The “Wheel of Thoughts” vs. “The Great Brain Dump”

You know those people who just seem to always be on top of things and make it look effortless? I am NOT that person.

I have learned that the natural state of my brain is chaos. This is something I have struggled with and reflected upon countless times. I am not the type of person to just say “Well, that’s just the way I am,” and accept it. I am determined to overcome this jumbled brain of mine.

The first step to figuring this out was to uncover exactly why I have such a hard time with this. After much contemplation, I have narrowed down the cause to the very nature of how my brain works. I have a very active mind that overthinks and wants to understand everything, is easily distracted–shifting from topic to topic often–and constantly thinking of new ideas. I also really want to be organized, so my subconscious puts in a great deal of work to try to make sure I remember the things I need and want to do.

At first glace, the majority of those things appear to be positive traits–and they are on their own. In practice, though, it’s like standing in position on an assembly line that’s moving way too fast. By the time you pick up the first piece and get to work on step one, the item for step three is racing by. You try and grab it, but before you know it you have an armful of spare parts, nothing’s finished, and vital pieces are dropping to the floor and rolling all over the place! Not a very productive setup.

To explain why this happens, first you have to understand the “Wheel of Thoughts” that is my mind. My brain views all thoughts the same. Each individual item I am trying to focus on, tasks to remember, new ideas, distractions, worries, etc just cycle through my brain endlessly. Once a thought makes it to the front place in line, the length of time I can hold it’s attention for depends on how many other things there are pushing it along from behind.

The important stuff has A LOT of competition to outshine.

Over the years I have learned different techniques to help keep things in check. The most important of which is The Brain Dump. This basically means spending as long as it takes–usually a few days to a few weeks, to capture every little thought that arises, pull it out of my head and catalog/organize in such a way that I can relax knowing it is not forgotten. I’ve been in the middle of a big dump (oh, yes, my immature mind is gonna go there….).

To try and illustrate this better, let me show you a visual representation of what my mind looked like on Monday of this week, when the dump began:

Every spoke on the wheel is a thought that my brain was struggling to keep “live.”

That’s 68 items that I yanked from my brain on Monday alone. Let’s say the “cycle” is 4 hours. That means each idea is only getting to be in the forefront of my mind for a max of 3.5294 minutes before I get distracted by the next idea.

(This isn’t a set time of course, it varies based upon a multitude of factors. I do know that it gets significantly longer as the list grows.)

As each thought emerges, there are a few possibilities:

1. I stay focused on that task until getting distracted by another thought. Outcome: Stays on the Wheel
2. I make a mental note to get to it later and try to go back to what my focus is. Outcome: Stays on the Wheel
3. I complete the task right then and there (yeah, right). Outcome: Removed from the Wheel
4. I take a brief moment to write it down, then quickly go back to the important stuff. Outcome: Removed from the Wheel

When not actively making an effort to get and stay organized, it’s pretty much all option 1 or 2.

Needless to say, my days aren’t very productive when left in free fall. It’s a constant fight just to accomplish the basics of my work tasks and home-life responsibilities. No room for new and innovative projects, being creative, or even getting to all the fun things I’d like to do with friends, family, and myself.

Now, let’s look at an illustration of the shape my mind was in this morning (Friday):

That’s just 8 active items. So, let’s say the “cycle” is a shorter 2 hours due to having less items to juggle. That means I can spend 15 minutes on a thought before getting tempted by a distraction. But even more importantly, I have a system in place so that I can instantly grab the random ideas and force them out of my brain, so I move right on back to the good stuff.

Although I am getting more done, it feels like I have way more time to work with, since am not always shifting gears.

Another instant and incredible benefit of the brain dump is that, like magic, the creative and intelligent ideas that have been stifled get a chance to come out and play. (just be ready to write them down right away so you don’t get blocked up again!)

This process is the ONLY thing I have found that can fix my hoarder of a brain.

And this is only after 5 days–there is still a long way to go.

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As a wrap up, I’ve got 3 afterthoughts that I must say:

1. Where I am now is far from perfect. I have specific additional steps to take that will make things even more efficient over the course of the next few weeks. More on that another time. I also want to write down the exact process and tools I use to make sense of the madness, so watch for that in the future.
2. You have no idea what a big deal it is to get this down. I have explained this verbally to a couple of trusted people in the past, but have always wanted to capture the idea in a permanent format. Now I get to pluck this huge idea out of my head to free up some more space 🙂
3. And, finally, my insecurities: If you were wondering, YES, I do seriously wonder if it is totally weird for someone to analyze their own brain this much…

How about you?

Can you relate to they way I interpret my mind’s workings, or do you have a completely different mechanism working inside your amazing little cranium?

Comment below–I really want to know!