When I am managing multiple projects, or have too many things on my mind, my stress level gets really high. On one hand, this makes perfect sense. During these times, there are a lot of balls in the air. Of course I am stressed. But on the other hand, I find that sometimes I handle plenty more…with less stress. What is the difference?

I accidentally stumbled on something that helps me. So I wanted to share.

When I find that I feel overwhelmed, it usually means one thing. I am trying to keep too many things stored in my brain. There are lots of projects, and tons of things to do for each one of these projects. When my anxiety goes up is when I am using my brain to store them all.

Our brain is a GREAT place to come up with ideas. It’s not a great place to store them.

So the answer is simple. When I am overwhelmed, I take some time to do a “Brain Dump.” I get in front of a piece of paper, an email, a word document or a trello board and I get every single thing that comes into my mind on that list. Regardless of how trivial, I write it down. Sometimes the ideas have nothing to do with the project I am working on, so I turn the piece of paper over and write that down too.

This “brain dump” not only makes me feel better by getting the ideas out of my brain, it also helps me to start an action list. This becomes the to do list of the project that I am stressing on. In addition, when someone says “how can I help?” I have a list of projects where they can assist.

I write this as I am back from vacation and I feel like my brain is swimming with projects. I am continuing to work on Hasseman Marketing. I have a new business idea (of course I do), we are working to create the new event Hasseman Marketing MasterClass (learn more about that here) and more. I feel like I am starting to drown.

It’s time to do a brain dump.

This helps me…and I hope it helps you too!

Kirby Hasseman is the CEO of Hasseman Marketing, a full service marketing agency located in Ohio.  Learn more about Hasseman Marketing here.