Using Mind Maps to Plan a Paper
For school, I’m doing a guide on privacy and Internet of Things, and for the drafting phase I’ve been using mind mapping. Mind mapping is really simple, all you have to do is have a primary idea and “branch” out of that. There are some “rules” that will help you, and I will detail them a little later, but the basic idea stands.
Mind mapping is meant to be a creative process that activates the part of your brain that remembers visual cues. According to Tony Buzan this should be done with colors and symbols.
Tony Buzan is known as the creator of mind maps, at least in the modern understanding of mind maps.
As I see it, in the end, you should have a mind map that is full with colors and beautifully drawn symbols, and that is how every article and YouTube-video explains it. But in reality, this does not work for a brainstorming phase, at least not on paper. There is just no way that you can do brainstorming and create a beautiful mind map. Brainstorming is not supposed to look nice, it should be rough, it should contain all of your ideas. So what I did was that I started out by creating one mind map with all of my ideas, and then I made the mind map that was my “final version”.
In first creating a brainstorming mind map, I had the benefit of just writing down everything I thought. Sometimes I erased something and did something else, but in the end; it was just everything I could come up with for that subject.
After I had done my “brainstorming” mind map, I started out with the “real” mind map, the one I would color and create symbols for. For this one, I would use the draft as a reference for what was the important parts, the parts that were relevant. Not everything from the brainstorming was relevant, and that is ok, that is a part of the brainstorming phase.
I will admit that the first thing I did, before starting any mind maps, was trying to find out what symbol I would draw for the subject “IoT Privacy” and while it is fun to start drawing, it doesn’t really help you with the process. The most important thing is to just start making branches and get your brain going.
When I started out building the final version of the mind map, I started with all the branches that I thought was relevant to my subject. I did not create the icons as I was going, but I wish that I had. In my opinion, it is better to create the icons and style while I’m thinking of the branches. I think that if you’re drawing while creating the branches, it will create a better connection in your head in the end; which is the purpose of mind maps.
After finishing up with the mind map, I’ve got a good amount of things I need to cover. What is great about this is that in some way, I have to address all of these things, they are all relevant to, or is something connected to, my subject! Not all of it needs to be in my final assignment, but in one way or the other, I need have addressed them, either by consciously deciding not to (for a good reason!) or actually writing about it.
This is the great thing about mind maps. All of the things you’ve written down, in the end, is relevant to your subject! Or at least something you’re thinking of. You don’t need to include all of it in whatever you’re doing, but at least make a conscious decision about it. Not only is it excellent for the brainstorming process, but if you extend it and fully finish it, it will lead to a well thought-out product that includes all of the crucial parts of you subject.
