts that popped up later in the day.

I find that brain dumping tends to work best when writing at the end of the day. This is because chances are things will have happened or popped up in my mind throughout the day and I can write them all down in one sitting. Brain dumping also works in the morning or during the middle of the day. 

Experiment and find what time to journal works best for you when brain dumping.

A clear mind is a peaceful mind

Brain dumping is a versatile form of journaling that is highly effective at getting your thoughts out of your mind. It is an effective way to develop inner peace and create a better life.

Regardless of how you brain dump, you’ll feel a breath of fresh air after doing it. You’ll feel calmer, relaxed, relieved, and happier. 

P.S. I wrote about another strategy that I use to clear my mind here. Check it out if you want to learn another way to develop a clear mind.