Arg…sometimes my brain has other ideas and sleeping isn’t one of them.

I have a back room in my brain. It’s where I keep plans, projects and problems I’m not immediately working on. Sometimes it gets quite crowded and generally I keep it orderly by making lists of All The Things. Lately, though, with the addition of a class, the last gig of the year and the holidays I have been neglectful.

And so this happened today:

After an hour I gave in and got up.

Pippin was thrilled to get his wet cat food treat early. Now he is asleep on the couch while I have coffee and do a “brain dump” as Sarah Stober-Kumar of Red Phoenix Nutrition https://www.redphoenixnutrition.com calls it.

I’m glad ONE of us can sleep.

Anyway, how to do a brain dump:

Gather up all those random ideas and tasks you have to do and get them down on paper.

Just write and don’t worry about putting them in any sort of order or category yet.

When the back room feels pretty empty, take a short break and go do something else. This will allow things that have been squashed into corners or pushed under furniture to pop up. When they do, add them to the list.

Even if an item seems tiny and inconsequential, write it down, because if you don’t your brain will decide it is “of utmost importance” at 4am. Trust me on this.

Now you can look at your calendar or your bullet journal or sticky note system and put in the ideas and tasks, ready to be worked on and checked off.

So far today I have checked off writing, groceries and gym.

Now I am going to go work on nap. Take that, brain!

(Many thanks to theAwkwardYeti.com)