Behance, a firm that produces technology solutions to help creative professionals to streamline their work, has developed an interesting framework for managing ideas and projects that I think lends itself to mind mapping. Called the Action Method, it’s based on the premise that everything you do that is work-related is a project.
Within projects, according to this methodology, there are three components:
Action steps: These are “the specific, concrete tasks that inch you forward: redraft and send the memo, post the blog entry, pay the electricity bill, etc.”
References: “Are any project-related handouts, sketches, notes, meeting minutes, manuals, websites, or ongoing discussions that you may want to refer back to. It is important to note that references are not actionable—they are simply there for reference when focusing on any particular project.”
Backburner items: These are “things that are not actionable now but may be some day. Perhaps it is an idea for a client for which there is no budget yet. Or maybe it is something you intend to do in a particular project at an unforeseen time in the future.”
This approach of breaking a project down into components appears to lend itself well to mind mapping. Above right, I have created a basic template that you can use to “deconstruct” your projects into action steps, references and backburner items (click on the image to see a larger view). Topic call-outs serve as reminders of the types of items that can be grouped under each category, and I have added several sample sub-topics to help stimulate your thinking (click on these links to download this map as a MindManager or XMind map).
Also, for those of you who may be interested, Behance offers a web-based Action Method set of tools, which you can access via a monthly subscription. An iPhone app is also available, plus a paper-based system for tracking the elements of your project.
What do you think? Does this map accurately to the way in which your projects break down?
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