So now I have pages of "Brain Drain" - what do I do next?

Kitty doing Brian Drain

I generally end up with about three or four packed pages when I complete a major brain drain.  Not sure what a brain drain is?  Check out these two posts:  here and here.

What are we going to do with all this information?  Simple.  We're going to put each item in a category.  The categories are up to you.  Most books and articles on goal setting have about six to eight categories which I find cumbersome.  I have five areas that my brain drain items fit into:  garden, house, business, financial, and personal.  Common sense and personalization is the byword on this step.  If you don't have a garden, you wouldn't need a garden category. No house?  Leave it off your list.  Is travel very important to you?  You may need a travel category.   Here's an idea of some categories you could consider:

• Physical
• Career/Work
• Education
• Spiritual
• Family
• Personal
• Home/House
• Relationships
• Creative

I strongly suggest you not have a gazillion categories.  I put spiritual, creative, family, and physical in my personal category.  It keeps things simple for me. Pick out some categories and head a seperate sheet of paper in your notebook with the name of each of your categories.  

Take some time now to go through each of the things you've written in your Brain Drain and write it in a category.  This shouldn't take you longer than 20 minutes even if, like me, you have three or four pages of items from your Brain Drain. 

Next look at each item in each category and decide how important it is to you.  Number them 1 -4 using the following scale:

• one is very important
• two is sort of important
• three is really nice but not all that important
• four is for the "someday", "maybes", or "were you having a cocktail when you did your Brain Drain?" - sometimes called the "what were you thinking" items.  If you have some of the "what were you thinking" items just cross them off.

Finished?  Good.  Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and come back tomorrow when the real work will begin.  Oooooops!  I didn't mean to say "work."  Trust me (said the spider to the fly) - it will be fun.