Learn to Change Negative Thinking » Mindmapping

Finding What You Love to Do With Mind Maps

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:04:23 +0000

Wikipedia-Musician by quartermane

“Yeats once wrote that man is forced to choose between perfecting his life or his work. Yeats was wrong. It is only a matter of which comes first — your life or your work. If you are a stylist, the choice is as easy as it is obvious. Your life comes first. Then you inject it into your work. You bring what you are to what you do. Your job should bear the imprint of your personality, not vice versa.” Quentin Crisp and Donald Carroll

“Try to forget yourself in the service of others. For when we think too much of ourselves and our own interests we easily become despondent. But when we work for others, our efforts return to bless us.” Sidney Powell

Service to others takes the form of hundreds of activities. Even if you think you’re not servicing others, you probably are. Is it OK if what we do also serves us and/or our family? Of course. All giving does have the payoff of making us feel good about ourselves.

If you have a desire to open yourself up to change that may involve more giving, I suggest that you learn to do mind maps instead of lists. Mind maps are fun and tend to open up our creativity.

Some basic suggestions for easy mind maps:

Use the largest paper you have or buy some from a crafts supplier.
Use colored pencils or markers
Begin in the center with the word or words you want to use as the topic for your mind map
Start to add branches from the center. These will be the subtopics of your topic.
You may choose to add other branches to your branches.
Use as few words as possible and don’t over think your topic because a mind map is the best as you allow your creativity to flow.
You may choose to number your branches or you may make some of the branches thicker for emphasis.
The subtopic branches will be thinner. You may choose to draw plain lines to connect some branches.
Remember above all else to play and have fun.

Bargaineering is a personal finance blog, but has this month been writing about rethinking your career. Jim Wang is the founder and editor of the blog. His bargaineering philosophy is that life is about enjoying the thinks you love doing and spending time with the people you love spending time with.

He suggests using mind maps to see visually what you are carrying around in your brain. In recreating your career path be sure to do many mind maps first. Then from the collection of mind maps that you create, choose the main ideas to put on a composite mind map. He suggests writing down the things you enjoy and all that is important to you.

Mind Maps Organized by Usage

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:19:31 +0000

Time Management by jean-louis zimmerman

General Mind Mapping Links

Mind Maps of Popular Books

Mind Maps to Use Web2 Tools

Uses for Mind Maps

A Mind Map of Yesterday’s Post “Everyone Has Creativity”

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:24:47 +0000

Tim Fulford took my post of 1/21/10 and has created an amazing mind map of the information there. Thanks to Tim. Mind maps help us to see the organization of information immediately.

He has added comments to each section of my post. I am including the mind map he made. For a better look of his mind map and to see his comments on each section, go to his post.

Inspiration v1 Tim Fulford 2009

Uses for Mind Maps A-Z Link Directory

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:57:19 +0000

Attracting good fortune

Beginning to use mind maps

Benefits of using mind maps

Story map to write a book

Buying mind maps

Collaborate mind mapping

Create better mind maps

Creating better mind maps

Comparison of mind map tools: strengths and weakness

Another comparison

Rethink your career

Manage your career

Online diagramming and design

Digital literacy with digital safety

Ecosystems lesson plan

Energy mind map

Focus your workday

Free mind map tools

GTD (Getting Things Done)

History of mind mapping

For holiday season

iphone app

Another iphone app

Job interview

Maps that show your thoughts

Why mind mapping is awesome

Open source mind maps

Open source mind map apps

Getting organized

To organize conferences

For presentation

Research

Sample mind maps to use for inspiration: Mindmeister, Buzan’s mind map gallery, mind map art

Exploring science

Seminar notes

Less stress

Mind map for stress relief

SWOT analysis of competion (strengths-weaknesses-opportunites–threats)

Tablet PC mind mapping

Taking notes

Tony Buzan

Web-based mind mapping applications

Creating websites and blogs

Writing a book

Using Web-Based Mind Mapping Tools

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:02:28 +0000

Interestingness Top 20 by Ctd 2005

(1) Text 2 Mind Map:

Text 2 Mind Map is a web application that converts texts to mind maps.
It takes a structured list of words or sentences, interprets it,
and draws a mind map out of them.

It has a “freeze map” checkbox to make the layout sticky, then drag the nodes around to rearrange the layout.

From freewaregenius:

“Text 2 Mind Map is listed as a work in progress, but it’s very complete in what it does. While it’s not as advanced as the other sites on the list, it is the most simple to use. You just make an outline of the text that you want in the left pane. Use Tab to indent and Shift+Tab to outdent to make the order of your thoughts. You can easily edit the list while you’re working on it or after the chart has been made.”

(2) Lovely Charts:

“With Lovely Charts’ extremely simple and intuitive drag’n drop drawing mechanism, you’ll be able to focus on what really matters. You won’t have to draw boxes or arrows, and you won’t have to worry about what symbol to use.”
“Check out our screencast to discover how it works, we’re pretty confident you’ll like what you’ll see.”

“You think…we draw” “You’ll be up and running in less than 2 minutes and it is 100% free.”

From freewaregenius:

“To get started with Lovely Charts, just create account and enter the verification code that’s e-mailed to you. You’ll have to have Adobe Flash installed for your browser, but you can quickly start creating diagrams for whatever purpose you need. Some cool features of Lovely Charts includes opacity control for each symbol and the ability to quickly select a different symbol in the same library group from the right-click menu. You can also control the line width and arrow end of any pointing lines and align the symbols to a grid.”

(3) Creately:

“Collaborate with your team and clients with easy sharing, publishing and post-it style comments. Multi version support means you never lose your work.”

“Create and draw: flowcharts–network diagrams–organizational charts–UML diagrams–sitemaps and SWOT templates”

Explore Creately.com:

From freewaregenius:

“Creately is the full-blown experience and the best tool out of this list. It is a data driven, online diagramming & design suite all in one sharp web application. With Creately, you have a package that is much more comparable to the full-blown commercial suites like Microsoft Visio. You can sign up for an account to get started immediately. Creately gives you a lot for free: unlimited public diagrams, 5 people collaborating on a diagram at most, the ability to publish/export, 10 megabytes of storage, and SSL protected connections. With the basic account, all exported documents are watermarked with the Creately logo. You can upgrade to the Creately Plus! account.”

Mind Mapping Blogs On Alltop

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:47:00 +0000

Alltop spotlights several mind mapping blogs. This is a list of those blogs and a sample from each.

The Mindmapping Software Blog reviews mind mapping software available for a comprehensive overview. I am adding from a post: “The 5 best mind mapping programs for brainstorming”. The 5 products chosen are: NovaMind, MindManager 8, Visual Mind plus the Realizer 2, iMindMap 4.1, and ConceptDraw Mindmap 6.
The Mindmap Blog includes a great mind map of American history.
Idea Mapping by Jamie Nast has great mind maps about Black Friday Christmas Shopping which can be used as a blueprint for all your Christmas shopping. Her website does a great job of explaining mind mapping.
Peace of Mind has a good explanation of the idea wall which is a great tool for groups to brainstorm ideas.
Mind Map Switch has a 5 minute exercise for creating mind maps.
Litemind by Luciano is about exploring ways to use our minds efficiently. This translates to a wide variety of topics such as creativity, problem-solving, visual thinking, memory, self-mastery and more.
Assistive Technology is a blog on the topics of assistive technology, elearning, mind mapping, project management, visual learning, collaborative tools, and educational technology.
Mind Map Art—showcases the world’s finest mind maps includes a very large collection. It includes maps for the arts, business, education, lifestyle, mind mappers, offbeat, science, sports and technology. All the maps are also listed alphabetically by titles.
Thinking and organizing was created for the Topicscape in May of 2005. Another Topicscape blog is Roy’s Mind Mapping blog @ http://www.topicscape.com/blog/.

A special treat—

Free and/or Inexpensive Mind Mapping Resources

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:36:00 +0000

Blue Marble (Planet Earth) by woodleywonderworks

My favorite medium for mind mapping is paper and pen. I feel that the software programs available (Wikipedia has a great list) inhibit my creativity. I love the feel of playing that fiber pens, crayons and colored or plain pencils give me. I advocate each of us having a creativity basket. The basket helps if you have little room for developing your creativity.

As well as being fun, another reason that I love handmade mind maps is that they help me to clarify my thinking. I have a strong left-brain approach to order that sometimes I allow to dominate and inhibit my creativity. Conversely, I allow my right-brain creativity to dominate when I am procrastinating. So my whole brain is learning to grow in harmony and peace.

Mind map tools can be web-based, use of a mind map software program, or a set of paper and pens. The purpose of this post is to organize the many samples available.

The simplest and often the best tools for mind maps are paper and pens. The pens may be colored pencils, felt tip markers, crayons, or one pen and/or pencil.

Some of the sites and tools I enjoy for broadening my creativity are:

(1) One of the best fun places I’ve found to spark creativity is the “If I Had a Desert” mind map from Mind Map Inspiration. To prove that you can use mind maps for anything, check out their “How could you modernize a door?“.

(2) Wikipedia has included free mind mapping software on the above list. The software included is compendium, free mind, pimki, wikka wiki, vue, and xmind.

(3) Free web application of software that wasn’t listed above: dropmind,

(4) Pens, guides, brainteasers, how to mind map workbooks are available at the Buzan store.

A Topics List of Mind Maps

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:51:16 +0000

Wikipedia T-Shirt by quartermane

Personal balance

Believing in God

The blues: who and where

Left brain, right brain, whole brain; which is best?

Business plan

Web2 tools in the classroom

Best Collaboration Tools by Robin Good

Concept Maps

Creative Thinking–Alan and Emily Burton

If I had a desert

Drawing Tips for Mind Mapping e-book

E-skills

Energy Mind Map–Patrick Mayfield

Group work and ESL learners

Exercises for Destressing-Buzan

Family Tree

Send Large Files of Any Size

Projects in French by Marion Charreau

My friendships and connections

Personal innovation plan

Intelligence

Invisible Art by Marion Charreau

IQ Matrix Gallery Posters

Nine knowledge areas processes

Labyrinth

Life is what you make it!

Life Review

The Luck Factor: Attracting Good Fortune

Marketing basics

Creating a master mind map

MasterMind Matrix Chart–for sale from $25.00 to $300.00

Matters of life and death

Mind Map Directory–76 pages of mind maps from Topicscape–the 3D mapping software

Mind Map Inspiration Gallery of many mind maps by Paul Foreman

Mind Mapping Examples

7 Mind Mapping Examples in 1 Map

Mind Map Samples by category

Mind Mapping Wiki–WikiIT

Motivating people

Music playing made simple by Margaret Brandman

Everything Open and Free

Organization mind maps–Mindmapping versus GTD

Project life cycle

Project management–Five minutes to better project management

Project management body of knowledge

Bugs 2009

RSS to Web Publishing Tools

Russian children

Showing how one blogger blog a post (http://kathyberman.com/2010/01/everyone-has-creativity) of which another blogger chooses to make a mind map (http://destech.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/everyone-has-creativity-if-only-they-would-use-it/#comment-499

Social Media Framework

Social Media Web Sites

Smith family

Spending time wisely

SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis

(Book) Six Thinking Hats-Radiant Thinking meets Lateral Thinking

How to Twitter: A Beginner’s Guide

To do Lists

Best Free and Low-Cost Video Conferencing Tools

Best video publishing widgets by Robin Good

Vision and art: The biology of seeing–How the mind works

Visual Search Engines

Web site in 16 weeks

Whitby (town map)

Working alliance

How to Use Mind-Mapping to Enrich Your Life

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:01:46 +0000

SDN Clubhouse Community MindSpace by cote

Visual thinking is becoming more and more dominate. I am looking forward to being able to get a tablet PC maybe even smaller than a netbook and just write and not use the keypad. I know it is coming. Thinking visually will be a lot easier than it is now.

Mindmapping (from Wikipedia)–

“A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.”

“The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information. Mind maps may also aid recall of existing memories.”

(1) I first read about mind-mapping at Squidoo. (My Squidoo lens are here.)

(2) The Mind Mapping Wiki

“This wiki covers the many types of maps – mind maps, concept maps, argument maps and others. It explains the variations and how you might choose one type if you’re learning something, another type if you’re planning a new project, and something else again if you’re doing some deep analysis. The main map types are introduced in a summary article here that branches out to many other pages.”

(3) Alltop has 20 blogs/sites about mind-mapping I will post about these at a later time.

(4) The power of mind-mapping by Dan Woods is about how visual outlining provides a shareable snapshot of ideas.

(5) Litemind (exploring ways to use our minds efficiently) has 11050 readers. One of the mind maps it has is a mind map of a book entitled: One Small Step can Change Your Life.

(6) 20+ resources to help you mindmap is on the Mindmap blog.

(7) MindMapArt showcases the world’s finest mind maps. It has categories of arts, business, education, lifestyles, mind mappers, offbeat, sports, science and technology. Raising Self-Esteem Mind Map Mind Map Art shows the causes and cures for self-esteem.