Mindmapping Software — THE productivity tool
How mindmapping software will change the way we manage information
Mindmapping started as this radial thinking tool to help you become a more creative and fluid thinker. It also provided a lot of benefits as a visual thinking tool that mirrors the way the brain actually works. To learn more about the origins of mindmapping, just Google “Tony Buzan”. He is the creator of mindmapping — on paper. As he points out on his website: “Because Mind Maps are so easy to do and so natural, the ingredients for your “Mind Map Recipe” are very few: 1) Blank unlined paper, 2) Colored pens and pencils, 3) Your Brain, and 4) Your imagination.”
But I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about mindmapping in a software context, not paper context.
You see today, unlike when it started, mindmapping is now a software platform. This platform helps you interact with information in ways that extend paper-based mindmapping to something I call “multi-dimensional” mindmapping.
Paper is a static platform. Once you create a map on it you can’t modify it. But with multi-dimensional mindmapping you can organize and re-organize information to see connections in ways you never could on paper. By “information” I mean topics, notes, website links, map links, markers, and images. Then once you’ve organized this information in a spatial construct you can decide how much or how little you want see. So, with multi-dimensional mindmapping you keep the radial thinking benefits, but expand it to include multiple connections to additional information.
What other tool do you know of that allows you to see the big picture AND details spatially while at the same time connecting documents and links within one platform?
With mindmapping software you can “expand” or “collapse” any area of the map to meet your particular needs. You can also filter the map based on markers and tags to see a specific version of the map. And if all that wasn't enough, you can export content to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Project, or convert your map into a PDF.
You can use maps for project management, strategic planning, writing a book, meeting management, information management, and a wide assortment of other things. You can also be mobile with you maps on your iPad or iPhone.
THIS is revolutionary. This is HAPPENING right now.
Some people know about the power of mindmapping software and some people don’t. If you want to be one of the ones who do; if you want to start interacting with information dynamically and creatively to solve problems (at work or home), then now is the time to learn about these resources:
