Steve Dotto here and today’s topic, I’m really excited about: mind mapping.
We’ve all done it usually in a collaborative environment.
Mind mapping is when we take our ideas and we put them into a document of some sort,
usually on a whiteboard where you take a project or a process that we’re working on with
several other people and we write it all down with felt tip markers and we create connections,
milestones, key features or key things that have to happen.
That document is called a mind map.
It’s basically a visual representation of our ideas, of our processes.
Now there are some tremendous software tools that will help us create really elaborate
mind maps and allow us to interconnect those mind maps with our other productivity tools.
One I’ve used for many years is Mind Manager from the Mindjet folks.
It has gone through many iterations.
It’s now a software for a service application for which you pay a monthly subscription fee
and they have Cloud-based storage of all your maps.
I’m going to show you that in a few moments.
Another one that’s available online is this one called MindMeister which I’ve been playing
with a little bit.
I’m not quite as familiar with it but it looks like a tremendous service as well.
Now both of these applications, you can use on your desktop but you can also use on your
mobility devices, store all of your different mind maps in the Cloud so they’re very much
a Web 2.0-type of application.
Let me show you how Mind Manager works.
What I’ll do is I’ll start with a new document.
I’ll work from a template at this point.
Basically, they’ve got a whole series of different templates in Mind Manager that allow
you to choose a rough structure.
It gives you an idea of the sorts of things that you can do.
We’ve got organizational charts, project timelines, and status reports.
So they’ve got all sorts of different types of projects already kind of roughed out for
you so you can see all of the key areas.
Going through these different templates will give you a really good understanding of what
you can do with an application like Mind Manager.
You have communication lines.
You’ve got strategy sessions.
So you can use any of these different templates to create a mind map.
If you don’t want to, you can just start with a blank one and choose that.
Simplicity is the name of the game here.
You just type in your central topic of your project and then what happens is you create
links between this central project and the different things and the different ideas that
have to happen.
You can use the tools here in the menu bar to insert.
You’ll very quickly develop skills for using all of the different keyboard shortcuts in
this but basically, what were going to do is we’re going to create a subtopic for
this which now you see creates a little relationship.
Then you put in the information of what your second topic is going to be all about and
you basically start to create some structure here.
Let me show you a map that I’ve already started on.
I do a little bit of publicity work for a local theatre company.
What I thought might do is I put together this little mind map which walks us through
the publicity process so I can tell each of the different production managers for each
of the plays that comes through this little theatre what we do and what the schedule is
for different things that have to be done in order for us to properly publicize their
production.
This is a great example.
This is something that is a dynamic document that I can refer to, I can build on, and I
can create resources within.
It just ends up being a real benefit to both myself and to the different productions that
come along.
If we take a look over here on this side, you’ll see I’ve got an area where I have
to have all the photos taken.
I’ve got publicity photos that have to be taken and then dress rehearsals that have
to be taken.
I’ve got what happens on the website with the audition announcement, publicity photos
have to be put up on the website, and the newsletter has to go out.
So I’ve got all these different processes.
Now some of these things have to relate to each other.
For example, publicity photos have to be taken very early in the process so that we can use
them.
So I can actually by right-clicking my mouse here, create and insert a calendar event for
when the publicity photos have to be talked.
Watch what happens when I do that.
Up comes a little dialog box that says what is the event title?
I’m going to say photo shoot and I’m going to put it in at the theatre, then I can add
different notes.
I’m actually going to make that for today so I can show you some other cool features
of the software.
Once I say okay, now this becomes an item that has to be done and you see there’s
a little bit of a call out here.
You will also notice here on my map that I’ve got a new appointment in my calendar because,
indeed, this connects directly with our calendar app and that photo shoot has been brought
in and made an event within my calendar.
That’s what I’m talking about as far as interactivity goes between your different
productivity apps and an application like Mind Manager.
It talks to our calendar, to our email, to our contact list.
This will allow us to basically leverage all of those different assets as we create these
different projects.
Now that is one of the things that you will do.
Now you can minimize this window so you don’t see it.
If you need details, you click the plus sign and you can see all the details so you can
view the map as the map gets more and more elaborate.
You may only want the main topics to be shown.
So you’ve got nice control over the view.
The other thing that you do a lot is you create linkages between things.
For example, if you stay within this idea here, once those publicity photos are taken,
they have to be put into the website.
I can actually click here on the publicity photos.
If I right-click my mouse, I can create a relationship between this item, the publicity
photos, and the photos that have to go into the website.
So visually looking at this mind map now, anybody who’s just looking at it can see
oh, once the publicity photos are taken, they have to go over here so we can see the relationships
building up.
As I’ve said, this works tremendously well just building out projects.
You can do it individually.
You can do it collaboratively with others.
There is a huge variety of different tools that I haven’t even begun to delve into
where you can add notes, you can add hyperlinks, and you can add video.
You can use the mind map, take different elements on the mind map, and export it into some slides
so you can use it as a slide show when there’s a presentation to explain your idea to others.
You can use mind maps as the basis for a timeline, for project management.
So you’ve got lots of different ways this becomes the base for all of your projects.
Now I did mention that this also works in the mobility world and here’s one of the
other things that I really like about this.
Once I’ve saved this map–I’m just going to save it right now–I can take this map
and if I’m out in the field and I’m at the meeting and I’ve got my iPad, I can
access this same map on my iPad.
Let me show you that right now.
Okay, I’ve got my iPad displaying here now and I want to go into the Mindjet Mind Manager
app which I have downloaded onto my iPad.
It’s also available for Android.
It’s also available for iPhone.
It is a free download which when we put it onto our device, we rely on the Cloud storage
to be able to access all of the maps.
So I’m going to go here into the storage area and I’m going to go in to my account
and there are the different maps that I’ve been working on.
There’s the publicity map that we were just working on and there I can see it on my iPad.
Now I can actually check this out, which is a fairly cool process, which means that I
now have editing control and I can edit it on the iPad if I choose.
I don’t really love editing these maps on the iPad because I find the tools are that
much more robust on the desktop computer so I’m much better at editing on the computer.
But the beautiful thing of using a mind map on your mobility device is it is a map so
if you’re sitting in a meeting, if you’re going through the process, you can open it
up and use it just as the map where you can go through and you can say well, what do we
have to do here?
Who has to be responsible for this or the other thing?
And as I’m working through the information with the different people from the production
team, I’ve got all of my resources here and available to me.
I don’t have to say what’s in this document, what’s in that document, or have to work
my way through it in that way.
All of the different key information is available here on my mobility device.
The last thing that I want to talk to you about today is the pricing and let us jump
in and take a look at how much it costs for these apps.
The folks at Mindjet have two different models.
They have a web-only version which is $15 a month and their full desktop version is
available for $30 a month.
You can see all of the different features, the differences between the web and the desktop
features.
To be honest, I think you just want the desktop version, the full version of this.
If you’re going to use this tool, you’re going to use it to its fullest extent and
the desktop version is definitely what you need.
As I mentioned, it’s available also for free download for the iPad and for the iPhone.
As far as competition is concerned, the MindMeister app that I have been playing with is completely
web-based.
It’s a little lighter as far as its feature set but still pretty darn good and it’s
available for as little as $4 or $5 a month, $10 a month, up to $15 a month for business
accounts.
It is also available on the iPad and then other platforms such as Android as well.
I find mind mapping to be a creative process.
When I sit down and I’ve got a new project facing me, the way that I approach the very
first stages of trying to create a representation in my mind of what the project might look
like is I create a mind map.
It gives me inspiration.
It allows me to retain things and remember different items as I create them so that I
don’t worry that they’re lost, they’re not written down in a variety of different
places, and ultimately, it gives me a roadmap to success if indeed that project or that
venture is going to be successful.
I hope you found this particular video to be useful to you.
If you have, why don’t you click on the Like for us.
I would like it if you Liked our video.
I’m Steve Dotto.
Thanks for spending time with us today.
[END OF AUDIO] Steve Dotto0How to Use Mind Mapping0September
29, 2012
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