---
title: "Empty Your Brain"
description: "Participants complete a timed, unfiltered written brain dump of all pending thoughts and tasks. They then sort and highlight their top immediate actions so their minds can focus on the session ahead."
last_updated: "2026-09-07"
canonical: "https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/empty-your-brain-project-of-how/"
---

# Empty Your Brain

Participants complete a timed, unfiltered written brain dump of all pending thoughts and tasks. They then sort and highlight their top immediate actions so their minds can focus on the session ahead.

**Time:** 15 minutes. UWT recommended 15-minute format based on the source range of 2 to 20 minutes.
**People:** 4 to 24. Individual capture followed by optional pairs or whole-room check-in

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Clear working memory by transcribing pending tasks and thoughts onto paper, then organizing them for action.
**Use it when:** At the start of a busy working session, planning workshop, or meeting when participants arrive distracted by competing priorities.
**Skip it when:** When the meeting is already tightly focused on a single urgent decision with no cognitive overload present.

## Materials and tools

- 1 blank sheet of paper per participant
- 1 writing pen or pencil per participant
- 1 digital countdown timer

## Before participants arrive

1. Ensure every seat has blank paper and a functioning pen.
2. Set up a shared countdown timer visible to all participants.

## Say this to open

Take a sheet of paper and a pen. For the next six minutes, write down every single thing on your mind. Include tasks you need to do, errands, work projects, or random thoughts. Do not filter or organize yet. No one else will read this sheet.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce the practice (2 minutes)

Read the opening script. Explain that participants should write continuously without worrying about handwriting, grammar, or sequence. Start the countdown timer.

### 2. Dump thoughts silently (6 minutes)

Participants write down every thought, chore, pending errand, and work task spinning in their heads. Emphasize that entries can range from daily chores like 'buy milk' to complex work tasks like 'finalize quarterly report'. Keep writing until the timer ends.

### 3. Sort and prioritize (4 minutes)

Ask participants to review their lists. Direct them to select up to five immediate priorities, assign categories (such as Home, Project, Quick Wins), or map urgent tasks directly onto today's schedule. Remind everyone that unselected items remain safely captured on the page.

### 4. Reflect and conclude (3 minutes)

Invite two to three volunteers to share how the sorting process felt or which prioritization rule they used. Do not require participants to disclose specific list contents.


## Debrief questions

- What changed once your thoughts moved from your head onto paper?
- Which method of sorting felt most practical for getting back to work?
- What is one item you can set aside entirely for this session?

**Finished output:** A written inventory of top tasks prioritized for immediate action, scheduling, or deferral.

## Remote

Instruct participants to work on a local notebook or a private offline document. Use a shared visible screen timer during the silent capture phase. Run the closing reflection using text chat or hand raises.

## Hybrid

Remote participants use personal paper or private digital notes. Keep the audio open for facilitation cues and time warnings. In hybrid setups, allow both room and online participants to write silently, then run the reflection via chat or spoken turns alternating between remote and local rooms.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants can write, sketch, or type privately without showing their raw notes to anyone.
- Whole-room sharing is optional; anyone may pass or simply state that their items are organized without reading them.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants stop writing after one minute because they feel their list is finished.**

Prompt them to check different areas of life: immediate inbox items, home chores, people they owe replies to, or unresolved worries.

**Participants feel anxious that others might see sensitive personal items.**

Reiterate clearly that these papers belong entirely to them and will not be collected or shown to the group.


## Terms used here

- Brain dump: A rapid, unedited recording of all active thoughts, tasks, and worries onto paper.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Project of How (method 436, 'Empty your brain'), authored by Emelie Askfelt.

Retained the two-step sequence from Project of How: unfiltered capture followed by prioritization and scheduling. UWT adapted the activity for structured group facilitation by setting silent personal capture before subgroup or plenary reflection, ensuring privacy of personal notes, adding clear time allocations, and detailing remote and hybrid logistics.

[Project of How](https://projectofhow.com/method/436/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/empty-your-brain-project-of-how/