Let’s get started:
Read through
the Top 99 Mind Map applications (see
page 160
).
Now pick a topic
and make a Mind Map for it. Give yourself only 5
minutes in which to sketch out this Mind Map. The idea is to free yourself
up in much the same way that artists often do a number of lightning-quick
warm-up sketches before settling down to complete a masterpiece.
After a short break,
pick another topic from a different category (e.g.
“Education” rather than “Home”). Next, make a Mind Map in 10 minutes.
Repeat the process
with a third topic from another category. Complete
your Mind Map in 15 minutes.
Choose a fourth topic
from one of the remaining categories. Finish this
Mind Map in 20 minutes.
Compare the amount of detail
and originality of the four Mind Maps as
they progress from an earlier stage to a more developed stage. Then
imagine how much more you would be able to generate if you had an hour
to complete a solution-finding Mind Map.
Take another close look
at the Mind Maps.
Which one appeals to you the most? Why?
Now, or when you next have the opportunity,
work on the Mind Map
that appeals to you most until it looks completely finished to you, or use it
as the basis for another Mind Map on the same topic.
ADVANCED MIND MAPPING AT HOME
This rest of this chapter explores some examples of how you can take your Mind
Mapping practice a step further, using Mind Maps to handle complex and
challenging situations as well as consider the bigger picture of what you want
from all areas of your life.
Mind Mapping Planners
You can do more with Mind Maps than scope out the coming week. They also
make great day-by-day planners; equally, they can be used to outline your
schedule for a whole month or even a year. A Mind Map planner can be used
both to plan your life and to review it; it can help you highlight your priorities
and make sure you are in charge of your own time, achieving a healthy balance
between work and leisure activities. Rather than becoming a slave to a schedule
that’s not of your own making or in your best interests, a Mind Map planner is a
that’s not of your own making or in your best interests, a Mind Map planner is a
powerful way to make sure your days are literally full of colour!
My personal Mind Map day planner is full of images, codes, colours, keywords
and key symbols. The most important topic of the day always inspires the central
image. I usually use five main branches: “morning”, “lunch”, “afternoon”,
“evening” and “miscellaneous”, although sometimes these main branches or
events relating to them can generate five separate mini Mind Maps, circling the
central Mind Map like satellites round a planet.
The central Mind Map connects with a sketch of a clock in the top left of the
page (as described in the exercise on
page 166
). Images, symbols and codes are
placed in the time slots of the clock, giving me an instant overview of what I
would like to accomplish in the hours ahead. Unlike a conventional, linear
planner, which might only lists the hours in a day from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., the
clocks in my Mind Map diary are divided into 24 hours. I choose to start my
days at midnight because, like many other creative thinkers, I have found the
brain can be very productive in the small hours. I could, for instance, decide to
spend the hours between midnight and 3 a.m. concentrating on a new project,
writing, Mind Mapping or solving problems.
The imagery in my Mind Map diary links in turn to my monthly schedule,so the
two of them – diary and schedule – work in tandem like the cogs in a machine.
My monthly schedule shows key images and words relating to the most
important events in the month, as well as the on-going activities I enjoy, such as
a running, rowing and lecturing
My diary entries and monthly schedules work symbiotically: the overview of the
month triggers my memory of the days, and the days trigger memories of the
month. Whenever I flick through my diary, it’s like watching stills from the
movie of my life.
Before I invented Mind Mapping and developed this way of keeping a combined
diary and monthly schedule, I used to forget whole chunks of my life. Now,
though, Mind Mapping keeps my memory fresh and I intend to carry on using it
until the day I drop! And I hope, once you have taken the many benefits and
pleasures of Mind Maps to heart, the same will go for you too!
Besides mapping out your monthly schedule, you can use a Mind Map to create
Besides mapping out your monthly schedule, you can use a Mind Map to create
a yearly planner. A yearly planner Mind Map could have a branch for each
month of the year, while the sub-branches will relate to that month’s most
pressing concerns and considerations. It’s a great way to plan for important
events such as weddings, travel, trips and parties. I also use yearly planners to
make sure my year ahead contains a healthy balance of work, travel, writing and
leisure.
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