Spring is my favorite season. The longer days and warmer weather lead to very noticeable improvements in my energy level, mood, and overall life satisfaction. Suddenly I seem to need less sleep, and I can actually do things in the evenings.

These changes have been particularly welcome this year because I have a lot of things to do right now. As I’ve previously written, I’ve made a big effort to unbusy myself by making fewer commitments and really prioritizing the things that matter most while saying no to the rest. Nevertheless, as a parent of a young child with a full-time career outside the home, things get busy sometimes. There are only so many hours in the day, and inevitably there are multiple tasks and desires competing for the few hours that aren’t devoted to work, commuting, child care, and sleep. When work becomes busier than usual and spills into the early morning and evening hours, squeezing the time available for chores, relationships, and hobbies, I can start to feeling like I’m jumping from one task to the next from the time I rise until the time I go to bed, with no time to reflect or plan. While the adrenaline produced by that lifestyle can be energizing, constantly reacting to immediate demands is not an ideal state of functioning for the long term.

Two things that have largely fallen out of my daily routine lately are writing and meditation. I’ve started to notice a difference in my mental state without these activities. Despite feeling productive and energized, I’m less calm and more forgetful. I completely forgot about a doctor’s appointment last week and didn’t realize it until four days later; that is something I’ve never done before in my life. I treated myself to a massage one evening and actually had trouble relaxing enough to fully enjoy the experience because my mind was so active. It became clear to me that I needed to give a little more attention to what’s going on in my head.

I started by sitting for two brief (10-minute) meditation sessions in an effort to get back on track with a regular practice. Consistency has been a challenge for me when it comes to meditation, and I often fall off the bandwagon when I feel like I’m doing well. Starting up again can be a struggle, and this time was no exception. My mind was bouncing all over the place the first time I sat. The second time was a little easier, though, and I felt much calmer afterward. Even though I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, I’m recommitting myself to setting aside 10 minutes a day to meditate.

The second thing I did was to start writing again. When I was in the habit of writing daily, words and ideas flowed freely. Now that I’m writing less often, it’s hard to get started sometimes. I’ve lost the momentum that comes with daily creative expression, and that inertia that is so helpful when I’m writing regularly can be hard to overcome when I’m not.

I keep an ongoing list of topic ideas for this blog, but sometimes the list doesn’t do a very good job of getting me started. Occasionally an idea that seemed great at first just doesn’t resonate with me anymore when I sit down to write about it. Sometimes the opposite is true: I have so many ideas and unprocessed thoughts that I just don’t know where to begin.

I knew I needed to carve out a block of time this weekend to write. I could feel that it was necessary for my emotional well-being. But when I sat down to write, I had trouble getting started. So I did something that I like to call the brain dump. I just started putting words to paper, writing down seemingly unrelated, mundane thoughts that had been buzzing around in my head.

This exercise felt less like creative writing and more like journaling. It wasn’t outcome-oriented; I wasn’t trying to create a polished, shareable piece. It was different from brainstorming in that I was not really trying to come up with new ideas. Nor was I writing down my to-do list. I was simply taking all those thoughts that had been swirling around in my head and putting them into written words. As a result, I no longer have to expend energy remembering or continually revisiting those thoughts, and getting them out of my head frees up space for new ideas and whatever thing I’m actually doing at the moment.

Some people suggest brain dumping by writing down everything that is causing you stress or everything that you need to do. I can see how that approach might be helpful in that it allows you to organize and prioritize tasks, and perhaps makes looming worries seem less overwhelming and scary. But I already have to-do lists that are too long as it is, and frankly, I don’t want to focus on stressors. I find that drawing attention to all the things I have to or want to do just makes me feel more overwhelmed, and creating a huge list would probably cause me to feel anxious. I know myself well enough to know that is not the right approach for me, so I was careful not to turn my brain dump into a task-generating, stress-inducing exercise.

I also wrote without judgment. My freeflowing writing was free of self-criticisms. The point was not to beat myself up. It was simply to get the ideas and stray thoughts out of my head.

Immediately after doing this, I felt lighter, calmer, and clearer. I was able to move onto the rest of the day’s activities with an uncluttered mind, more able to focus in the moment. Doing a brain dump on a Sunday helped me to process the thoughts from the prior week and start the new week with something closer to a clean slate.

If your plate feels a little too full right now, and you’re looking at your calendar or task list wondering how you’re going to make it to Friday, I suggest trying a brain dump. Take five or ten minutes to write down whatever is on your mind. Get rid of all that mental clutter by putting it on paper (or on a screen, if you can type it out freely without being held back by perfectionism). Then set it all aside, tell yourself you’ll deal with it later if you must, and start your week fresh with a clear mind.

Now that I’ve cleared my own mind a bit and have broken through my writer’s block, I plan to resume writing every day, even if only for 15 minutes. Adding daily meditation and writing back into my schedule may require borrowing some time from other areas, but I know it will pay big dividends in terms of my focus, productivity, mental energy, and overall well-being. My mind is my greatest resource and most valuable asset, and if I want to use it to its fullest, I have to keep it well-tuned.

I know your time is precious. Thank you for choosing to spend some of it reading this post! If you found it helpful, please share.