How to Do a Brain Dump - For Creative Entrepreneurs

Even though the messages about the New Year are fueled with excitement, this time can also feel daunting and bring overwhelm. Brainstorming or “brain dumping” is a process of de-cluttering the mind in order to help you to gain focus on a singular purpose or goal. This process helps you to become organized and mindful. How to do a Brain dump – for Creative Entrepreneurs will be your best new year’s tool to achieve your goal. It will help you with the overwhelm or stress you may feel going from the holidays into the new year.

You begin by taking a blank piece of paper and writing all of your goal oriented ideas that come to mind without being too organized or hindering your thought flow.

So, you may be wondering, how do I start and what does this look like? The most important message is just to start. There is no right or wrong way.

Start writing all the thoughts, goals and hopes you have for this year. Don’t hold back and just let the pen take over. Write down everything that you want to do (that comes to mind) that is part of reaching that dream.

Once you fill up a page (or more), you will start to notice themes and repeat thoughts. Hopefully this will excite you as well. Take as much time as you need with this exercise. Below is a helpful tool that will guide you in your brain dumping process. You can download and print these pages in the Free Printables page.

Brain Dump Prompts

Part of the Brain Dump Questions and Prompts involve looking back as well as looking ahead. Each prompt or question is designed to getting you thinking of what you want to accomplish and why. These questions and prompts are encouraging ways to push you further, dig deeper and reach for more.

Eventually you will break down this dream into small and measurable goals (daily, weekly, monthly etc.). Take as much time as you need and go back to it as soon as you have an idea. My brainstorming session developed over a couple of days.

When you start “brain dumping” notice categories or themes. Usually they will involve some level of “input” and “output” or “creating”, and “learning”. And possible one under a “future” category. So, ask yourself, do each of my points connect to my dream?

Create/Output

It became evident that a “create” theme emerged as I did the brain dump. These were activities I would produce or contribute to (physically create). Some examples were; continuing to produce regular blogging content (three types of blog posts), schedule social media, painting regularly in a particular theme (narrowing it down to two subject matters) and using my paintings to create collections.

Learn/Input

The second theme that I discovered as I did the brain dump was “Learn”. These are areas that you need have in order to become better acquainted with the “Create” theme. This included taking courses, researching licensing processes and companies and eventually applying to a few companies.

Resources Needed

To acquire the ability to achieve your goal, you will need resources, which translates into time and money.

As you look at the themes that you have created from the Brain Dump, you have to ask yourself three questions.

1) First ask, what tools (physical and online) do I need within my work space to accomplish my goal?

2) And second, what is my budget?

3) How much do I need to invest in order to be successful in these areas? In the “Create” area, do I have all of the supplies and tools needed to paint the type of watercolor I would like? Do I need to invest in a better scanner? How much will the course work be in order to expand my skills in the “Learn” area?

Time Commitment

With any new goal, we have to be realistic about how much time we are able to dedicate to our craft each day. Like many of you, for me, achieving a new goal probably won’t bring in a steady (if any) income initially. Often, we have to dedicate hours of our day possibly to another occupation. Do you have a few hours a day or a few hours a week?

With learning how to do a brain dump, you will have a good head start on having a clear goal focus for this year. The next step is putting the plan into concrete, manageable steps which involves creating task lists and creating a mood board.

As a creative, do you struggle with confidence?

Even though I share a lot of freebies and tutorials, I held back for years sharing my creations because I feared failure. As creatives, you and I can be held back due to negative thinking. It might look like comparing your ability to others or not having the confidence to pursue your creative talent or putting your creations out into the world.

Is that you? Have you ever found it difficult to cope with imposter syndrome, your inner critic, fear of failure, perfectionistic tendencies, and being hesitant to share your work?

If your answer is yes, I have a Free resource for you. It’s just a click away!