Need a simple way to organize your thoughts and plan your days? Learn how a brain dump for busy moms can help you keep up with all you have to do!
Life as a busy mom can get hectic and it’s easy to lose track of all your to-dos when there are just too many of them. Completing a daily or weekly brain dump is a great way to keep up with everything and clear out some of the mind clutter.
How does a brain dump for busy moms work? What do you include? And how do you keep track of it all?
Keep reading to get answers to those questions, plus a FREE brain dump printable template you can use to manage your busy mom life!
Table of Contents
What Is a Brain Dump?
A brain dump is an organization hack that involves writing down all the different thoughts you have competing for space in your mind. It’s a form of decluttering but instead of cleaning out a closet or reorganizing your pantry, you’re clearing out the junk in your head.
Doing regular brain dumps is a must for busy moms because you’ve got so many things to keep track of. If you’re not making a daily schedule or using a planner to manage everything, it’s so easy for important tasks to get lost in the shuffle!
Here are some of the benefits of brain dumping for busy mamas:
- Brain dumps can relieve stress since you can unload all of your worries or nagging concerns on the page. If you’re an anxious mom like me, then that’s HUGE for creating some calm in the chaos.
- It’s easier to prioritize your to-do list when you can see everything in one place. You can decide what to focus on right now, what can wait until later, and what you can delegate to someone else.
- You’re less likely to forget to do something when you’ve dumped it out on the page, thought about when to tackle it, and scheduled it into your mom routine. That’s a major plus if you’re the kind of mom who finds herself scrambling to plan things at the last minute.
- Brain dumps help you feel more in control of your busy days while allowing you to turn your focus to the truly important things, like spending time with your kids. You get to enjoy the feeling of being in the moment with your family while having the reassurance of knowing your to-do list has been sorted.
What to Include in a Brain Dump for Busy Moms
The beauty of a brain dump is that you can include anything! Any thought that strays across your mind can go on a brain dump list for review. It’s totally up to you to decide what to jot down.
Brain dumps can be specific to one train of thought or include a mix of everything. Here are some ideas for things to include on a brain dump list:
- Recipes you want to make
- Home maintenance tasks or repairs that need to be handled
- Doctor’s appointments to schedule for yourself and your family, or vet visits for your pets
- Birthday gifts to buy or cards to send
- Meal plan lists and grocery lists
- Pantry essentials to stock up on
- Flu season shopping list (think cold medicine, fever relievers, tissues, etc.)
- Books you want to read or movies you want to watch
- Phone calls you need to make
- Important texts or emails to send
- Car maintenance you need to schedule
- Household chores you need to handle like laundry or spring cleaning
- Bills that need to be paid
- Financial tasks, like updating your monthly budget or reviewing your money goals
- Self-care routines you want to try
- New habits you’d like to start (or old ones you want to abandon)
- Date night ideas for you and your spouse/partner
- Activities you want to try with the kids
- Side hustle ideas you’d like to start
I could go on and on but you get the idea–brain dumps are not just for one thing but anything and they’re so super useful that there’s no reason not to use them to stay organized.
How to Make a Brain Dump List
There are no rules for making a brain dump list–you can just dive in. However, if you want to get the most out of this experience I’ve got a few tips that can help.
- Set aside time to make your brain dump. A brain dump works best when you have time to sit down and really focus on emptying your mind. It doesn’t have to be a large chunk of time–15 minutes is usually enough–but it should be time that you can have to yourself uninterrupted and without distractions.
- Decide where to keep your brain dumps. You can write your brain dump list by hand or record it using a notes app, it’s up to you. But the most important thing is to keep track of your brain dumps so you can cross tasks off as you complete them. I like to use a pretty notebook for brain dumping but you could use a cheap composition book from the dollar tree or a blank sheet of printer paper. (And if you want something cute, scroll down for a FREE brain dump printable template!)
- Write without pausing. A brain dump works best when your thoughts are allowed to flow. So sit down and start writing (or typing) without pausing. Let the thoughts bubble up and jot them down; you can go back and review your brain dump list later to decide what to do with everything you’ve written.
Organize and prioritize
Once you’ve got it all out, you can move on to the next step, organizing and prioritizing your brain dump. For example, you may want to sort your brain dump items into categories so that similar items go together.
Some example brain dump categories can include:
- Kids
- Money
- Home
- Relationships
- Work
- Health
- Miscellaneous
Once you have your brain dump list sorted, you can look at each task and decide how to prioritize it based on its urgency and importance. For example, the Eisenhower Matrix suggests breaking down your to-do list like this:
- Urgent and important tasks need your attention first.
- Urgent but not important tasks can be delegated to someone else.
- Important but not urgent tasks can be scheduled for later.
- Not important and not urgent tasks can be removed from the list altogether.
That’s just one approach you might use but it’s a really helpful way to figure out how you should allocate your time.
Delegate
Delegating is so hard to do for a lot of moms. We want to be able to do all the things and when we can’t, we feel like we’ve failed in some way.
But that’s a big lie that we can choose not to believe because it’s okay to ask for help. Delegating and outsourcing can help you get things done without having to be tied up in doing it yourself.
Here are some ideas for how to delegate as a busy mom:
- Get your kids involved. Delegating chores and cleaning tasks teach kids responsibility while keeping a tidy house. The key is to choose age-appropriate chores for kids and create a chore schedule to ensure things are getting done.
- Enlist your spouse/partner. If you’re married or partnered up, you should have a built-in helper on standby. I realize that not every spouse/partner is willing to shoulder some of the load but if yours is, take advantage of that! Talk about the tasks they’re best equipped to handle and work together to create a schedule for completing them.
- Get help elsewhere. If you’re a single parent like me or your spouse/partner can’t or won’t lend a hand, consider where else that help can come from. Can you ask a parent, sibling, neighbor, or friend? If that feels uncomfortable, could you pay for the help you need by hiring a cleaner, a babysitter, a dog walker? Whether this is realistic for you will ultimately depend on your situation and financial means but if you have the option to outsource it’s definitely worth exploring.
Plan
The final step of brain-dumping is to plan when you’re going to do it all!
This is where it helps to have a great planning system that you rely on. I use a combination of a paper planner and X-Tiles to manage everything but you might prefer use a plain notebook, Notion, or something completely different.
As you plan out your weekly and daily tasks, make sure to note:
- What is being done
- What day you’ll do it
- Who is doing the task if you’re delegating
- Approximately how long it will take
Here’s a great rule of thumb for planning: Double the amount of time you give yourself.
The simple fact is that things almost always take longer than we think they will. So if you give yourself more time to cross off a task, you don’t have to worry about rushing to get it done. And if you have time left over to spare you can use it to start on your next task (or indulge in a few minutes of mommy “me” time :)).
Brain Dump List for Busy Moms Printable
Want a simple way to keep track of your brain dump ideas? Click the image below to download a free printable brain dump template!
What’s On Your Brain Dump List?
Brain dumps are a simple, but highly effective way to organize your busy mom life. If you’re not using brain dumps to manage your to-do list yet, it’s time to give them a try!
Need some extra help managing your time as a busy mom? Check out The Organized Home for tips on how to create routines that keep your days running smoothly, your house in order, and your family happy. It’s one of my go-to resources for calming the chaos of everyday mom life!