Brain dump: clear your head, then plan

Type everything that is on your mind, one thing per line. Then give each one a day, or drop it.

Loading

Why this works

Unfinished goals kept intruding on people's thoughts and hurt their performance on an unrelated task. Writing a specific plan for each goal removed those effects, even though the goals were not yet done (Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011).

The effect needed a specific plan, not just a list, so this tool asks for a day for each thought and turns it into a to-do.

  • Source: Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667-683. doi:10.1037/a0024192

Worked example

From a dump to a plan
ThoughtPlan
Finish the lab recordThursday, Analog
Ask about the internal marksTomorrow
Revise Bode plotsSaturday, Control
Clean the bookshelfDropped
WOOP goalsWrite your wish, the best outcome, the obstacle in you that could stop it, and your plan for that moment..Eisenhower matrixDrag each task into one of four boxes.When-and-where plannerPick the moment, the action and the place.

Everything you enter stays in this browser. Sign up to keep it in sync across devices.