42: The 5-Minute Daily Brain Dump: Clear Your Mind and Boost Productivity

Hello there and welcome to this small but mighty episode. I'm excited to share with you today one of the daily habits that I have that has radically changed the way that I work and the way that I am with my family. And so it's really simple, but it's going to be super impactful. Are you ready? Let's go. Bonnie. Christine. And this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast. I am so excited to share with you a brand new project we've been working on. It's called 60 by 60 because there are 60 incredible artists who have come together to share with you one way that they create income from their artwork and in under 60 seconds each. Which means that it's 60 minutes of incredible knowledge and wisdom being shared by some insanely talented artists that I know you're going to love. Our hope is that it not only shows you what's possible, but it also encourages you and helps you get clarity on the very next steps you want to take in your own creative endeavor. And it's entirely free. We've also created an interactive directory with all of the artists included so that you can go dive into all of their worlds and get to know them a little bit better. To watch the video, head over to bonniecristine.com income again, that's bonniecristine.com Income. You'll be able to watch the 60x60 video right away and we cannot wait to meet you there. I'm not sure about you, but for many, many years I would write down a to do list when I got to my workplace. So pretty much whenever I sat down to start my work for the day, I would wrap my head around, well, what did I need to do? And I would just dump it onto a big to do list. It wasn't necessarily you know, itemized. I didn't prioritize anything. I just tried to write down everything I needed to do, and inevitably I would add things to it throughout day. And so a couple of years ago, I completely flipped this on its head and began writing a to do list at the very end of my day. Not at the end of the actual day, but at the end of my work for that day. And this has been such a game changer for me. So I call it a daily brain dump, and I do it at the very end, end of the day. So let me talk to you about what this has done for me. Probably the biggest benefit has been that transition. You know, it's all still fresh in our minds at the end of the day. And if you are a creative entrepreneur, you're always going to have things that you didn't finish. I don't know that we ever finish anything. It's not like we get through our list. It's an ongoing list. Am I right? So it's all fresh, and you know exactly where you're leaving things. You know exactly where you need to pick up the next day because you're just wrapping up. And so for me, it allows me to really, as it's fresh, put everything down on paper and then instantly transition. I get to transition away from that work mindset into my life mindset. So oftentimes this is, you know, as a role of being a mom and a wife and playing and not having to try to think about work. So what this really does is free up an amazing amount of mental bandwidth. Because if you think about it, if you, you know, leave work and you leave all of these things undone, what that causes is something in your brain that we call an open loop, meaning it's not complete and you've got to kind of remember it. And so you will use so much of your mental energy throughout the evening and all through the night in order to try to rem to finish that task the next day. And so when you just get it out of your mind and put it on paper, instantly you've cleared up mental bandwidth for other things, meaning you're not trying to remember all of the things anymore because you got it out of your head and you can move on. This just aids so much in separating my work and my life. You know, it's often hard to have separation when you are an entrepreneur, but it's so important to separate transition from work back into your life. And this has been one of the best ways for me to do that. This clearing up of Mental bandwidth also helps me enhance and improve my creativity because by decluttering my mind and getting all of those to do's and tasks out of it and onto paper somewhere, then I have new room to make new ideas and to be thinking about creative things, you know, in the margins of my life as well. Now, one of the best things that I love about it is that the next time I come to my work, I don't have to try to remember where I left off. I have this nice tidy list of exactly where I need to dive back in. It makes getting back into the workflow so easy because no longer do you have to waste any time trying to remember where you left things. I think that this also really helps just kind of reduce that mental fatigue. You know, we talk about that scrambling feeling of just a million different things happening in the day and you wearing all the hats and going from one task to another. And then to add onto that, trying to remember all of those and where to pick up the next day really causes just mental exhaustion. And so by doing this daily brain dump at the end of the day, it really helps you plan and prioritize for the next day and just reduce the number of decisions really that you have to make, which just does your brain a big favor, which I am all about. So let's talk about how to do this. First of all, it's something that will likely feel a little bit unusual, and so it's going to require some intention and also a creation of this habit. So I don't really have to think about it anymore. But there was a time where I was really, really having to remember to do this. And so set an alarm or a timer or a note on the door before you walk out. Did you do your daily brain dump? Because once you establish that habit, it becomes second nature to just jot down everything that you're leaving before you walk away. And that is such a big part of this, just establishing the habit in and of itself. So set a little bit of time aside. I'm a big fan of keeping this super duper simple. So the simplest way that you can imagine or that feels exciting to you, let's go with that one. If it's a real piece of paper with a pencil, do it. If it's in your planner or your journal, that's great. If it's in your project management software like Asana or Trello, that's great. Oftentimes I use my notes app on my phone because I've got my phone everywhere. And so even if I Do my daily brain dump at my workstation at the end of the day. Well, let's say that I wake up at 1am and I remember something that I didn't attend to. Does that ever happen to you? Just me. And so let's say I wake up, I'm like, oh my goodness, I didn't do that thing. Well, if you don't just pause and get it jotted down, then the rest of your night will be, you know, spent trying to remember that for when you wake up. So I like to use the Notes app because I have it everywhere with me. And even if it's in the night, I can pop my phone open, write it down, and then clear my mind again and go right back to sleep knowing that I've captured that task or to do or open loop that I have. Another way to do this would be using voice. So if you have a phone, you likely have a voice recorder on it. I've even used an app called Voxer. Now, Voxer is meant for for two way communication, but you can also have a channel just to yourself. And so sometimes I'll voice message myself ideas or things that I want to come back to or tasks to listen to the next day. So I would love for you to give this a try today. At the end of the day, try doing a daily brain dump of everything that you're leaving open. And then just watch how you're able to be more present throughout the rest of your day in your real life and how efficient tomorrow feels when you sit down and have your tasks right in front of you. Okay, so have fun. I hope this has been a little bit of an aha moment for you, as it was for me when I learned about it so many years ago. Remember, friends, to always create the beauty that you want to see in the world. And there's room for you. I'll see you next time. Bye for now. Sam.