Brain dump & sort
Empty your head first, decide afterwards. Type one thing per line, then send each one to the tool that actually deals with it.
Press Enter and keep going. Don't tidy, don't rank, don't judge it. Sorting comes after, and it's easier once the pile has stopped growing.
Now sort it
The sort is the part that works
Writing it all down is a relief for about ten minutes. Then you have a long list, which is the same pile in a different place, and re-reading it means re-deciding every line from scratch. So each item gets one decision, once: do it now, break it down, put a timer on it, or bin it. Four options rather than infinite, because deciding is the expensive part and a shorter menu is a cheaper decision.
Where things go from here
- Under two minutes gets done now. Tracking it costs more than the task does.
- Too big to start goes to the Task Breakdown tool, which opens with your item in the box and chops it into steps small enough to be obvious.
- Just unpleasant goes to the Visual Focus Timer as a block on its list. Five minutes of a horrible task is usually the whole barrier.
- Not actually yours gets binned, which is a real option and the most underused one here.
If what's filling your head is money rather than tasks, the 24-Hour Parking Lot does this for things you want to buy, and the ADHD Tax Calculator puts a number on what the leaks cost. If it's "I need something that isn't my phone", that's the Dopamine Menu.
Questions people actually ask
What is a brain dump, and why does it help?
It's getting everything out of your head and onto something that isn't your head. The relief isn't organisation, it's that you stop spending attention holding twelve things in place at once. Working memory is where ADHD tends to leak, so anything still being carried mentally is costing you, even the trivial items. Once they're written down the pile stops feeling infinite, because it turns out to be eleven things and four of them don't matter.
What do I do after dumping it all out?
Sort each line into one of four piles: do it now if it takes two minutes, break it down if it's too big to start, give it a timer if it's just unpleasant, or bin it. Sorting is the part people skip, and it's the part that works, because an undifferentiated list is the same pile in a new place. Each button here hands the item to the tool that deals with it.
Does it really send things to the other tools?
Yes. "Give it a timer" adds the item to the Visual Focus Timer's list as a block, ready to run. "Break it down" opens the Task Breakdown tool with that item waiting in the box. Nothing already in progress gets overwritten, and everything stays in your browser.
Why not just use a notes app?
You can, and if it works, use it. What a notes app doesn't do is force the sort. A note keeps growing, and re-reading it is its own tax, because every line has to be re-decided each time you look at it. Here the decision happens once and then the item leaves.
Is my dump private?
Completely. There's no account and no server: it stays in this browser's local storage on your device. Which also means it won't follow you to another phone or laptop, so use the copy button if you want to keep it.
