Mind mapping is cool. For those of you who haven’t yet heard of it, let’s take it from here: mind mapping is just plain cool. For those of you who heard of mind mapping, of course, there is much more to say. One step at a time, though…
I started to use mind mapping intensively several months ago. At that time, I was a complete uni-dimensional writer. Just one start and one end to each document. That good old linearity of a linux console guy. All my documents where linear and uni-dimensional. They had just only one way to be read: from the beginning to the end. And of course, they were huge! And each and every data collection operation – meeting notes, project management, reports – was generated this way. It was boring but I didn’t knew. I thought this is the way information processing works…
Well, mind mapping just proved me the opposite. Your brain does not work in a linear mode. No, sireee… It works on a n-dimensional connection algorithm, and when you “translate” this superb n-dimensional construction into a linear document, you are just taking out 90% of the goodies… Mind mapping does not imply only one end to a document. A mind map can be read from any point to any point. There are as many beginnings and ends to your document as the potentiality of your ideas. Writing down a story of your idea will close it into a frozen form, mind maping will keep its potential ready. You can always review a mind map and re-ignite the emerging spark…
Let’s do simple mind mapping stuff. Below is on of my mind map templates that I use for general meetings approach. It’s pretty simple, yet very powerful.
On the left side are all the informal things. I quickly set up the location and time, and also note the persons involved. Almost any meeting creates at least three roles for its participants: inititators (may not be present at the meeting, but still important), participants (the actual people that I deal with), and beneficiars (also, they might not be present, but they are the most important guys in the equation, must have them under my eyes).
Another thing to note is the Agenda, where I put what we expect to talk about. But the actual topcis can be different, so I let a lot of space for that. And I always put a relationship between those two, in order to keep myself on the track during the meeting.
One thing I found to be extremely useful is to write down a Personal Strategy for that meeting. For some meetings it grows branch by branch for 4 or 5 levels, for other it just stays in the first level under the form of a simple sentence like: “try to be flexible”.
After the meeting, we must have Conclusions, of course. And after Conclusions comes up the Next Action list, which is the actual result of any meeting. It’s not easy to “force” a meeting into a Next Action list, because people are not used to this kind of approach. Next Lists is a concept from GTD, or Getting Things Done, a methodolgy created by David Allen, and it stands for the next physical action you have to do in order to move a project forward. So, I keep my Next Action list at the lower right corner of the map, just to be sure I always end up a meeting by trying to obtain that.
Well, as simple as it is, it works for me like a charm. If you like that map, you can download it from by clicking on the following link.
Download Meeting Mind Map Template (a total of 3411 downloads).
Liked it? I bet you wonder what tool I used for that. As you may suspect already, it’s MindManager from MindJet, a quite nice and neat application. Which reminds me about our contest! If you want to win a free license of MindManager from MindJet, please show me your best usage of MindManager, and you’ll end up with one. Guaranteed! And try to hurry up, submissions ends by March the 10th. All you have to do is to comment on this article or on the original contest announcement, and we’ll take it from there.
Happy mind mapping!
[tags]mind map, productivity[/tags]
Related Posts
- Mind Mapping Meister
- Mind mapping for real life – blog posts
- MindManager contest: we have a winner!
- Blogging with a mind map
- MindManager contest: show us your tricks and we’ll give you a free license!
- Mind Mapping For iPhone: iBlueSky
- Mind Mapping Online: Mind Meister at version 3
- Project management with a mind map
- My Most Downloaded Mind Maps – reloaded
- “Review my software for a free license” marketing model
Check out one of my books:
- Natural Productivity - Assess, Decide, Do
- 100 Ways To Live A Better Life
- 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life
- The Productivity Trap
- The 7 Ages Of An Online Business
- Brilliantly Better
That’s a great meeting template – I’ll be using it!
You said “A mind map can be read from any point to any point. There are as many beginnings and ends to your document as the potentiality of your ideas”. I agree, but I don’t think Tony Buzan does…
I’m using Topicscape because, although it lets you start at one point and radiate out, it doesn’t force you to stay that way. You can center the 3D mindmap on any topic. “Radiant” is really good for learning, and when kicking off and new thought process or plan, but it’s really restrictive when you’re using mindmapping for business.
Good one,. There’s a lot of bull written on the web about mind/idea mapping. You’re concrete.
Thankyou.
@Argey: unless you are advertising topicscape by this comment, I suppose you are just a big fan of them
…
It’s pretty common to mistake the software as the process. You can draw a mind map by hand, and still read from what point you want to what point you want… As opposed to a sequential file where you can only read by the start at the end….
@Dave: thanks, glad you liked it
Thanks for linking to it also 
appreciate it!
nice post.. the path to enlightenment! =)
check out 3d mind mapping : Nelements KOS : http://nelements.org
I think it’s a cool idea to combine several productivity concepts into one, like mind-mapping with GTD here. Nice!
@ilker: thanks
@zahid ayar: sonds interesting…
@Donald: there is a whole application that completely combines MindManager with GTD, therefore using a mind mapping tool for a complete GTD process, if interested I will write more in the near future, just say the word
Very cool template! I run the Mindjet Labs (http://mindjetlabs.com), where MindManager users go to learn how to get more out of their MindManager. Would you be interested in posting your template here as well: http://mindjetlabs.com/cs/files/folders/maps/default.aspx
Thanks and Great Job!
Michael
Yeap, no problem! Do I need to do something for that, or you can do it directly? [update] Don’t worry, I uploaded it, thanks for the opportunity.
[...] Probably some of you heard about Mind Mapping. Mind Mapping is a way of illustrating how the brain works, thus allowing you to make a clearer picture of things in your life, happenings, events, meetings… It can be applied to anything, and the outcome is a great tool for getting things done. At eDragonu, you can find out more about Mind Mapping and you can even win a free license for MindManager, a software tool which allows you to draw the mind maps in a very effective way. Speaking of how the brain works, did it ever occur to you to think why do we procrastinate? Why don’t we just do it (thank you, Nike!), when we manifest an intention? We all have our own, personal answer on that. So does eDragonu, and I encourage you to read What is procrastination, to see how you can defeat it, in case you ever wanted to. In the world of productivity, getting things done, time management and software reviews, there is also time for fun: find out what tarot card are you. I’m the Wheel of Fortune: Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of intoxication with success The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change. Take the test for yourself and have fun. [...]
[...] I first published a mind map on 8th February 2007 more than one an a half year from now. It was a Meeting Mind Map Template, which people found quite useful if I look at the number of downloads since then, more than 1000! [...]
[...] I first published a mind map on 8th February 2007 more than one an a half year from now. It was a Meeting Mind Map Template, which people found quite useful if I look at the number of downloads since then, more than 1000! [...]
[...] that in my series of posts about mind mapping usage, the only map that was more important than the meeting map was a project management map. As I already said, it’s very important to correctly shape your [...]