Mind maps are ancient theory, but they’re not ancient history! Since the concept of mind mapping was popularized by Dr. Tony Buzan’s work in the 1970s, they have become a staple in academy and productivity circles in the past 20 years especially. Learn how the ProductivityCast team uses mind maps in their personal productivity systems, and how you might want to use them, too!
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In this Cast
Ray Sidney-Smith
Augusto Pinaud
Art Gelwicks
Francis Wade
Show Notes | How mind mapping fits your productivity system
Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
Tony Buzan books on mind mapping
FreeMind
Active Words 4
SimpleMind
Mindjet Mindmanager
Mindnode
Mind42
Workflowy
TheBrain
Raw Text Transcript | How mind mapping fits your productivity system
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Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17
And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith.
Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud.
Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade.
Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25
Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, we're going to talk about mind mapping. And if you don't know what a mind map is, then you've come to the right episode, because we're going to talk about what mind mapping is, and how it fits into each of our productivity systems, if at all, and how it might fit into your personal productivity system as a tool in your toolkit. And so what I wanted us to do was to first talk about what a mind map is, and to kind of kick the tires on the definition of a mind map, which is very malleable. And then talking about how we might use or do use mind maps, and then ultimately, some of the mind mapping software that we all use in the context of our systems. So let's start first with a mind map. And I'll just start with the sense that a mind map is a third century invention, if you want to call it that. But the concept of a mind map is very early dated in our history, and is in essence, a visual diagram. It has a hierarchy, where nodes, individual thoughts, if you want to call it that are connected to other thoughts. And they are hierarchical, because you have a parent thought, child and sibling thoughts or nodes that are connected to one another visually beyond that there's very wide latitude in terms of defining a mind map, who wants to tackle what a mind map is. And this comes from a conversation I had recently
Francis Wade 1:55
where I found that I was doing them wrong, I'm informed by a practice that I picked up that was incorrect. But a mind map is intended to be intended to be a nonlinear brainstorm on paper, where you're you have a central node or a central question is how I know learned it. And you answer the question in this nonlinear kind of way, where your your mind is allowed to put anything anywhere on the people. There's no order and no necessary connection between the way you're basically downloading your thoughts. And as you download your thoughts onto paper, more thoughts popping that are connected to the things that you're writing, or they're unconnected, what you just keep adding, adding, adding, adding. So it's a little bit like that brainstorming session in which you spend the first part of it just collecting ideas on an uncensored kind of way. And I found that I was I was I had fallen into a trap of doing it in a structured way, which defeats the purpose of the brainstorming and the creative element of it the nonlinear, kind of allowing your mind just to run free and to allow it to collect on paper. So my my definition
Art Gelwicks 3:10
for me mind mapping, and I've done mind mapping for years, I consider mind mapping the visualization of ideas, being able to provide those direct interconnects between ideas, to really facilitate the process of coming up with new ones and making sure things don't get missed. It is very visually heavy. So I define it as exactly as its name says it is a map of what's rattling around in your mind at that time. And we have to think about it that way. Because everybody who if you ask them what a mind map is, they either have no concept whatsoever, or the one I've got more commonly is they have this incredibly detailed, visually colorful design of conceptual and theoretical models around ideas and oh, it's just they're beautiful, but boy, are they impractical. To me, it's a happy medium, it is literally just a map to the thoughts around a particular topic. and allowing that map to lead itself wherever that topic needs to go. Which I think is probably the more important part
Augusto Pinaud 4:28
mine mind map is it's an interesting tool and has always been a tool for me in the sense that it break the linear thinking and allows you to make sure you don't get stuck into loops thinking you know one of the problem sometimes when people are thinking is they go 1456678 and then go back 678678678 and they they go to stock mine man allows you to go on a spending that, but also helps you to break those loops. So that way you can do better things. That way you can get things actually accomplished. So it is a, it is a tool that I use often. And as proved to be really effective for me.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 5:23
I'll disagree with Francis on just a minor note here, which is that while he thinks he was doing mind mapping wrong, I believe there's no wrong way to do mind mapping. And so the challenge is to actually relinquish this notion that there is a right way. And think about it in the perspective that there are skills associated with various types of mind mapping tools. So the type of Mind Map you're creating will dictate the, the skills you use, but the reality is, is that if you want to use mind mapping for brainstorming, go for it, if you want to do mind mapping for note taking Go for it. Mind Mapping was in at least modernity popularized by Dr. Tony Buzan. And he had a television show on the BBC back in the in the early 70s. I believe it was and he has written many books and published before his his passing a couple of years ago, Mind Mapping today has traditionally been used as a creative tool, because of Dr. museums, making the term Mind Map popular and the the tool popular as a as a creative tool. But reality is, is that it's a you know, if you want to call it a spider diagram, if you want to call it a visual diagram, or what have you. It is a it is a form of capturing thoughts and rearranging thoughts potentially, if you are using something that can rearrange thoughts, I guess pencil and an eraser would allow you to rearrange thoughts as well. But they allow you to connect thoughts to one another. And this this whole notion of a mind map is interesting when you're thinking about it from a personal productivity perspective, because it can be used in so many different arenas. I know individuals who use mind mapping software as their complete GTD system. I know people who use mind mapping software as a function for brainstorming, as Francis was talking about. I know folks who use mind mapping for note taking in in courses and lectures, and workshops and seminars. And that's how they take notes. So there was just so much flexibility and interest in the function of a mind map that my number one, I think tip is don't limit yourself in terms of what and how you can use a mind map. And once we get into some of these techniques, one of the things I do is link mind maps to mind maps. So my software allows me to say Oh, you know what, this node is actually a whole other Mind Map. And so therefore, you have this relational database, this database that connects one mind map to another, which are independent thoughts, but are connected by some central construct. Let's talk about how mind maps fit into your own systems. And I'm going to start with you, Francis, because what you said, was really interesting in the sense that you perceive that you were doing this wrong. And so how does mind mapping out today fit in your system? And what do you do with that brainstorming? Once you've done it? And that free form? How do you do it? Do you do a paper and pen? Are you doing it in software? And what does that process look like? For you?
Francis Wade 8:36
I think I think your your qualification was point on and well taken there. The reason I made the comment about doing it wrong was because there was something I was leaving out when I was doing my mind mapping. So the most most of my mind mapping is done on paper, and it's to prepare for a presentation or a speech. So I'm I'm I'm trying to prepare him get my ideas together for some kind of,
