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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Brain Dump System

Today I'm going to introduce you to my simple plan to keep from going insane. I have dubbed it the Brain Dump System.

Between prepping for Bead Fest Philly, transporting two very intense and driven kids around to their various things, (one wants to single handedly improve and increase mass transit and got himself an internship with the city bus service without any parental assistance. The other wants to be an actress/dancer on Broadway and has play rehearsals, drama camp, dance class, and is in a film currently shooting locally), two houses to care for, bills to pay, pets to feed and care for, summer parties to host, etc etc etc.

  Brain dump journal with bandolier jen cameron glass addictions

 I have a system for keeping track of our daily agendas involving Google calendar and a weekly chalkboard calendar (photo is from May 2011)


Chalk Board Vinyl Calendar


These two things working together help make sure I always know where and when. However, it's the "to do's" that were killing me. I was trying to remember them. And doing them on my phone just didn't work well for me...

Last weekend I was at the store and ran across a 4 pack of cute journal sized notebooks clearanced for $4. That was when the idea was born....I bought a pack of the notebooks.

They were located right next to the scrapbooking aisle. So I picked up a few inexpensive things that would make the book functional AND cute. I am pretty sure they all came from the "Smashbook" line.

First I added the blank sticker and titled it Brain Dump. Then randomly glued some "fortunes" from one of the scrapbooking things I picked up.

  Brain dump journal jen cameron glass addictions

I also picked up some red and white striped paperclips that came with little adhesive flags and labeled them for my needs.

Brain dump journal paperclip dividers jen cameron glass addictions




Here's a close-up of one of the tags. How you label your tags depends on your needs. But I have so many to do lists under separate categories, that 3 of them are specific to business, house, and lake house in addition to other categories: to make, to buy, party planning (yes, I do a lot of that), and Remember This (for misc stuff). I have a couple leftover paperclips I can use if needed.  


Brain dump journal paperclip dividers jen cameron glass addictions
 

As soon as I started "dumping" all my to do's onto the page rather than trying to keep them filed in my brain, I already started feeling less stressed. I even have a list of specific beads to make for Bead Fest.

Bead Fest to do list




I also found these super cute sticky notes/page markers that are stickers. Super convenient to just stick one set to the inside cover of the journal to use when I'm "on the road".

  Post it notes


 Lastly, I wanted to make sure I always have a pen with me to write with. After all, what good is a brain dump system if you can't write in it? I bought some of these journal bandoliers a while back as gifts. I forgot to give them (oops) and took one to use for myself.


Brain dump journal with bandolier.


Hope this inspires you to create a system that works for you!

-Jen Cameron


14 comments:

  1. That is such a clever idea. I carry around little notebooks and jot stuff down but I think I am going to pirate your idea and see if it will help me get more organized and less stress which will in turn help me be more Balanced. Thanks Miss Jen! Enjoy the day. Erin

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    1. Let me know what tips and tricks you discover for helping you get more organized. Any help I can get is much appreciated.

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  2. Hi Jen,
    Looking forward to being your neighbor at Bead Fest, I am not sure if it a first for you with a 1o x 10 space but it is for me and I have about a million layout plans so far.
    I am a big list person but they always get disorganized I have a reminder tool that I use on my I pad I don't know if it is an app or one that came with the I pad. Like you I can put my reminders into specific categories.
    I am back from my trip which was wonderful, but that last day at sea all I could think about was bead fest so I looked up old photos of my beads and wrote down some design possibilities.

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    1. I can hardly wait! But I don't want it to get here too soon...I am nowhere near ready. And yes, a 10x10 space for beads is a new one for me too. Seems awfully big for such small things...

      Glad you are back safe and are ready to get going. Good luck and let me know if you find any super duper app that can keep me organized

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  3. So glad those days sprinting with four boys are in the past for me, Jen (what an awesome organizer that would have been LOL.)

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    1. I often tell the kids the only reason I NEED a car is to drive them around. Once they move out, we can probably be a one car family.

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  4. Love this! I make lists all the time, but they aren't organized and I lose them a lot! thanks!

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    1. You're welcome! Let me know if you try it and what kind of variations you come up with that will help me improve the method :-)

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  5. I am constantly struggling to stay organized because my "natural" self is very random. So I have a question: In the morning do you go through your separate lists and form a master to-do list for the day? I could see me, for instance, seeing an item of one lists and working on that, whereas something on another list is actually more urgently needed.

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    1. Well....that is a great idea, but no. I haven't graduated to master list or anything yet. I'm still barely treading water at this point. But that's a great idea!

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  6. I have a bandolier too! Clever hands on Etsy! What brilliance! I would be lost without my sketchbook notebook - its the doodle, list collector. And I don't have kids to keep track off...

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    1. I love the bandoliers..which is probably the real reason I never gave them as gifts. LOL!

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  7. I find that making a list, helps my stress and gets things done too.

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    1. I am not very good at making lists because I usually lose them or forget them. I am trying really hard to be disciplined though.

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