How a Brain Dump Enhances Your Clarity and Productivity – DEV
In this blog, Shawna Jorat, a 10-year Member with Buffini & Company, shares part of her Brain Dump system that helps her turn ideas into action. She’ll be diving deeper into this as part of the Community Connection webinar series on Tuesday, January 27. Learn more here.
By Shawna Jorat
I’ve been selling real estate for 25 years. Over that time, I’ve managed offices, led teams, and trained hundreds of agents through my brokerages and at both local and state association levels.
And if there’s one challenge I see repeatedly, in agents at every experience level, is that feeling of overwhelm.
Constantly on Overload
As real estate professionals, we all wear many hats. Every day, we face countless decisions. There are also endless ideas, strategies, events, marketing plans, and “shoulds” constantly being thrown at us. When everything feels important, it’s easy to lose direction, freeze, or run your business inefficiently simply because your mind is overloaded.
I know this feeling firsthand. At one point in my career, I was helping to manage a team of 12 agents, along with two staff members and two team owners. We held regular team and management meetings, and the ideas flowed freely, which we loved. But coming up with a way to assess, manage, and implement all those ideas was a challenge.
For years, I had notebooks, folders, sticky notes, conference workbooks — you name it. But then one of the team owners suggested that I try a spreadsheet he had used successfully.
Using the basic model, over time I refined it and expanded it into a more robust, multi-layered system. My spreadsheet has multiple tabs and layers, but everything starts with the Brain Dump tab. I use it daily to unload thoughts, ideas, reminders, and concepts onto “paper,” so I don’t have to worry about forgetting something. Once it’s written down, my mind can let it go until I’m ready to revisit it.
Prioritize Action Over Method
You may find that the best way for you to “brain dump” is to have a notebook, app in your phone or a whiteboard in your office. There’s no right or wrong method. The important thing is having a system that relieves the mental pressure of idea overload instead of adding to it.
Doing a Brain Dump, at the beginning and throughout the year will lead to:
- Clearer focus
- More intentional planning
- Less overwhelm
- Better follow-through
- A calmer, more creative mindset
When your ideas have a place to live, your mind finally gets to breathe. And that will lead to not only a more productive business, but also a happier overall life.
Shawna Jorat will be sharing more about her brain dump strategy on our Community Connection webinar Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. PT. Register here to join and learn more.
