The Beauty of the Brain Dump
How I Organize My Tangled Thoughts as a Neurodivergent Person
My Mother tells a story of one of the first parent-teacher meetings she had once I entered grade school. She recalls that my teacher told her that she had never seen another child so engrossed in what other people were up to. If someone got up to walk across the room, my eyes would follow. As I grew older and was diagnosed with ADHD, my ability to tackle schoolwork decreased.
Through the early 2000s, I was in utter disbelief that the diagnosis was valid. Not because I felt I was the same as other children, that certainly wasn’t true, but because of the common misconception that all children with ADHD were hyperactive. I was in my own world, certainly a traumatized child, but I was not hyperactive. Even as I aged I was in disbelief about my diagnosis. It just seemed that everything society and the media taught me about ADHD didn’t dovetail with my experiences. The medication I was put on was a bad fit, furthering my disbelief.
It wasn’t until my mid to late twenties that I started to learn that ADHD presented differently in women and girls, that my sheer inability to work on a project for months, but then hunker down and hyperfocus, producing A+ work overnight, was pointing back to that diagnosis of my youth.
Although I am still learning about the kinds of behaviors that underscore the nature of my neurodivergent brain, I have found that one of the most widely used thought management techniques utilized in the ADHD community is something I have been doing since grade school.
The Brain Dump
If you are neurodivergent or have anxiety, you may be well acquainted with the feeling of having your thoughts be a bit of a runaway train. These exercises are just a way to help take a little bit of mental power back and get those stray thoughts sorted in a way that makes sense to you. I do this practice when I am generally stressed or need to sort out a plan for a life change or personal project.
Take a pen and paper (Look, I like pen and paper, do what you want.) and quite literally record your stream of thoughts. This can look like a million different things and there is no wrong way to do it, I’m just going to share mine. Take what resonates, leave what doesn’t.
I regularly do two kinds of brain dumps. One is what could be called a Basic Brain Dump. For me, this ends up just being a ton of information on the page separated by lines and probably with bullet-point lists. The other is the Bubble Map, a pretty literal description of the popular brainstorming method.
Basic Brain Dump
Pen.
Paper.
Stream of consciousness.
It’s really that simple, and there isn’t a wrong way to organize what you’re writing. The idea here is simply that you are just getting whatever is rolling around your head on paper.
I tend to approach this style of brain dump in one of two ways.
To-Do Lists
If you were to come across any notebook or whiteboard in my home you would likely notice I have bullet-point lists everywhere, for everything. I know to turn to pen and paper when I am feeling overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of things that I have to remember to be a functioning adult.
I start by writing a name for the list, for example, “Website,” then proceed to note bullet points for the things I need to do or research. As I write and get distracted with a completely unrelated or only-sort-of-related item that is due it’s own list, I simply write it somewhere else on the page. Ultimately, the page gets busier and I draw lines around the unrelated task lists to separate them. Honestly, the page ends up looking like underbaked cookies that melted together in a pan full of unfinished business, but if it works, it works.
Planning Time
This is the practice I use when I need to re-examine my budget or come up with a plan for something that spans a period of months. I start at the top of the page and make my way down, marking the months as I go while I record the tasks that need tending to and any other pertinent information I need to remember. I will often make a line across the page separating the months or phases of time, such as a quarter year.
The Bubble Map
As an artist and writer, this is my favorite visual planning method. Though often used in the classroom as a way for students to explore the aspect of an idea or concept, I have carried this with me and have implemented it in my creative planning process.
Select a word that represents what you’re working on. This might be your name, the name of your business, or just something simple like “Writing.” Draw a circle around the word.
From that circle, draw a line and then another word. Using “Writing” as an example, you may choose to title each offshoot a different article name, or perhaps as the categories under which you write articles.
This is where we divert from the practices of our childhoods and run a bit off course. Personally, my offshoots are all different lengths, some of the lines are curved to reach a far-reaching empty part of the page, and many of my smaller bubbles have offshoots of their own. Sometimes I have different projects that cover the same themes or need the same supplies and my bubbles connect, leaving a web of scribbly notes with circles pointing toward their relevance.
I’m not sure if I will ever find another mental practice that supports the way I think in quite the same way these do. Through my journals to work presentations, they have worked their way into and have supported the ideas behind just about everything I create.
Brain Dumps are meant to be living exercises. Journal with them, explore yourself, be messy, write down the exciting ideas, ask yourself those questions. Be it a new go-to life management tool or deep reflection, you might be surprised with what you find.
Disclaimer: This article is a personal account and is not intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice of any kind. If you have questions about ADHD, trauma, or anything else, please contact a medical professional.
