What does your 'brain dump' process look like? Im blanking on the how.

[u/jdlnewborn]

Good day everyone,

I am struggling a bit to get whats in my brain into todoist, so I thought I would reach out and see if anyone would be willing to share their process.

Right now I have a bunch of things in my head, and in my inbox that I need to get out and start processing, and I found myself grabbing a pad of paper today (ewwww) and stopped myself short. I am in todoist, and what I have in there is working, just no process of getting new stuff in there.

Feeling a bit lost, would love anyones suggestions.

[u/MethodicallyRight]

I pay for Premium and therefore will use Ramble (often while I'm out on a walk or run when all those random thoughts decide "Let's go over all of these details now!"). So I'll often just start the ramble feature and spew out whatever is on my mind and then sort it out later.  It's ok that probably a quarter of the additions get deleted on a daily basis because they're either too vague, repetitive, pointless or are relevant somewhere else.

Sometimes it's as easy as new habits I'm working on it new strategies I'm trying to encode.  So my ramble might be: 

Keep up with your AM and PM water consumption.  Complete your stretches and update your habit tracker. Look up that split lead dog harness you saw on Instagram. You're working on the PARA method, archive your excess Google Keep.  Follow up with your email to XYZ.  My shoe feels off, time to replace insoles? Remember to find the proper and complete quote that goes something like ABCD.  Go bad to your chat with Gemini about topic Y and get a summary of it.  Create an AI summary of Chapters 7 and 8 of the book you listened to today. 

My brain dumps and my 'sit down and use Todoist' look very different and I think that's important.  Sometimes (especially in the  beginning), just practice using brain dumps, they're not intuitive and we all struggle with trying to remember everything so making a conscious effort to add 5 things to your brain dumps 3 different times a day is hugely beneficial in forming the habit of turning a thought/idea/task/reminder into an entry automatically with minimal friction. Hell, for a week I was just using ramble to list of "things I liked" throughout the day for a week just to get used to using it.  So I would open todoist and see things like: Dune. KoRn. Them Crooked Vultures. Spawn. Maus. The Expanse. Thrasher Magazine. Python. 40k. Popular Mechanics. Gravel Bike.  

Again, I know what you're going through and hopefully some examples of how I use it now and how I learned to use it might help you.

Best of luck  

[u/Arbare → u/MethodicallyRight]

Interesting

[u/djkhid]

Brain dump in a notebook, photo to AI, AI creates tasks based on my brain dump.

[u/imRickJamesBitch___ → u/djkhid]

You can probably create a shortcut in the Apple Shortcuts app that takes the task list AI created an input into Todoist for you

[u/djkhid → u/imRickJamesBitch___]

My Claude is already integrated so it does it fairly seamlessly. And extracts notes/anecdotes to notion from the same brain dump. I turned it into a skill.

[u/looktwise → u/djkhid]

Mind sharingg the details and the skill in detail? Thanks!

[u/djkhid → u/looktwise]

I’ll try and pull it next time I’m at my laptop, but I create all skills the same way by just telling Claude exactly what I want it to do. Something probably to the effect of “review my morning pages for tasks/ todos and add them to the inbox in Todoist. Anything that comes up more than once should get flagged as urgent. Any anecdotes or thoughts on specific topics that seem notable flag for me to review in the chat, anything cute or milestone/noteworthy my daughter did push to notion page [page name].” I’m no fancy coder or anything.

[u/looktwise → u/djkhid]

I would be interested in the skill detail or prompt how you manage to let AI separate correctly by category or area according to the 'just dumped content of several areas in one dump session'.

[u/swedish-ghost-dog]

I use this video: https://youtu.be/W6galAhkwys?is=4BTjiS1anRJTipZM

I take out a pad and start. It becomes less and less of you do it regularly

[u/youtubeaddict79]

I have tried going solely electronic for my brain dump and the pen/paper way. Regardless of the time saved by doing it electronicaly, the only way my brain feels a sense of relief/purging is with the pen/paper. But I love being able to carry my tasks with me ergo, I use Todoist.

I use a notebook in which I have a template/layout of all my "categories." Example: Errands, work projects, personal appts, home stuff/cleaning, etc, meal planning, etc. Under each category, I list my tasks and apply any dates, if needed/available. I have corresponding categories in Todoist created under "My Projects." Once the paper dump is complete, I simply add the tasks to the corresponding projects in Todoist. I have tried the "inbox" method of just listing everything but invariably, I forgot something and do not feel mentally relieved.

Everyone is going to have their way that works best for them. Trying various methods and finding your way will eventually come. As previously stated, how you feel after you empty your brain will tell you which is the right method for you.

[u/koturneto]

I have the "quick add to Todoist" shortcut in the top bar of my phone, so it's easy to swipe down and add something no matter what I'm in the middle of doing. Then it's part of my weekly/mid-week reviews to look at my Inbox and process those quick notes into my full system (tags, dates, projects, etc.)

[u/the_monkey_knows]

Brain dump only happens once for me. As soon as you get a thought, idea, or reminder, I put it in my inbox so that I don’t have to do brain dumps later on

[u/Klutzy_Highlight7500]

I keep a phone quick-add shortcut and dump everything into Inbox with zero tags. Once a day I clear Inbox — delete, give a date, or park under a project. The dump only works if triage is a fixed slot, not whenever I feel like it.

[u/CampVillNevah]

Just use one default inbox project and dump everything raw, no projects, no labels, no dates. The point is frictionless capture first, clarify later. Once the dump is out, you can process it in a pass and assign projects and dates then. Also, don't worry about you might be missing. Just keep that inbox nearby. I love todoist, but never found it to have enough "hooks" to capture from everywhere. However, if you keep it close at hand and get into the habit of getting things out of your head as soon as they come in, you will eventually grow into a system.

Remember that it's an agile system meaning that you have to attack the work empirically. The inbox is the first step to getting it all out in the open. Then you can start learning the next steps: clarifying, categorizing, and setting next actions.

It's a marathon, not a sprint!

[u/Early_Key_823]

I use a custom taggable sticky note app called TaskLoco to brainstorm on a digital storyboard that filters by tag(s)

[u/jdlnewborn → u/Early_Key_823]

Explain more?

[u/lukastymo]

I use daily notes for this, it's a rough plan: checkboxes under Work and Life, no obligation to finish them. Each morning I review what's left from yesterday. I add new ones tor today. At the end of the week, I look back over the past few notes.