The Value of an End of the Week "Brain Dump"

This post originally appeared onThe Simple Dollar.

Whats a Brain Dump?

Heres the big key behind all of this.

Usually, these things fall directly under the important but not urgent category of stuff you should be doing.

Those things get stuck in your mind over time, distracting you regularly from the things you oughta do.

That derailment can cause you to lose productivity at work and even fail to get things done at home.

A brain dump is a solution to all of that.

Heres how it works.

Youll also find that your list ends up being really long.

At least, whenever I do it,mylist ends up being around 100 items or so.

That can feel overwhelming, but dont sweat it yet.

So, you have this big list of items.

Identify everything on the list thats a standalone activity.

For me, a standalone activity is something I can do in half an hour or less.

I usually copy all of those to a fresh list that I call my activities list.

This leaves you with a handful of big projects that you feel like you better start working on ASAP.

Basically, I just make an ordered list of standalone activitiesthings I can do in about half an hour.

For me, brain dump Saturdays can often stretch into Sundays as well.

So, once every few months or so, Ill do one of these brain dumps.

Without exception, I feelgreatby the end of Saturday.

Ive completed so many things that were left undone.

I feel like achampion.

During the following week or two, I feel incredibly focused on the things I need to accomplish.

I feel like I can handleanything.

This system is so incredibly helpful to me.

I hope that you find it helpful, too.

The Value of a Brain Dump Friday| The Simple Dollar

Trent Hamm is a personal finance writer atTheSimpleDollar.com.

Image byKeep Calm and Vector(Shutterstock).