Brain dump template you can print

One page, six prompts, and three boxes for sorting what comes out. Nothing to sign up for and nothing to download.

Print it, set a timer, and write until the page is full. The prompts are there for the moment you go blank two minutes in, which happens to almost everyone.

How to use it

1. Print the sheet. Press print in your browser. You can also save it as a PDF if you would rather fill it in later.
2. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Start anywhere: Home, Work, People, Health, Money or Someday. Write down whatever comes up. It can be tasks, ideas, worries, reminders, questions or the smallest of things. Full sentences are not required.
3. Do not tidy as you go. Do not sort, do not decide what matters, do not correct what you wrote. If «pay the internet bill», «call mum» and «buy socks» come up, just write them down. The job here is not a perfect list, it is an empty head.
4. Use the prompts when you get stuck. Run your eyes over the six headings and ask: what is taking up room in my head under this one? If nothing comes, move to the next heading.
5. Stop when the timer goes off. There is no need to keep going until the sheet looks perfect. If thoughts are still arriving, put them in the nearest free space and finish.
6. Read back what you wrote. Look over the list and mark anything that needs an action. For example: pay the bill, reply to that email, book the appointment, buy the ticket.
7. Move the marked items into the three boxes at the bottom. In Do today put what genuinely has to happen today. In Later put what can wait. In Let go put what no longer needs doing, or what you can stop worrying about.
8. Put a date where a date is needed. If something has to happen on a particular day, write that day down. That is what lets you stop holding it and come back to it when it matters.

Read the guide on brain dumps and ADHD →

Nothing to download: when you print, the site elements disappear on their own and a clean sheet is what comes out.

Would you rather work on a screen? There is an app made for exactly this