What is mind mapping? It's a visual way to show ideas, or as Wikipedia puts it: "A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea."
Tony Buzan, who advocated and popularized and popularized mind mapping, suggested certain structures for mind mapping involving such factors as the number of colors to use and how the lines should connect. (For a full list, see the Wikipedia article). The difference between mind mapping and idea mapping is that idea mapping doesn't adhere to Tony Buzan's suggested structures.
The benefit of mind mapping or idea mapping is that it can help you to see ideas and relationships between ideas in a new light because it harnesses different areas of your brain. As a brainstorming technique, mind mapping or idea mapping can be quite helpful and can lead to the generation of fresh ideas and solutions to problems.
A good step-by-step guide to mind mapping can be found at lifehacker. The College Degree.com lists 99 mind mapping resources, including free mind mapping software.If you're the kind of person who finds examples, there's a whole blog, the idea mapping blog, dedicated to idea mapping and full of example after example.
What about you? Have you used mind mapping to solve a problem or come up with an idea?
Leave a comment and let us know.
I use mind mapping for self coaching around goal setting and home business process mapping.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=K2xezdpNifU
regards,
mark
Posted by: mark mcclure | October 28, 2007 5:42 AM | Permalink to Comment