Why Every Gal Needs a Mindmap

Categorized | Planning

Posted on12 July 2009. Tags: Brainstorming, Creativity, Freemind, Freeware, Mind map, Mind Mapping

Welcome back to Self Employed Mum. Thanks for visiting!

I am almost blushing as I blog this, but I must confess to you my guilty organisational pleasure – mindmaps.

Yes, I know that mindmaps have a kind of hippyish connotation, but planning is never as much fun as with a mindmap.

If you’re like me, surrounded by a mountain of bits of paper, plans stuck on the back or envelopes and tea-ringed post-it notes, then a mindmap will be right up your street.

I use mindmaps not just to plan but to organise my thoughts. They’re a godsend for bloggers – you can use them to map out your content. They’re also great for generating creative ideas – you find your mind starts to link thoughts together and inspiration strikes. You’ll also find it more natural to make connections and think laterally. You can add files to a mind map, including documents and images. They’re great for both random research and more structured project planning.

(Oh, and they make pretty nifty to-do lists too )

One of my favourite programmes (yes, I have more than one mindmap software on my ‘puter!) is Freemind - which is freeware – so ideal for experimenting with

photo credit: jonny goldstein

5 Responses to “Why Every Gal Needs a Mindmap”

Natalie says:

12 July 2009 at 6:23 pm

I LOVE mindmapping and am hastily off to download Freemind! Great tip pard-ner. I started using them at uni and they really help get my cluttered mind in order. Excellent for planning ebook structure also
Arjen says:

13 July 2009 at 2:33 pm

Hi Alison,
Just saw your thoughts and I have to admit… every gal needs a mindmap!

I just started blogging about mind(maps) and they help me especially as a tool to organize my blog content and future posts.

Which tools do you use besides Freemind?

(I really like the term ” hippyish connotation” – GREAT! )
Alison says:

14 July 2009 at 10:40 am

@arjen – Hiya – I also use Mindjet Mindmanager – which is pretty funky too! It seems that there are quite a few options for Mac users around which is great
stephenzhu says:

16 July 2009 at 6:55 am

hi, Alison
glad to see your blog, and find you are mind mapping fans. i am from an open source mind mapping team, but not freemind. XMind, maybe you can evaluate this one if you have time.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

From Lone Ranger Mindmap Hippie To Knowledge Guru | Mindmaps Unleashed says:

28 July 2009 at 6:41 am

[...] I like to call the lonesome mindmap user from now on the Lone Ranger Mindmap Hippie (thanks to Alyson). The mindmap hippie understands often much faster and better what happens. She actually sees the [...]