How to brain dump And the step most guides skip.

Every guide to brain dumping tells you to write everything down. That is half of it. The list only helps once each line sits where you will see it again. Here is the method, and the sorting step that comes after.

Jacky Fakkeldij Building Driftto, on his own · Updated 23 October 2026

I build Driftto, an iPhone app that sends a thought to the app where it belongs. I wrote this after reading the pages that rank for "how to brain dump". They all end where the work starts: you have a page of lines and no plan for them. I compared the apps people use in The best brain dump apps for iPhone; this page is about the method, and you need no app for it.

The steps below are my own method. Nothing here is a study or a quote from one. Where I borrow an idea, I say whose it is.

The short answer

To brain dump, set a timer for ten minutes and write every thought as its own line, without sorting. Then do the step most guides skip: send each line to the app where it gets done. A dated line goes to a reminder, a bigger job to a project, an idea to a note, a message to an email.

What a brain dump is, and what it is not

A brain dump is a fast, messy list of everything that is open in your head: jobs, errands, things to ask, ideas, small worries about work. You write it without judging it. The point is to move the load from your memory to a page, so that you stop rehearsing it.

It is not a diary and not a plan. A diary is for looking back. A plan puts things in order. A dump is the raw material for a plan. The idea of emptying your head before you organize is old, and David Allen made it famous in his book Getting Things Done, which is a registered trademark of the David Allen Company. If you want to see apps built around that method, read the best GTD apps for iPhone. You do not need his system to use the steps below.

How to brain dump, step by step

1. 01

   Pick one place to write

   A sheet of paper, one note on your phone, or a blank document. One place, so nothing ends up in three. Paper is slower to sort later but harder to wander off from.

2. 02

   Set a timer for ten minutes

   A limit keeps the dump from turning into a project of its own. If your head is very full, take fifteen. If you run dry at four minutes, stop.

3. 03

   Write one thought per line

   Short lines, any order, any size. "Call the dentist" and "rethink the pricing page" go on the same page. Half a thought is fine: "something about the car" is enough to remind you later.

4. 04

   Do not sort while you write

   No headings, no priorities, no deciding if it is a real task. Sorting while you write slows you down and you stop before the list is empty.

5. 05

   Stop when you start repeating

   When the same things come back, or the timer rings, put the pen down. You will remember the rest next week.

6. 06

   Cross out what needs nothing

   Some lines are done, or out of your hands, or not worth a line. Strike them. What is left is your list.

7. 07

   Sort each line to where it gets done

   This is the next section. Read each remaining line once and decide which app or list it belongs in. Do not leave the page as your list.

8. 08

   Rewrite each line as a next step

   Start with a verb: "Email Sam about the invoice", not "Sam". When you open the app next week, you should know what to do without thinking back.

9. 09

   Throw the page away

   Once every line is somewhere else, the page has done its job. Keeping it means two lists, and you will trust neither.

When to brain dump

Do it when the list in your head gets in the way of the thing in front of you. For most people that comes in three rhythms.

• Daily, five minutes

  A short dump at the start or end of the day. It works well for people with a steady stream of small asks.

• Weekly, ten to twenty minutes

  A longer dump on Friday afternoon or Sunday evening, followed by a look at what the sorted lines changed in your week.

• On demand

  Before a big deadline, a trip, a move or a new job, or any time you notice you are holding the same thought for the third time.

If you try one, try the weekly dump. A daily habit asks more of you, and the sorting step is where a weekly session pays off most: one sitting, one clean inbox.

Step two: send each line to where it gets done

The dump is only a holding place. A line on a page does not remind you of anything. It sits there until you remember to read the page, and then the page is one more list to keep up.

So read each line once and ask one question: where will I be when I do this, and what will tell me to? The answer is almost always one of four places.

• A reminder

  For a thing with a day or a time: pay the invoice on Thursday, book the vet before the end of the month. The app does the remembering for you.

• A task in a project

  For a job that belongs to a bigger piece of work, shared with other people, or has more than one step. It lives next to the other steps.

• A note

  For an idea, a link or a fact you want to keep but do nothing with yet. A note app, a database or a document.

• An email or message

  For a thing you have to say to someone. Write the first line now, while you remember what you meant.

Some lines fit none of them. A line that is a wish and not a job ("learn Spanish") can go in a note called Someday, or you can cross it out. Be honest about which one it is. A list of wishes pretending to be tasks is how a to-do list turns into a pile.

Which line goes where

Do the sort in one pass. Decide each line in a few seconds. If a line takes more than that, it is probably a project: put the whole thing in one task named after the outcome, and break it down when you start.

Where Driftto fits

Driftto is the smaller part of this page, and you can do all of it without it. It helps with step two only, and only on an iPhone: it sends a thought to the app it belongs in. It writes new items. It never reads your lists and never moves, edits or completes anything in them.

There are two ways to use it for a dump. The first skips the page: open Driftto, type or speak one thought (speech runs on the device, through Apple's recognition), and tap where it goes. The keyboard is already up, so a dump of twenty thoughts is twenty short rounds. The second is paper first: write the dump by hand, cross out what needs nothing, then type or speak each remaining line into Driftto and send it on. In Apple Reminders or Todoist the whole note becomes the title, with a due date if you set one. In Notion it becomes a page title in the database you picked.

It is also a poor fit in some cases. A long, rambling dump that you want to read through and tidy as one text belongs in a note app, where you can see it all. The apps in the brain dump list cover that. Driftto is for the moment a single thought needs a home.

Questions

Driftto is in the App Store now. The yearly plan starts with a free week.