Mind mapping is a method of visually representing your ideas on paper by drawing interconnecting items and linking them to a key word or phrase. If you are a writer, researcher, business person or musician looking for inspiration, or trying to come up with ideas that may not normally be available to you using traditional brainstorming methods, mind mapping is an effective procedure to use. There are several different methods to creating mind maps, so learning the basic guidelines can free you to explore.
Guidelines
Get a large piece of paper and at least three pens, each a different color. Depending on the idea you are working on, pick one word that you think best represents it, or write a phrase explaining the idea or concept, in the middle of your sheet of paper. You can now draw words or images around your central idea. These words and images should be related to the central idea. Each word or image will have its own line that it will rest on. The lines will connect to either the central idea or to each other. You can use the different pens to identify different ideas or threads of thought in the mind map. The lines connecting the different words and ideas in your mind maps should create associations and promote new words that loosely connect to the ideas represented in your map.
Advanced Methods
To improve your mind maps, remember to explore your own methods, experimenting while remembering what makes mind maps work. Use only one word to represent ideas. Using only one word does away with all the writing that may slow you down, getting in the way of free-flowing thought. Since you are sometimes working quickly when creating a mind map, print your words as opposed to using cursive, so that everything is easy to read. As you become better at making mind maps, you can begin connection ideas that are far away from the central idea, creating new ideas that get their own branches. Some people work with several pieces of paper to create large mind maps that grow larger as new ideas are generated.
Software
If you wish to have some help with your mind maps, or wish to do mind maps within a computing environment, there are several software programs available for your computer. FreeMind is cost-free mind mapping software available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers. Meindmeister, bubbl.us, Mindomo, and Tex2Mindmap are all Web-based applications you can use for mind mapping. You can usually print your mind maps out from these software programs for later visual reference. Software programs are a great resource for learning do proper mind mapping technique, and they cut down on the materials needed.
