The Mind Mapping Software Weblog

Show branch alone in MindManager 7

Dr. Brian Friedlander recently posted a screencast in his Assistive Technology blog that briefly and simply explains how to use MindManager's new "show branch alone" command. Why is this important? This feature is one that many users are likely to overlook, yet it may be one of the more important additions to MindManager. You see, I'm slightly ADD (as are most creative people, I suspect) - we're easily distractible (Oh, look - a butterfly!).

Anyways, "show branch alone" enables people like me to focus in one one particular branch, and make the rest of a map upon which I'm working "invisible." With only one branch left on screen, I can then focus on fully developing the ideas and information related to it. Then, when I'm done with that topic and its sub-topics, I can "focus out" and show the entire map again. In MindManager 7 for Windows, this mode can be toggled on and off using the F4 key.

Several other mind mapping programs offer similar functionality: Inspiration was the program that pioneered it years ago, and XMIND also offers it today. It's a very useful capability, in my opinion, and I'm glad to see that it's now available on MindManager 7.

How to use MindManager 7's Map Parts feature to increase your productivity

CJ Cornell, writing in the latest Mindjet User Newsletter, shares with us a simple and very productive technique for utilizing MindManager 7's Map Parts tool. In a nutshell, if you want to save a map or part of a map for re-use later (as a time-saver or for use as a template for repetitive tasks), you simply drag the map or branch to the lower right section of the Map Parts pane, where it says "Add selected topics." That's it - it is really that simple!

CJ not only explains how to use this powerful but little-understood feature of MindManager, but also offers some valuable suggestions on where you might want to use it. Great stuff!

How to manage the gray areas with mind mapping software

According to the surveys I've done of mind mapping software users, its biggest benefit is helping them to achieve clarity in expressing their ideas and information. The latest issue of Mindjet's monthly e-newsletter contains an interview with Jerry Manas, author of the book, Managing the Gray Areas, that reinforces this idea. Here are some key thoughts from it:

• As leaders, we must examine issues from broader perspectives, using systems thinking or what Manas calls "holistic ethics" (an integrated model based on virtues, potential consequences, and principles). Mind mapping software can help you to view issues and challenges from a variety of perspectives, and to explore and understand varying points of view.
• Systems thinking is all about relationships. Mind maps can help to visually express these relationships
• Mind maps can employ a variety of decision-making tools and processes, which can help executives to make better decisions.

I highly recommend that you read this article!

3 benefits of visual mapping in meetings

In a recent VizThink webinar, David Sibbett, a graphical facilitator and founder of The Grove Consultants International, shared three key powerful benefits that visual mapping provides when used to record and display the ideas discussed in a business meeting. While his comments were specifically focused on the richly detailed, large scale, hand drawn visualizations he does for his clients, the principles transfer very well to the world of mind mapping.

So here are David Sibbett's 3 benefits of utilizing a graphic facilitator to capture the ideas and concepts discussed in a meeting on a shared visual map:

1. It creates a much higher level of engagement among meeting participants. This has to do with the way our minds work, Sibbett explains. When our minds see a work in progress - such as a sketch or a mind map - they want to fill in the missing details. Whether you have used mind maps alone or in a small group, hand drawn or produced using mind mapping software, you have probably experienced this. This tends to result in a much higher level of engagement by team members than without graphical facilitation.

2. It enhances the group's ability to do systems-level thinking. As Sibbett explains, some people have an innate ability to hold a large number of ideas and concepts in their mind simultaneously and can "see" the connections and relationships between them. But the majority of us don't have this ability. By having a graphic facilitator create a visual map of the discussion and displaying it as a work in process for all to see, all meeting participants can share a higher level of thinking and understanding. Often, it enables the group to do systems-level thinking, which tends to lead to better ideas and solutions.

3. It captures a "group memory" or history of what has been discussed in the meeting so far. This comes in handy when a senior-level executive comes into a meeting late - which would normally threatens to derail the group's momentum. The visual map radically speeds up the process of getting this late-comer up to speed on what has transpired in the meeting.

Breakthrough productivity tips from a "visual strategist"

As mind mapping grows in importance as a key tool for business, it's not surprising that people are starting to emerge who coach executives on how to use it effectively. Kyle McFarlin is a visual strategy expert. Through his consultancy, Visual Strategist, he advises entrepreneurs, C-level (CEO, CFO, CMO, etc.) executives and work teams on strategies for effective use of visual maps. Kyle also authors The Underlying Blog, which is heavily focused on mind mapping issues. I recently interviewed him about his role, the common mind mapping challenges his clients face and the unique set of "dashboard" maps he has created to help others organize their work and their lives:

Frey: Your title is "visual strategy expert." What does a visual strategist do?

McFarlin: A visual strategy expert provides coaching services to individuals and organizations looking to use maps as persistent execution tools. I mainly coach entrepreneurs and executives. Occasionally, I coach people who want to use visual tools to achieve balance in life as well. There are four main areas of coaching that I’m focused upon:

How to live in your maps. This is a minority of mappers, yet a passionate one. How to use visual maps as tools for execution. I'm also there for you if you're trying to do strategic planning, negotiations and maintain client relationships. In addition, I'm a Gyronix Certified Trainer. As a Gyronix Certified Trainer, I teach MindManager, the visual mapping tool, and ResultsManager, a tool to create Project Dashboards from multiple visual maps. ResultsManager is an implementation tool for David Allen's Getting Things Done. So I have some experience talking about the 2 minute rule.

Frey: What are the most common kinds of problem-solving things you do for your clients?

McFarlin: One common problem I see is that maps seem to breed like rabbits for most people. They have too many maps, or else they have just a few very large maps with everything under the sun stored in them. A lot of what I do is helping people identify the maps worth keeping, and those worth archiving. Of those worth keeping, I help them make decisions about which ones should be consolidated, and which others should be divided into sub-maps.

I also serve as a business advisor to some of my clients. They come to me because they feel like their business activities are out of control. I'll often work with a client to put the essentials of their business into one "dashboard" map.

The third thing I do is help clients to align their files and folders with their maps.

Frey: What do you wish more businesspeople understood about mind mapping software?

McFarlin: First, that it goes beyond creativity. Creativity is essential. But they need to realize these maps can be persistent business resources for driving their strategy and operations.

Secondly, that visual maps aren’t just for "far out" creative types. Businesspeople see a spider-looking thing and think it's far out. At its core, a mind map is just a radial outline. It gives creative people the linear structure they need to become efficient, which means that a lot of people who used to float in the organization can become very proficient at execution – at getting things done very efficiently. Likewise, people who are linear thinkers get a nice, easy to navigate structure to be creative within.

Lastly, people need to be aware that mapping compliments your current productivity tools. There is a school of thought that mind mapping replaces traditional thinking, but in fact it enhances it - because you get both the right and left sides of peoples' brains engaged for the price you've always been paying. You get the text like you would in any outliner. But you also get the images for the creative people. That, by the way, is a feature which is sorely lacking in most collaborative and note-taking tools.

Frey: What prompted you to create the Visual Strategist Solution (VSS) template set? How can people benefit from it?

McFarlin: It was partly selfish, because I wanted to consult at a higher level, and I got tired of answering the same basic questions over and over, which means I was never able to get around to having some higher value-added discussions with most of my clients. Seriously, I got tired of being "Bob the Builder" – helping my clients to set up their mapping system from scratch – and I wanted to talk as if buildings were already there.

It was partly timing. In mid-2007 I was courted by a number of organizations for potential employment. So to an extent, I was thinking that this would be my swan song, my last big idea before I went to work for an organization. Then I put the templates out, and for the past 6 months I've consistently had business find me, without any need to sell it. It really bore out the theory that if you give away some great content, people will recognize your authority in the field and will want to work with you.

Another reason I created the templates was I wanted them for myself. I knew that a great way to reconcile all of the best practices I had floating around my head in one place would be to create something that was a high enough quality to show others. Also, I created the VSS template set from the framework of my own personal files and folders, which I've been honing for the better part of 10 years.

The templates are designed to be used with MindManager for Windows. You can also utilize them with ResultManager (an add-in program for MindManager that enables you to implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology), yet it's not required. People who use MindManager with Microsoft Outlook will experience a robust environment for embedding their Contact, Task, Calendar and E-mail map parts.

Frey: What is the benefit of aligning your files and folders with your core maps? What's the downside if you don't do this?

McFarlin: If someone takes the time to use the folder structure which accompanies the VSS template set, they get the added benefit of having a visual overlay of their Files & Folders within the relevant VSS map.

For example, if I'm in my Life Operating System map, and I want to see the files and folders that support it, all I have to do is Shift+F5 to refresh the MindManager map's File Explorer map part. This displays the files and folders that I utilize in conjunction with this part of my map. Why is that important. Because it eliminates a great deal of the manual hyperlinking people had to do before they started using the VSS Templates.

For ResultManager users, it's essential because it gives them automatic hyperlinking to maps, which used to be tedious because you had to handle the hyperlink for each individual map.

The main downside to not using the VSS folder framework is you miss out on the benefits of using an extremely simple, ultra-elegant filing system that represents best practices derived from tens of thousands of hours of work and consulting. In addition, most people have filing systems that afford them no peace of mind, because they tend to be extremely disorganized. Based on what I’ve seen from consulting with my clients, I estimate that at least 9 out of 10 people have digital filing systems that have evolved accidentally overtime, not from any kind of higher level thinking and planning.

Also, ResultsManager users are stuck manually hyperlinking if they don't use the folder framework. And any ResultsManager user will tell you that manually managing your hyperlinks is about as cool as a trip to the dentist knowing a drill is waiting for you.

Frey: What's next for the world of mind mapping software? What trends are you keeping your eyes on?

McFarlin: Wallace Tait is right: Mind mapping must join forces with concept mapping and flow charting to provide users with the flexibility they need. I think the software companies which embrace his foresight will prosper. Also, I'm watching virtual reality very closely: Second Life and the Croquet Project are at the top of my list, because of the opportunities to potentially map your ideas and knowledge and manipulate them in 3-D space.

How to use mind mapping to identify hundreds of new writing topics

Have you ever experienced writer's block? It's a pain, especially when you need to produce, but your creative muse seems to have left the building.

Darren Rowse, writing on the ProBlogger website, has come up with a marvelous technique that uses mind mapping to help you to generate fresh ideas for your writing. His article deals specifically with brainstorming topics for a blog, but this tactic can be used for almost any kind of writing. Here's how it works:

1. Take the last five topics you have written about and place them within five circles.
2. Spend time brainstorming on ways that the topic can be extended. How can you cover different aspects of it more deeply? Think laterally, too: What topics are closely related to the one you're considering? What do your readers need to know about that topic?
3. Map any ideas you generate as subtopics to the existing topic.
4. You may also want to consider each of the new ideas you've generated and brainstorm ways that they, in turn, can be extended.
5. Evaluate your ideas. Not all of them will be worthy of an article or a blog post. But at the end of this exercise, you will end up with a fresh stock of top-notch ideas for your writing efforts.

This is a terrific use of mind mapping, and one that I plan to use in 2008!

Writing with your mind mapping software

Steve Rothwell, writing in his Peace of Mind blog, recently posted a very concise, well organized description of how he utilizes MindManager for writing (these principles apply no matter which mind mapping program you use). Here is an overview of the steps he takes:

1. Create an overview map containing the main events or elements as first-level topics
2. For each topic in the overview, create a linked map and add detailed notes to these maps
3. When all of the topic maps have been completed, he consolidates all of their contents back into one large map.
4. He exports the contents of this mega-map to Microsoft Word for editing and formatting.

This "how-to" post is copiously illustrated with images depicting each step in the process. Nicely done!

The 8 best ways to improve your mind maps

Mind mapping software is one of those software tools that can be used to create clear, concise visual maps that communicate information and knowledge with great clarity. But all too often, they aren’t as effective as they should be. Here are eight top ways to supercharge the effectiveness of your software-produced mind maps:

1. Use a master map. A master map is a map of all of your mind maps. In other words, it’s a single mind map that enables you to organize and quickly access all of the visual diagrams you have created with your mind mapping software. It enables you to organize your knowledge and projects in a way that makes the most sense to you – in other words, a visual representation of your work. This personalized, organic repository of links to your mind maps (and other files) can provide you with a quantum leap in productivity.

2. Stick to one map, one purpose. A mind map should be focused on a single topic or purpose – which should be clearly defined before you begin mapping. For best results, stay focused on the map subject and let its content speak to the issue. Avoid irrelevancy. If the information in your map becomes too complex or starts to “branch out” into several widely divergent areas, consider breaking that map into several sub-maps.

3. Use icons in your maps. They add visual context to your map topics, and actually give your maps database-like qualities. In other words, you can utilize them to filter your map's content - to zero in on the tasks it contains, or only the follow-ups assigned to a particular person on your staff, for example.

4. Optimize the content of your maps. If you’re planning to utilize your mind maps to communicate information to others, you must review them with a critical eye. Do they communicate clearly and unambiguously? If I was someone seeing your map for the first time, would I be able to make sense of the hierarchy of topics and sub-topics? Would the wording and placement of each topic and sub-topic make sense to me? Neatness is also important. Like it or not, people make judgments based on the visual appeal of what you’re trying to communicate to them. Here are some tips for optimizing the visual appearance of your maps:

• Are all of the topics and sub-topics where they should be within your map? Or are there items that seem out be obviously of place? Don’t be afraid to move topics around to see if they would make better sense in a different area of your map – sort a visual “what if” process that enables you to reassess that information in a different context. This process of “refactoring” is explained in greater detail in my e-book, and is an excellent way to increase the value and completeness of your maps.
• Collapse your map until only the first-level topics are visible, and then look critically at your map’s central theme and first-level topics. Ideally, your map should be self-explanatory at this first level.
• Consider the order in which your primary topics appear. Do they follow each other in a logical sequence? If not, rearrange them until they are in a more explicit sequence that will make sense to others who may be seeing your map for the first time.
• Don’t leave stray topics scattered around your map. Make sure that all of the primary and secondary topics are arranged neatly.

5. Avoid clutter and unnecessary detail in your maps.  Often, users of mind mapping software develop maps that are so cluttered that they get “stuck” and aren’t sure how to fix them. As a general rule, you should develop your ideas in topics using brief key words. Ideally, your topics should be summarizing statements, like brief, persuasive headlines. If you want to add details, they should be placed in topic notes – so you can easily “drill down” to view them if you need to, but most of the time they are “hidden” to minimize visual clutter.

6. Consistency is critical. Be consistent in your use of color, shapes, line styles and other visual elements of your map. Each of these can help to convey additional meaning or context, if used consistently and systematically. If they are used haphazardly, on the other hand, they may confuse you and other people with whom you share your maps.

7. Leverage the power of images. To get the biggest benefit out of your maps, be sure to include relevant images in them. This technique will enhance their creative impact by appealing to both sides of your brain. Remember: a picture is worth a thousand words!

8. Consider creating a personal dashboard map. A personal dashboard is a mind map whose function is to consolidate information from multiple places. Its purpose is to show you a streamlined view of information from many places in a single map. Ideally, it should help you to connect the dots between previously disparate pieces of information, leading to better decision making. It should contain the information that is most important to you, including:

• Life roles and goals (work, personal, spiritual, etc.)
• Major projects and tasks
• Links to your key files and software applications

One powerful, ready-made set of dashboard maps is Kyle McFarlin’s Visual Strategist Solution, a set of free templates that is designed to be a complete personal and professional framework for your visual mapping activities. It not only incorporates best practices for visual mapping, it also includes a framework to house your maps and any supporting files and folders on your PC.

In closing, remember that mind maps are much more than a tool for creatively and visually capturing your ideas. They're business tools that can be used to drive strategy, manage projects and produce superior results.

For more productivity-enhancing tips like these, consider investing in my e-book, Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software - Second Edition.

27 ways digital entrepreneurs can use mind mapping

Raj Dash recently added a very interesting post to his Bootstrapper Blog entitled, Secrets of Thinking Outside the Box: 27 Ways Digital Entrepreneurs Can Use Mindmapping. It covers a wide range of applications for mind mapping software - everything from business plan design and website planning to goal setting and exploring alternate options. If you're new to mind mapping and want to know what it's capable of, read this blog post. In addition to conveying a lot of very useful information, it also provides numerous links to other mind mapping articles and resources on the web.

Using mind mapping software for life planning

This strategy is excerpted from my new e-book, Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software - Second Edition. I hope you find it to be valuable in your personal planning efforts!

Many people spend more time planning a party than planning their life. Why? Because it’s hard work! If you’ve been putting off planning your life’s future direction and scope, why not try utilizing mind mapping to bring clarity – and some fun – to this process.

A mind map is an excellent tool for life management because it can help you to clearly define your values, life goals and the strategies and step-by-step plans to achieve them. Here are some tips on how to manage your life planning with mind mapping software:

1. Define your main goal as the central topic of your map.

2. Next, add your primary values to your map as free-floating topics. They don’t need to be connected to the central topic, but they are positioned like this because they ought to have an influence on any plans you make.

3. Add primary topics, one representing each of the major life roles or domains in your life (i.e., work, family, church member). Life is cut from one whole cloth. In other words, changes you make in one role of your life inevitably influence other parts of your life. So it’s smart planning to consider how your main life goal may be realized through the lens of each of your major roles. Also, because the mind mapping format helps you to see your goal in the context of all of your roles, it should help you to achieve improved balance in your life.

4. Then add secondary topics, the steps and strategies you will undertake to achieve your goal within the context of each life role.

If your life planning map becomes cluttered with too many goals, consider creating sub-maps where you can engage in detailed planning for each life role.

Don’t forget that you can not only use your mind mapping software to define your goal implementation plans, but also to monitor and track your progress. Many mind mapping programs enable you to attach dates or deadlines to branches (several even enable you to transfer them as tasks to Microsoft Outlook).

You can attach numerical rankings to the action steps in your plans, making it easy to see what you need to do first, next, and so forth. In addition, some mind mapping programs enable you to attach symbols or markers to branches, which show you what percentage of completion you have achieved for each action item in your plans.