My Tools: Mindjet MindManager Pro

I find mind maps to be a fabulous way of thinking about things.

I regularly find myself in the situation where I am doing what I call a personal brainstorm. There are a huge set of ideas that are floating around about a subject, placing them all down onto a mind map and then structuring them is a very powerful way of visualising them. It often sparks new ideas, highlights things that are not really related to the subject and highlights activities or ideas that are dependent upon each other.

The tool that I use for mind mapping is Mindjet MindManger Pro.

I’ve struggled for a while to know quite how to write about this subject. It’s one of those where you either stay shallow or you dive in deep, and I’m not sure I see the real value in one and I don’t have time for the other. I’ve decided just to start and see where I get to.

I nearly always use mind maps for structuring thought. I have tried to present mind maps for people to talk around, it normally results in lots of vacant looks. I’ve, therefore, moved away from presenting mind maps other than the simplest of diagrams (You can now do really simple diagrams in PowerPoint 2007).

As a thought structuring technique I nearly always start with a blank sheet and type.

Mind Manager allows you to do a lot of the working from the keyboard so it’s relatively easy to stream-type. In this mode the two most powerful keys that you have available are the “Enter” key and the “Insert” key.

• Pressing “Enter” adds a topic at the same level as the one you are currently in. This is great for creating a list of things all at the same level.
• Pressing the “Insert” key adds a topic as a child of your current topic. Great for adding a sub-thought.

I don’t classify, mark, annotate, or even worry too much about the structure it’s just how the thoughts come out. It’s amazing, though, how often that these thoughts are reasonably well structured. If you stop to think too much about the structure you loose the flow a bit.

Ideas tend to come faster than I can type so type as much as possible to make sure that I don’t miss something.

After I’ve brainstormed I’ll then structure and annotate. Mind Manager has a great set of Map Markers. I normally expand these out so they are all visible on the right of the screen. From here I’ll pick topics and mark them. My favourites are priorities, because that’s often what I am trying to get to understand.

The one thing I’ve always thought would be useful, but never been able to work out, is the ability to filter a set of topics based on the markers. Perhaps I just haven’t looked hard enough.

Once I’ve been through this activity I normally go and create something that communicates the thoughts that I have just worked out. I’d like people to be able to just look at my maps and understand them, but that doesn’t seem to communicate very well. Perhaps it’s a culture thing.

I’m actually quite a simple Mind Manager user, and lots of people do far more explicit things, this way of working helps me though.