Mind mapping

Hi,

This is my first blog ever, but I am really passionate about the subject below. So hopefully you will enjoy it!

Today's subject is mind mapping. You can use this technique in your work and studies to increase effectiveness and improve understanding of complex issues.

So what is it all about?

Mind mapping is a technique that allows you to reflect on paper (or on the computer screen) what goes inside your head. Its completely different than what we are used to at school, university and in our professional life. Instead of taking notes in a linear way this technique forces us to create diagrams which better reflect the actual thinking process. Believe it or not but your brain does not think left to right and line by line.

Mind mapping is a big word but the concept behind it is relatively simple. It has been used for centuries. There are reports of Greek philosophers and thinkers using this technique. Porphyry of Tyros and Aristotle were among “early adaptors” .


Tony Buzan is the biggest contemporary mind mapping advocate. He spent all of his academic life dealing with mnemonic techniques and increasing potential of human brain. The guy wrote more than 80 books on the subject and is really passionate about it. Mind mapping started to be popular in early 70’s and really exploded recently thanks to software supporting it.

Here’s youTube video of Tony explaining what mind mapping is – check it if you are interested.

How do you use it?

Understanding complex problems

It allows to split complex issue into small more manageable parts. It makes it easier to see dependencies between them. I used it quite often to translate cryptic software specifications into something I could see and understand.

Agenda
It allows to prepare for the meeting in a structured way – check out below screenshot.

Note taking
Mind mapping allows for structured notes taking during meetings. I find it especially useful for brainstorming sessions when a lot of ideas are floating around. It makes it easy to track the most important stuff.

Of course you can use it for whatever else you want. Some people use it as project management software, to set and track personal/business goals or just to do their shopping list.

Ok so how do I start?

Option 1: On paper:
There is no point in explaining all the pros and cons of that. I strongly believe in your intelligence here.

Option 2: Online software (click image to enlarge)

Online software seems to be a very tempting proposition. Especially for personal use. Its free, its working, its easy to use – one cannot request more than that. Somehow (its just my personal opinion) I would not trust it with sensitive corporate data. So which software is best? If you ask me its www.mindmeister.com, though www.mind42.com is not far behind.

Option 3: Pc Software (click image to enlarge)


There is loads of very professional mind mapping packages in the market. They vary in price and features.

The one I liked the most (its used to do all screenshots in this article) is visual mind 9. Its super easy to use and has very advanced features integrating it with MS office (http://www.visual-mind.com). The only downside is the price – 100 GBP (200 USD) for the full version. My rating: 9/10

Other good products:

Freemind has good functionality and it comes for free! You can get your copy from http://freemind.sourceforge.net/. The only missing functionality is adding notes to branches. Hopefully this will be solved in the next version. My rating: 8/10 Value for money: 11/10

Mind jet is a very advanced package. Uses very similar interface to new Office 2007 products. Slightly complicated compared to the previous 2 programs. Interesting feature is a possibility to purchase productivity pack with pre created mind maps for project management, result review etc. The price is horrendously high – 200GBP for full version which seems a bit excessive. You can download trial on www.mindjet.com. My rating: 7/10

Imindmap - this software is promoted by Tony Buzan himself. It did not appeal to me though. The maps created there are fantastically colourful but I find them hard to read and vert unstructured. I am sure some of you would find this style more appealing than me. www.imindmap.com Still my rating: 5/10

I hope you found this article useful. There is plenty of online resource where you can learn more about mind mapping:

http://www.buzanworld.com/ Tony Buzan’s website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Buzan - Wikipedia - Tony Buzan’s biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_mapping - Wikipedia on Mind mapping
http://mindmapping.typepad.com/the_mind_mapping_software/ - this blog is 100% devoted to mind mapping software

Please add your comments/questions/opinions. I really value them!

Regards,
Marcin