A Simple Strategy with A Big Impact

Hi Coach,

A foundational strategy that I use with all my Busy Coach and Dan Tudor clients is to get everything out of your head and down onto paper by doing brain dumps.

It’s so simple but an amazingly powerful tool that can make you feel in control of your coaching and recruiting life.

If you tend to keep all your thoughts and ideas in your head, your brain will keep bringing them up over and over, making you feel overwhelmed.

You don’t want that, especially if you want mental clarity to focus on your most important team and recruiting tasks every day.

Throughout this article, I am going to show you how to remove scattered notions from your mind and get them all down, then organize and follow up with ease.

Organize all things in your brain with a brain dump

“If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, and unique individual, keep a journal.” — Jim Rohn

Ever wondered why history’s great minds including Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Maya Angelou would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?

Writing things down helps you prioritize, clarify thinking, and accomplish your most important tasks, over urgent busy work.

As a coach, I have found that it’s the best way to clear your thoughts and organize your ideas.

Judy Willis MD, a neurologist, and former classroom teacher explains:

“The practice of writing can enhance the brain’s intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information… it promotes the brain’s attentive focus … boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.”

Want to unload all of those random thoughts about all the stuff you need or want to get done swirling about in your head? You need a brain dump-a repository, as it were, for all things YOU.

What exactly is a brain dump?

A brain dump is an act of getting all of your thoughts out of your head, so you are able to focus on one idea at a time.

It’s basically a time to organize everything on your mind: your worries, questions, needs, wants, important and urgent tasks, and everything on your mind.

Those things get stuck in your mind over time, distracting you regularly from the things you need to do.

The point of a brain dump is to capture the full picture of everything you need and want to do.

A brain dump is one of many ways to declutter your mind, and it can be done in a matter of minutes.

When to do a brain dump

If you can manage it, a daily brain dump at the end of the day can prepare you for the next morning.

I found when I do a brain dump at night, I sleep better because I am not worried about forgetting anything.

It’s also the best way to start your day without thinking too much about everything you have to do.

Aim for 5 to 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to brain dump, ideally the same time every day.

If a daily brain dump is not achievable, you can commit to a weekly schedule.

You can do it towards the end of each week, on a Thursday or Friday. It’s the best time to review your week and note down everything you were able to accomplish and what need to focus on next week.

Here are some other times it’s a good idea to write your thoughts down

• When you have a busy schedule; it helps to prioritize your tasks.
• When you feel overwhelmed. It pays to take a break and reset.
• When you don’t seem to be making progress.
• When you find a big idea. It’s the best time to write down a few details.
• When you’re making team or recruiting plans.
•  When you start learning something new.

How do you successfully brain dump?

It’s a simple process.

You can use paper, note cards, a whiteboard, a Word document, an electronic device; any medium that will let you get ideas out of your brain as quickly as possible.

At the end of each day or whenever you decide to do it, I always start with what I didn’t do that still needs to get done.  Then I look ahead at what is upcoming during the next day or week.

Get it out of your head and write everything down.

Don’t hold back and don’t limit yourself. Let your brain jump around!

Cover everything you need to do, should do, have thought about doing, should think about doing, anything and everything without any sort of priority.

What’s distracting you. What you dread. What you feel like you should be thinking about doing. What is necessary, important, or urgent?

Write it all down.

Now step away after the process and do something else for a while.

I like to start my list at night and then come back to it the next morning.  Whenever you get back to your list, start organizing your list, prioritizing, grouping everything you’ve written down.

You may change these groups over time, so just choose the simplest ones to begin with.

Mine include recruiting, team, administrative, self-development, personal projects, and social media.

When you are done… congratulations!

You just finished a brain dump!

It’s that easy.

If you keep practicing, it will become a habit.

It may feel overwhelming at the beginning. But you’ll also feel accomplished and in control with time.

Regular brain dumps will help you advance goals and get things done!

If you want me to walk you through how to get all of the tasks you do as a coach organized, email me at mandy@busy.coach and we can set up a call.

Have a productive week,

Mandy

Have a productive week.

Mandy Green

P.S. If you found this helpful, please share it with your coaching friends. I want to help eliminate as much coaching office chaos for as many coaches I can this year. If I can save you 1-2 hours a day and get you so you don’t have to bring as much work home with you (besides recruiting calls), you will have more time and energy to spend with your families, friends, and on your hobbies. Happier and more productive coaches have happier and more productive teams!

P.P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 4 ways that I can help you double your results while working less in 2020.

1. Join the Productive Coach and Recruiter Facebook Group

Get access to some of my best training and a rapidly growing community of coaches working together to become more organized, efficient, and effective so they can get the results they want quicker and get home to their families sooner — Click Here

2. Join Recruiting Made Simple

If you want ongoing training on how to make the process of recruiting more simple, consider joining this group.  We meet once a month and go in depth on 1 topic.  You get my worksheets, checklists, and templates.  You also can get 1-on-1 implementation calls with me.  Click here for the Recruiting Made Simple details.

3. Schedule a Becoming an Organized and Efficient Recruiter On-Campus Workshop

I’ve personally trained hundreds of college coaches individually and as a staff to be smarter, more effective high-level coaches and recruiters. Now it’s your departments turn. I give you a step-by-step blueprints that will teach you how to control your days, conquer the chaos around you, and concentrate on what matters most so that you can spend less time on operational things and more time working with your team on the X’s and O’s. It took me more than a decade of trial and error to discover this formula to how to work more efficiently and effectively as a college coach and I want to share it with you. To get a taste of what the workshop will be about. Email me at mandy@busy.coach for more details.

4. Get 12-Months of Coaching from Me

If you would like 12-months of coaching to create a detailed strategy for success and get the accountability you need to succeed as a coach or as a recruiter, set up a call with me by emailing me at mandy@busy.coach. We can discuss all of the details from there!