Tag: Mind Map

No comments

Five Useful Applications of Mind Mapping

  By

Mind MapMind Mapping – do you use it regularly? Have you tried it but use it only sporadically? Have you rejected it as a tool in your toolbox? Or do you really not know what it is or why you should consider it? I invite you to consider five useful applications of mind mapping that can make a real difference.

If you want an introduction or refresher on the concept, I have written about it here: https://carolbrusegar.com/mindmapping-multi-faceted-tool/

Many people who seek to embody a positive mindset and to break down roadblocks on a regular basis find that mind mapping is extremely effective in these five ways.

Rocking Your Goals Daily

Mind maps can help overcome our tendency to lose focus on goals and be distracted – even going down the proverbial rabbit holes. Having visual mind maps posted where you see them makes it easy to review daily as a visualization and inspire massive action. A good mind map contains your short-term and long-term goals. By viewing your short-term goals daily, you can make mental connections on how achieving them with confidence will lead to the completion of your long-term goals.

Use a goal-setting method that works well for you. The S.M.A.R.T. goal setting system is highly recommended, and it works very well in a mind map structure. With a mind map, everything is in one place, and at a glance, you can be motivated to work on that short term goal right away. The images will stimulate your brain to find ways to help you stay on track with your goals.

Making Your Meeting Count

Planning a meeting often goes off track as you may forget different important items as you make up your written agenda. By using a mind map, you can organize your thoughts and make different connections to related topics, which may not have occurred to you. Meetings that are planned and delivered via a mind map keep the team engaged as everything is drilled down in a logical form and delivered in short keywords and images.

For a couple of years, I prepared mind map agendas for a weekly committee meeting. They provided a unique and helpful way to navigate meetings that included lots of discussion and tangents. The visual made it easy to switch the order of topics and see the way back to what was missed.

Controlling Information Overload

Information overload can cause stress, anxiety, and even mild depression. In a busy workplace and life, you are taking in vast amounts of information, and sometimes it can be quite complex. This may result in overload and overwhelm.

Mind maps using a single page with keywords, images, and the brief notes that you can attach to various branches are so efficient. There is no searching around for related data as it is all in one spot. You can quickly make connections between different facts, ideas, and topics, which gets your brain working in a flow state.

Preparing for Presentations

If you have ever watched an ill-prepared presentation, you know how painful that is. By using a mind map, you can brainstorm ideas and dump them into your mind map. A mind map functionality allows you to quickly sort/move/edit/add to your presentation and make it come alive.

With mind maps, you are more focused on the key ideas, and there is no wandering off-topic. Having a mind map rather than a script makes for a much more engaging presentation. With color and image usage, you will keep the audience participation alive and full of discussion.

This can also be applied to informal, personal situations like important, perhaps difficult conversations – whether one-on-one or small groups like family or friends.

Making Decisions More Easily

Like information overload, you are faced with difficult decisions every day. A mind map allows you to start with your main problem and develop a hierarchy of possible solutions. Entering keywords in related sub-branches helps you organize options. Your brain will sort through these and make connections that you would not have on paper or if you were thinking out loud. Going through your mind map will have you looking at the main issue from different angles, which, in turn, brings up those unique solutions. It also helps you narrow down possibilities. Making decisions becomes so much easier as you become more familiar with and use this amazing tool.

In addition to trying these five useful applications of mind mapping, I encourage you to learn more. There are a wide variety of books, workbooks, and journals available about various aspects of mind mapping and how to effectively use it. Check out what’s available here: Mind Mapping Resources

 

3 Comments

Creatively Planning for a Season With Many Unknowns

  By , , ,

Question Mark - PuzzleAs we move into the official summer months of 2020, our normal anticipation is drastically changed. Things that we typically spend time doing, whether for adults or children, may be cancelled or modified – or still have unknown status.  Plans we had made or things we anticipated doing are questionable or changed. Some things that are available may not feel safe yet. And things could revert back to more restrictions if the infection rates rise too much with re-opening. It’s very hard to plan right now.

This has at times paralyzed me – I don’t know how to look forward, even to the next 3 months. So I often go from day to day feeling numb. Have you had that experience?  What can we do?

Creativity in this situation is important and needed.  Yet we may feel as though we have used up a lot of our creative potential just getting through the past 3 months. Managing just the maintenance of daily life – especially if there are children in the household – has required lots of innovation.

How can we re-activate our creative juices as we edge into the summer months with few of the normal anchors and expectations?

I suggest mind mapping as a tool that can release creativity and engage the entire household. Mind mapping is a two-dimensional technique that uses imagery, drawings and color to help us tap into both sides of our brains. It is an alternative to the outline and list making techniques we often use. This powerful tool helps us visualize tasks or ideas, come up with new possibilities as we brainstorm, and organize our thoughts.

Mind Map

 

Basics of Mind Maps

Here are the steps to do simple, hand-drawn mind maps.

  • Gather plain paper, colored pencils, markers, or crayons.
  • Choose a topic you want to explore.
  • Draw a circle in the center of the paper and write in your topic in a word or phrase.
  • Draw lines out from the center where you write a few words, a symbol or drawing for each idea you have, and add sub-topics or related ideas in lines off these main points.

Include all the ideas no matter how absurd they may seem. Here’s where a new perspective or angle may reveal itself.

Make additional maps as off-shoots or expansions of your first map. You can expand, modify or discard ideas from the first map on the topic.

An Example of a Summer Mind Map

Start with the main topic of “Summer 2020” and think of several categories of things you want to be part of the season, like:

Accomplish 1 Big Goal, Have Fun/Recreation, Help Others, Explore, Read, Start a New Hobby

These are the spokes that come out from your main topic. Then add specific things that you want to do under each. For example, under Help Others, you might list Deliver flowers or a treat to a neighbor, Call an isolated relative weekly, etc.

Then start a new mind map for each subtopic, add the ideas as subtopics and think of how, when and who would be involved in each one. Here’s where you may weed out things you don’t want to do, and you can always add additional things that come to mind.

Mind maps become a planning tool that are good reminders of the larger picture and help keep track of details. Keeping your mind maps in a folder or binder is helpful.

This summer is going to be unusual and unique in so many ways. Your household can thrive in the midst of it with creativity and innovation. As things change, regroup with new mind maps. Flexibility and creativity are the keys to having an enjoyable season in the midst of the continual changes.

 

If you’d like to read more about mind-mapping, I have some previous blog posts here:

https://carolbrusegar.com/mind-mapping-enhances-innovative-thinking/

https://carolbrusegar.com/transforming-years-after-50-introducing-mind-mapping-multi-purpose-tool/

If you really want to learn about mind mapping from the originator of the technique, Tony Buzan published this just a couple of years ago. It’s a distillation of global research that has happened in the 5 decades since he first created this technique.

Mind Map Mastery: The Complete Guide to Learning and Using the Most Powerful Thinking Tool in the Universe 

Mind Map Book - Buzan

No comments

Transforming Your Years After 50: Introducing Mind Mapping, a Multi-Purpose Tool

  By

Mind Mapping is a great multi-purpose tool that can help with various aspects of transforming your years after 50. I first became familiar with it when Tony Buzan, the creator of modern mind mapping, published Use Both Sides of Your Brain in 1976. I have used it sporadically ever since then.

Perhaps you are not familiar with mind mapping. Tony Buzan describes it as a two-dimensional technique that uses imagery, drawings and color to gather information and associations around a specific topic. The image in this post is an example. Mind mapping allows us to visualize tasks or ideas that relate to one another and to organize them. The technique taps into both the left and right sides of our brains, which makes it very powerful.

Mind mapping can be used for endless purposes, by people of all ages – including children. For example, mind mapping is very effective for taking notes, brainstorming, goal setting, planning, problem solving, organizing, setting agendas for meetings, and more.

Here are a couple of examples. If you have a project that needs immediate attention, you can simply write down your goals using lines, short words, drawings, and graphics. In no time at all, you can already see the solution to achieve your project. Also, a mind map agenda is a great way to set out the topics of a meeting without putting them in a rigid order. The meeting can flow more organically from one topic to another.

The power of combining words and images is immeasurable and taps into the potential of the human brain like few other tools. Perhaps you are somewhat skeptical of the claims of effectiveness. Numerous studies have confirmed the how effective the tool is for various tasks, which are easily located online.

This is an invaluable tool for your toolbox as you are in the process of transforming your years after 50. Other posts will go into more detail about how to use mind mapping.