Brain Dumping And Play Time

This week I want to talk to you about the latest business tool I am trying to master… brain dumping.

You see, I am currently going through a coaching program with Alex Jeffreys and he is helping me to revamp my business skills.

So far I have started doing to do lists, timed productivity, daily did sheets, created a business plan, a personal plan, an entrepreneur plan and the my current method is brain dumping.

To be honest, I wouldn’t say I like doing any of these tasks.

I know they will help in my quest for online success again, but before now I have never been a person for setting goals and reaching targets, I find this sort of work tedious.

I also find it time consuming too, at first I thought my time could be better spent.

But I am slowly coming round to the idea as I can see how clear my target is, I know exactly where I am heading and how I aim to get there.

So back to brain dumping, I am finding it useful so I just thought I would share the technique with you too.

Below you can see my own personal brain dumps:

That’s for ONE DAY.

I swear, the girl at the local pound shop is giving me funny looks because I am buying so many writing pads, I think she thinks I am eating them!

The whole point of a brain dump is to clear your mind and free it up.

My mind is literally swimming with ideas, things I want to learn, things I want to implement, things I must get done and on top of all this I am visiting websites, sales pages, forums, reading articles, reading emails, watching videos tutorials and listening to mp3 interviews.

I am surprised my brain doesn’t sink into the abyss, in fact it probably did.

There is so much going on in my head I often find it hard to figure out where to start, but along came my savior in the form of brain dumping.

Now there is nothing beautiful about brain dumping, in fact it’s damn right UGLY.

It’s a filthy, dirty mess but it’s better out my head on sheets of paper rather than clogging up my mind and thoughts.

I un-scrumpled one of my brain dump pieces of paper below:

That was actually one of the tidier ones.

Sometimes I write so fast and quick I can’t actually read my own handwriting.

All you need is a brain, a piece of paper (a big pad if your head is full of stuff like mine) and a pen.

Then you pour out all of your thoughts onto a piece of paper.

My brain dumps are all about my online business but I guess you could do it for your personal life too.

The first time I tried a brain dump was a bit of a disaster, I think I wrote two things and that was it.

But the more you do it, the better you get at it, I suppose that applies to anything you do, practice makes perfect.

I have written the items from one of my brain dumps below, I couldn’t write them all or I would be here for weeks.

My Brain Dump

Need to find out how to get better click through rate on articles.

Is there a way to direct link to a clickbank payment page and bypass the sales page.

Find private label rights ebook package.

Install Goldmine script.

Transfer old sites to new hosting account.

Get graphics done for new ebook.

Check google analytics stats for sites.

Increase Aweber click throughs, sign ups,double opt in rates, email open rates.

Think about my back end (my business back end, not the one bulging under my jeans)

Find free editable mini sites graphics / sales page button and graphics for next SIMS ebook.

Add google analytics to blog.

Revamp squeeze pages.

Redesign sallys-ebooks.

Do research for ebook prequel profits.

Finish current SIMS ebook.

Join that skype adswap group thingy.

Practice using camtasia again.

Write blog post about defining your niche / market.

Set up new affiliate redirect links.

Set up google alerts.

Remember to produce all products in multiple formats.

Do blog post on relationship marketing.

Clean up tags on all blog posts.

Set up giveaway pages.

Find out who can do animated banners for affiliate graphics.

Ask Randy about that blog widget that allows a sign up box after every post.

and on and on and on……………..

All Those Thoughts Were Clogging Up My Mind

I wrote all that in about 10 minutes.

Now with all those things swimming around in my mind it’s a wonder I get anything done.

That list looks massive and it’s quite frightening when you write it all down.

Of course there will be lots I can outsource.

But you can see I am all over the place, trying to do a million things at once.

Put My Brain Dump In The Bin.

So what I do next is link the brain dump to my to-do list.

I just take each item and add it to my big A4 day to a page diary, score it out on the paper, then throw the brain dump notes into the bin once everything has a big ugly score mark through it.

That lists all the tasks I have to get done the following week.

I do nothing else online until all of the tasks for that day are done.

My brain dumps are also ongoing daily.

I have swapped my mouse mat for an A4 pad.

Then as I go on my daily business as more ideas pop into my head I write them down beside me.

I am terrible for seeing some good information and thinking, that’s a great idea I will need to add that to my blog, website, sign up page etc and I never get round to it.

Even when I do remember to do it, I can’t for the life of me, remember where I found that nugget of information and it takes me hours to find the article or website etc.

By writing down the urls I can quickly find the piece of information I want.

If I don’t do something immediately I have discovered it likely won’t get done at all.

Become A Writer-Downer

Physically writing “stuff” down does make it easier to remember, it helps it stick in your mind.

At the end of each day I look at my brain dump sheets, I see the tasks, add them to my weekly to do list and it gets done.

You should always plan your next day today.

But try to become super organized and plan your whole week ahead too.

I have always considered myself to be a neat, organized type person.

But I am not and being disorganized was crippling my business and it will do the same to yours.

I recently had to clean up my pc hard drive and organize everything into folders.

I found it was wasting time trying to find “stuff” stored on it.

My desktop was a distraction waiting to happen.

Since I started using the firefox browser everything I downloaded was being stored right onto my desktop screen.

It was an absolute mess.

As soon as I would boot up my pc, the first screen I seen was a desktop crammed with ebooks, mp3s, videos, graphics etc.

Items on my desktop would distract me, I would look and think, what was that ebook about again, open and start reading it.

BAM… Half an hour wasted.

What was that mp3 interview about again?

BAM… An hour wasted.

Now my desktop is clean and tidy, all the distractions are hidden behind folders where they can’t get me until I have finished my tasks and have some play time.

Give Yourself Play Time

I need some play time online, if all I do is work work work I don’t enjoy it.

I love going on YouTube and watching goofy videos for an hour.

Below you will see my all time favorite video on you tube, no matter how many times I watch it I still laugh hysterically!

You Tube is a big distraction for me, like I said I can spend hours poking around on there.

I also like to see what my friends and family are getting up to Facebook.

I love to play games online and I am recently getting over an addiction to CafeWorld!

I actually like reading ebooks too, it’s how I learned most of my online business knowledge at the beginning of my online career.

When you start building an online business you become a juggler.

Juggling your work / life balance, you need to find a happy medium that ensures you are happy and productive at the same time.

That’s why it is so very important to give yourself some playtime.

Take breaks in between working, you will be more productive.

This online business stuff is tough going sometimes, work too hard and you will eventually burn out.

Use the brain dumping method, grab a pen and paper, have them beside you at all times, write everything down.

Don’t worry if your writing is messy, no one is going to see it.

Don’t worry if there are millions of spelling mistakes, it’s a brain dump not a best selling book.

Make the biggest, ugliest, stinkiest mess you can, just get it out of your head so you can focus more clearly.

I promise if you use this method, you will see massive results in your productivity.

Start today, all you need is a pen and some paper.

Sally

PS. Have you filled out my quick survey yet? You can fill it out here: Sally’s Quick Survey