Mind Mapping - capturing your thoughts freely

Mind Mapping is a technique by which we can capture our thoughts and logically put them together based on their dependencies, relationships or associations. If you have not used this technique, this post would be useful to introduce you to the power of mind mapping and the value you may get by using the mind mapping technique.

When we brainstrom to solve a problem, to capture the approach to a new project or even managing our To-Do list, we probably record our thoughts on the whiteboard, on a notepad, in a document or spreadsheet. I do find it a bit restricted to logically document my thoughts when I record in spredsheets. In turn I risk to not capture an idea. Its difficult to record the free flowing ideas when limited by a few rows and columns. A whiteboard ofcourse makes it easier, but does not allow to quickly share with my colleagues who are located around the world. The alternative to this is to capture my thoughts in a Mind Mapping software.

To see what Mind Mapping is all about, watch this video. Here Tony Buzan, who is known to be the inventor of modern mindmapping speaks about this powerful technique.

(courtesy: iMindMap at YouTube)

There are many Mind Mapping tools available on the internet. I personally use a open source mind mapping software, FreeMind. Its easy to document my thoughts logically and then export it to a spreadsheet, a document or even in a pdf, if I do need to share my ideas with someone not using this tool.

Hope this helps to capture your thoughts with ease and without limitation and increase your productivity and creativity.