Please share your story about mind mapping in the recession – and you could win a copy of MindManager 8

Years ago when I was at school I managed information by creating separate Microsoft Word documents. I organized them into folders for easy reference.

When I started University, I progressed to utilizing Microsoft OneNote for managing all my information. Notepad is a great tool that allowed me to structure all my notes, images, links, files and other resources into easily recognizable Tabs. However, although I had this information organized, what was missing was being able to see the bigger picture.

Half way through my University degree I was introduced to Tony Buzan and the concept of Mind Mapping. He talked about computerized Mind Mapping in his book, and this lead me to Mind Manager 6. Mind Manager allowed me the flexibility of managing my information in a very similar fashion to as I had in OneNote. However, the major advantage I had here was that I could see the bigger picture. I could find relevant associations, links, and connections between different pieces of information that wouldn't have been evident to me within OneNote. This truly opened my eyes, and ever since that time I have built my entire life around the process of Mind Mapping / Visual Mapping.

I utilize Mind Mapping software in the following ways:

- At the beginning of every year I create a Mind Map of my goals and objectives for that year. This Mind Map includes my Mission, Values, Beliefs, the Skills I would like to learn, Inspirational Quotes, Images of the things I would like in my life, Questions to ask myself on a daily basis, and specific (SMART) Goals broken down by the month. I refer to this Map on a Daily Basis, adjusting it, adding to it and making sure that I stay on track and moving forward to my goals and objectives. The advantage of this is that it keeps me focused on what I must do, and allows me to move forward with greater clarity. I honestly believe that I would not be able to do this using any other tools.

- I have another Mind Map / Visual Map I use to keep track of my learning experiences. I categorize them accordingly by Type and Date. Looking back at these Learning Experiences, helps me to learn from my mistakes and adjust my goals accordingly.

- In the past I used Microsoft Outlook to help me manage my tasks. I momentarily switched to Franklin Covey Plan Plus because it allowed me even greater flexibility. However, these days I keep a Task list within a Mind Map. This allows me to see the bigger picture and the great thing about the Task list is that it connects all my daily actions to my Yearly Goals and Objectives.

- On my Website www.blog.iqmatrix.com I create Graphically generated Mind Maps about Life Coaching, Business and Accelerated Learning topics. Many of these IQ Matrix Mind Maps are quite extensive and complex. I would therefore find it very difficult to piece them together by simply taking linear notes of the information I require to design them. Instead I piece all the information into a Mind Manager Map and adjust it accordingly by cutting, pasting and moving different segments of the Map around, until I have something that can be graphically generated. The amount of time that this saves me is extraordinary. I cannot imagine another way of organizing information.

- Another common way I utilize Mind Maps is for brainstorming. Sometimes ideas are difficult to generate. And in the past I use to sit on a chair and meditate trying to attract the Universal Creative energies into my Thought Process :). However, those days are long gone. Instead I either draw up a quick Mind Map on paper or work through one on Mind Manager and the ideas seem to flow naturally and easily.

There are a multitude of other ways I utilize Mind Mapping on a daily basis, however in the end it all boils down the effective and efficient Information Management, being able to see the bigger picture, and having the ability to quickly access, adjust and organize this information at a moments notice; is where the real advantage lies.

Mind Mapping helps me to not only manage my business, but also enables me to effectively manage my life, save time and create a deeper and a more rewarding living.

I use mind mapping to quickly and concisely capture and share vital information in an easily usable format. With the capacity to enrich the maps with simple symbols, pictures and icons I can engage people and accurately transfer complex knowledge in a more digestible form than plain text or list. To me this is critical as the most precious resource is peoples’ attention.

I live in South-Africa. Our country does struggle economically and are connected to global economic crisis in various ways. Mindmanager, believe it or not, helps me with this. For example, our petrol (gas) prices are sky-high. Now because Mind Manager has a "pocket" version that I run on my ancient HP Ipaq, I can plan my trips better. I keep a list of my errands, todo's and shopping items on my computer using Mindmanager, it synchronises with my phone and walla!!! I have it ready whenever I pass the shopping centre and I reduce unnecessary driving. The big things are often tied in with the small things in life!

This year is a new and huge step for me: I left the security of teaching which I have been doing for the last 25+ years and moved into the world of freelance training in mind mapping both software and paper based. The whole of this 'move' was planned using mind maps.
I have been an avid user and promoter of the use use of mindmapping in all its forms simply by using them where appropriate in my teaching. What I don't remember is ever being taught how to mindmap or who introduced me to the releasing powers of mindmapping.
I am now a Licensed Trainer of iMindMap and I will shortly be a BLI.
Today I am developing workshops for the 'able, gifted and talented' students in some of the York (UK) schools to develop creative thinking. I am particularly interested in combining software and hand drawn mapping. To see an example: http://destech.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/
Everytime I meet people and talk about mind mapping I am amazed by the number who use them and shocked by the number who don't! What I really enjoy is when I meet someone talk about mind mapping and then get them mapping. This happened when I was working on a train recently. The passenger next to me was watching me working on iMindMap, after a while she asked me what I was doing, I started to explain. I ended up doing an inpromptu demo to a number of the other passengers! Wonderful, long may that continue!

In the current market situation it is imperative to do more with less.
Businesses need to learn, improve, innovate and evolve.
It's nothing new to review the work you do and identify improvements. Most of the time we see this done through forms, surveys and other impersonal, analytical tools.

Currently we are doing this collaboratively and getting people to have conversations to nut things out rather than rely on isolated survey responses.

What better tool to use to record organic, intertwined conversation than a mind map.

Branches sprout where new directions are taken, cross linking to bring disparate topics together. Various formatting and imagery add to the effect helping people to understand the thinking and discussion that was going on.

Sometimes we provide a skeleton to start things off, talking about stages of a project or roles and responsibilities.

The people are then proud for us to blow up the maps to A1 and A0 size and put them up in the office. Some even framed.

Its official, we are in a recession. This recession affects my paying customers, hospitals and their paying customers, patients. Which in turn deepens my already burning desire to learn everything I can to make my services and time more valuable to my clients.

Part of this commitment to learning includes reading. Right now I'm averaging a business book a week. I've just learned of Mind Mapping from David Allen's new book 'Making It All Work'. I'm using a 30 day trial of 'Mind Manager 8' and can't bring myself to try anything else. It is a great product which I plan to purchase at the end of the trial.

As a programmer and report writer, I use Mind Manager to map out complex 'back of the napkin' designs. Until now, I'd performed this process on 4 x 6 note cards. Being able to link napkins (mind maps) and then re-purpose brainstorms into projects (to do lists) really enhances my productivity.

Like most programmers, I like the computer to do repetitive tasks for me; Mind Manager has excelled at this every time I've tried something. For example Mind Manager allows you to copy & paste items from documents, spreadsheets and other sources into your Mind Map. I understand that I've just touched the tip of the iceberg on what's possible here with ODBC connectivity and all the rest.

In a recession, the last thing you want to be doing is wasting money on products that won't work for you; or wasting time learning tools that won't positively impact your bottom line. As a programmer / small business owner, I can't bring myself to try another product when this one is so easy to use. If you've used the Microsoft Office 2007 product line, Mind Manager 8 has a learning curve of 0.

P.S.: I enjoyed reading Adam Sicinski's comments above and am finding his blog http://blog.iqmatrix.com/ informative.

One of the functions I perform for several clients is to respond to major RFPs (at least $.5B) and design internal training solutions for the client if they win the bid. As I read the training requirments section of the RFP I capture the details of each section in a mindmap. I use various color flags to identify what must be addressed and what could be value added. As I write the response, I check each item off of the mindmap as it is addressed. If we win the bid, I then use this mindmap to develop specific tasks that must be accomplished as well as the task details such as duration, resources and dependencies. Before I export this information into MS Project I use the mindmap to validate the tasks with the client and make changes on the fly (this is done over the internet as I work virtually). Once we agree to the tasks, I export into MS Project and send to the client. Using mindmapping I
1. ensure that all requirements are covered in the response
2. identify all of the required major tasks needed to accomplish the result
3. cut my effort and time by 10-15% over using MS Word and MS Project alone
Please contact me at my website if you would like to see an example of how I mindmap RFP requirements.

I work for a firm that designs and builds custom tradeshow, musuem and corporate solution centers.
I have always strived to stay abreast of the latest advances and tools available to inspire - streamline workflow - and promote productivity. This is why mindmapping has had such an appeal to me.
The challenge is that as one of the lead designers on these projects and trying to pitch to upper management the value of mindmap tools so far it has been a struggle to convey the value proposition until lately...

Here is the a real world example... we have been working on a 53 thousand square foot facility design for a corporate solution center for about a year now. I always take detailed notes and have since day one.
Well a few weeks ago the client wanted to fly in from out of state and review the designs and design process.
Naturally I thought "here is my big opportunity" - I spent time after hours pouring over a years worth of notes and dividing into groups by content, date, meetings, concepts, direction, input etc. and created a mindmap approx. 6' tall and 4' wide which I had printed and applied to one of our main design board walls.
Needless to say the client visited - loved the attention to detail and creative flow of the map which pinpointed details typically obscure and lost in the cracks.
Huge success! A winner that day and a push forward in the cause to implement a software base solution for our office.

I run a sound company where I'm constantly working with artists. They can be a very sensitive breed. That has been intensified with people struggling to get by in these tumultuous times. Because of this, I'm constantly reading books on human psychology, sociology, and general self-help issues. I find them way more valuable than reading up on the latest audio technologies and techniques.

Like so many things in life, human interaction plays a gigantic role in the success of my business. Mind Manager has been a very useful way to keep track of the books I've been reading on the subject. Just the act of organizing a map based on the themes of a book helps me remember what I've read. More importantly, it allows me to put that information to good use - sometimes transferring that information to other "action" maps.

I started using Mindjet's Mind Manager Pro 7 (MM) last year for my information management needs at work. Where I really saw mind maps as an effective collaborating tool was during a team meeting where we needed to decide on a project strategy. By typing the thread of ideas flowing out of the meeting into MM and projecting the screen on the white board, everyone seemed to have a better feel and actually see the concept emerging. Then, I started to use MM to create our projects' work breakdown structures together. This really helped the team visualize what needed to be done in order to complete the project successfully.

As I needed to plan projects with a geographically dispersed team, I saw that members that weren't in the same room as me often had difficulty participating in the brainstorming sessions. So I started using a web service that allows me to show my desktop applications to others over the web. Then I'd open MM, quickly explain how mind maps worked and started typing, from each project deliverable, tasks that needed to be accomplished. Maybe not quite as effective as all being in the same room, but it was very good and my boss liked the fact that my travel budget was nearly zero.

Today, I'm using these tools and techniques to manage an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software implementation project in Slovenia. I'm based in Canada along with three team members but other team members are in Sweden, Germany and of course Slovenia. To reduce travel costs during these tough economic times, I use Mind Manager Pro 7 for brainstorming and planning with the team. Once the team planning session is over, I take my mind map and place a copy as a picture file onto our project collaboration portal and also export the mind map into a text-based version for our team minutes. I believe it's also easier for my overseas colleagues since everything is written during the conversation, it's easier for them participate in an English brainstorming session.

Daniel Goulet, P. Eng, PMP
Project manager

My applications for MindManager come from a different time & place. A little personal & professional background may be helpful. I served 26 years in aerospace with North American Aviation/Autonetics/Boeing in Anaheim, CA under the VP-General Manager with a staff of five. We worked in an engineering world daily building bridges to manufacturing personnel and continually fought the perceptions that we were an in-house 31 Flavors of Gimmicks. My title was Senior Staff Analyst. In practice we drove Quality & Productivity Improvement Programs through the ranks of roughly 4,000 employees and out-the-door to military customers (Navy & Air Force). Our internal products were guidance & control systems for ICBMs. During the 1980s we utilized the services of several renowned consultants (Lou Tice, Tony Buzan, W. Edwards Deming, etc.). I don't need to tell you who introduced us to the fundamentals of mindmapping. In fact one executive from Boeing was flown in to show us how his team had made dramatic reductions in learning curves for junior engineers attempting to digest the materials in internal (to Boeing) technical manuals. As if that weren't enough a time-cost study was made that showed a savings of $875.000! I took a closer look at Mr. Buzan's published works and became a champion for this innovative win-win technique for documenting & assimilating information from raw data. Today, as a retired guy, I continue with mindmapping techniques married to the tools of Quality improvement. I apply them to personal Bible study methods in order to extract applications from complex passages. For instance in Genesis, first book of the Old Testament, I have practiced the old concept of "chunking" (introduced to me by Tom Peters) to illuminate the nuggets from surrounding soil. For instance: Genesis is composed of 50 chapters but broiled down to its essence there are just 4 key events & 4 key personalities that advance the storyline (I will spare you further details on this lest you consider me some sort of preacher) but you may contact me at kirbside@dslextreme.com if you wish any further elaboration. Also I will be among the first to praise the merits of mindmapping's disciplines but also feel it is most effective in the context of other Quality improvement tools & techniques. I sincerely hope that my width & breadth of an explanation provides something of edification to you patient readers.

I was intoroduced to Mind Manager about 3 years ago, having used papaer maps for several years to take notes from the books I read, and meetings and lectures attended. (I am a clinical pharmacist in the UK National Health Service). I persuaded my manager to purchase Mind Manager 7 for me so that I could create maps more easily and share them with my colleagues (6 colleagues have so far asked what the software is and how to use it).
This year (2009) I have managed to combine some of David Allen's Getting Things Done principles with mapping. I have now reorganised my work office and home office to a similar layout and I use my home 'dashboard' and my office 'dashboard' maps to identify and track all the tasks I need to complete. Simple tasks stay on the dashboard, but more complex ones have a 'task tickler' map attached as a hyperlink. This allows me to identify the individual steps/actions required for each project. I have also started using the alerts to create my to do list with regular reminders. I can take my work dashboard into meetings etc. and add tasks/issues as they occur (improving my previous approach of a note on paper then adding it to a list)
I now have a map which is a single list of outstanding tasks and so feel both in control as I can prioritise items, and more productive (as commented on by both my manager and my work colleagues). Mind Manager really helped me do more in less time at work and at home. I wouldn't be without it

As a Project Manager / Estimator for a large Mechanical Construction company, I live and die by the project schedule and deadlines. For a new hospital or office building a typical schedule needs to be limited to fairly large work units in order to be useful for the big picture. Mind mapping provides the micro planning view necessary to catch all of the details for a successful outcome. Mind mapping also is a more collaborative process; you can involve people unfamiliar with complex scheduling because they can easily follow the logic. (Not easy with a typical Gantt chart.) Mind mapping can actually be kind of fun because it seems to add a sense of creativity to an otherwise fairly ridged procedure. In these ugly economic times, the more creative you get, the more likely you are to satisfy your customer and still turn a profit.

I live in South Korea.
These days I often use mindmap to plan my plan. First of all, I drawn maps to make a yearly plan at the aspect of finance, family, health, private interest, work. I could make a boundary at the end of year. Next, I detailed my yearly plan to the monthly plan. I could see the big picture at once. Mind-mapping gave me a really help to concrete my dream and goal. I printed out the map and attached on the wall and my diary. everyday I see the plan and check the list. It helps me to manage my plans. I don't have enough time to discourage. Rather, I am encouraged by my mind-maps that contain my future and excellent ideas.

Dear Chuck
I have been teaching how to make Effective Business Presentations for over 10 years in Colombia South America, after my retirement from J.Walter Thompson in New York City. I began using MM 6Pro shortly after it came out and eventually I saw it had great potential for my Workshop so I began to incorporate some of its applications in my classes. Today it is a fundamental center of the worshop for designing strategies as well as for the structuring of a persusive business presentation. The entire Manual I give the students I made with maps. Since then, mi business has increased substantially and last year I gave the workshop in Mexico City, Monterrey-Mexico, San José de Costa Rica, Lima-Perú, Caracas-Venezuela, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires-Argentina. Most of my clients are multinaltionals and the students are in management positions in the Technology area. They love the MM and end up with learning how to make their presentations work for them plus taking the MM concept and tool away as an added value. I look forward to using MM8. Hope to win it trough your offer!
Cordially,
Rafael Varón, Bogotá, COLOMBIA

I work for a small medical device company with an engineering staff of 4 people. We each handle multiple projects with very demanding time lines. I use Mind Manager 7 to organize and list all the tasks for each project. It is a useful tool to help visualize and prioritize the work needed to complete these projects. This task list then becomes my personal dashboard. From Mind Manager I can export the tasks to a MS project file to help ensure the milestones are met.

I run my own business around innovation: from idea generation to project management.
I use mind map for idea generation when I am capturing ideas and use the branches as clusters. It also helps the group to connect one idea to another- Specially when SCAMPER is used. Another way is to use metaphor for idea generation: I use a picture in the center and evolve to ideas from it. In my experience the use of mind map at this stage helps people to have a feeling of accomplisment and more freedom.
I use mind map when I prospecting new clients and/or developing new proposals. In one page key thoughts are captured, organized and memorized. This first page is equivalent to the project charter. One curious effect is that they keep asking me about what I am doing (the mind map) and how they can learn about it: and I had closed deals of training based on it.

I'm a software development manager and one the "nasty" tasks that fall on
my shoulders is the yearly preparation of Scientific Research and
Experimental Development submissions (SR&ED) to the government for
corporate tax credit rebate.

Using MindManager I import a raw list of task descriptions (easily
1500-2000) entries. The senior developers then collaboratively organize
these raw entries into projects and subprojects of related themes (about
15-35). These projects are then summarized and supplemented in outline
format during review sessions with the actual developers. MindManager's
strong filtering and presentation support aids greatly in keeping the
meetings focused and ontrack. The resulting maps are then exported into
Microsoft Word and Powerpoint forming the rough draft for submission.

For anyone still doing this the "old way"... I highly recommend this technique.

The number of employees working in our department has been scaled down considerably to reduce costs, so I have taken on additional responsibilities. Prior to people leaving, I used mind maps to efficiently and effectively capture their knowledge (to both check my understanding with them and for later reference) and also plan my schedule for acquiring the knowledge and skills from my co-workers. Since they have left, I have used a single mind map in Mind Manager to stay on top of my increased workload, through prioritising, linking to email messages, adding key information in Notes. Perhaps most importantly, the colours, styles and images available have enabled me to raise my mood!

I needed a lean and mean tool for managing my team of 25 dedicated volunteers for the Inaugural Parade yesterday with our new President. The team was responsible for helping control a key area in the parade route for helping manage the hundreds of thousands of participants. I created a mindmap to help me logically plan and track all of the resources necessary to coordinate the team's arrival in downtown at 5AM in under 10 degree freezing cold, plan all necessary tasks, goals and resourcing management requirements, and then utilize the information to make everything come into place logically, timely and concisely. A plain database or full text environment would never have allowed me to visualize the big picture of my overall mission and all associated elements that needed to be all fully successful to assure overall success to make sure my people could assist every person who came to the parade and to give every participant the experience of a lifetime!

Our company has a great strategic plan for 2009, but with the economic conditions there have also been big changes to areas I manage. The challenge is now “How do I do the projects on the plan AND revamp a core service with no additional resources?” Out came the markers, the graph/butcher paper and the voice recorder to map relationships between projects, schedule changes so they wouldn’t clobber one another, and make sure I didn’t overlook areas I could improve or remove. Then, as I finish out areas, I transfer online and poll our team for feedback. It’s a lifesaver!

I have been downsized, rightsized, rationalized, whatever you would like to call it twice since 2001. I was exposed to mind mapping while working in Germany in 2001 and have found it very helpful. I started a management consulting practice to help businesses and managers improve by eliminating the root causes of problems, make balanced decisions, and prevent problems.

Here are some of the ways I have used mind mapping (first using Mind Genius, now using Buzan's iMindmap):

1) Working alone more than with others, I miss the opportunities for brainstorming. I use mind mapping to help me see my ideas better and present them to others for feedback. This makes it much easier to get more extensive ideas on any topic.

2) I used mind mapping to develop a business marketing plan. This showed my peer group how I was thinking and mad my ideas much easier to follow.

3) I have used mind mapping to organize the thinking around websites for clients and myself. The visual nature of the maps translate well into the design needed for developing web sites.

4) I developed a networking mind map and presented it to a peer group to show them how I do business networking and giving them insights into what they could be doing.

5) I developed a career search map for colleagues (and myself) to organize their approach to pursuing new careers after being downsized. This leads to a more organized and structured daily schedule and goals for their searches.

6) Not wanting to forget about other aspects of my life, I developed a fitness mind map to lay out routines to keep my body and mind active and improving. This map includes strength, cardio, stretching, yoga, mediation, mental, and nutrition aspects.

7) I developed maps for several parties I have held that keeps me linked to other people. The maps get tweaked for different themes but one becomes the basis for the next one. This includes invitees, food, drink, supplies, music, and entertainment.

8) I developed the outline for a talk and materials supporting the topic "Improving by Contingency Planning" and "Maturing Your Business Through Systematic Problem Solving".

9) I used mind mapping to brainstorm "What Turns Me On". This helps me focus my career and personal life to be in alignment.

10) I developed a map to do the planning for a charity "Scavenger Hunt". This made the opportunities and potential problems much easier to see and made the event a success. This was a great networking event for me and made me much more visible in the community.

The list goes on. Short and sweet or more complicated, the potential uses are many.

I use mindmapping in a variety of ways. I have a Dashboard Map that with branches that connect my whole life together. I manage business and personal information this way. I no longer use Microsoft OneNote or EverNote, but rather keep all my information available in my Dashboard Map.

One of the most helpful ways I use Mindmapping is to do research that involves interviews. I create a master map for the project, including background information on the project. I develop the interview questions in a map and then copy that map into several linked maps, one for each interview respondent. I use the maps to record responses to the interview questions. Using the maps for the interviews is very helpful because I have a visual of the entire interview on one page in front of me while doing the interviews. That allows me to jump around the questions depending upon the course that the interview takes. I also use 'brainstorming' on some of the questions. When I am through with all the interviews, I can copy and paste responses into one map that will summarize the survey. I edit that down to a final report and then export to PowerPoint. After some editing in PowerPoint I have a report and presentation for the client. I did this recently and found it to be a very good way to manage the project. It saved me time and the client money. The client loved the final report.

I use mindmapping in a variety of ways. I have a Dashboard Map with branches that connect my whole life together. I manage business and personal information this way. I no longer use Microsoft OneNote or EverNote, but rather keep all my information available in my Dashboard Map.

One of the most helpful ways I use Mindmapping is to do research that involves interviews. I create a master map for the project, including brances for background information on the project, goals, deliverables, contact information of respondents, etc. I record the interview questions in a map and then copy that map into several linked maps, one for each interview respondent. I use the maps to record responses to the interview questions. Using the maps for the interviews is very helpful because I have a visual of the entire interview on one page in front of me while doing the interviews. That allows me to jump around the questions depending upon the course that the interview takes. I also use 'brainstorming' on some of the questions. When I am through with all the interviews, I can copy and paste responses into one map that will summarize the survey responses. I organize the responses into clear topics and edit that down to a final report map. I then then export to PowerPoint. After some editing in PowerPoint I have a report and presentation for the client. I did this recently and found it to be a very good way to manage the project. It saved me time and the client money. The client loved the final report.