Continuing this series about planning, I’m trying decide if I need to explain what mind-maps are, or just need to convince you about their use; or you simply want some ideas on software and tools. Well let’s make this simple for this holiday time of year (well, in the UK at any rate) – you can search other sites if you want to find out what they are and I advise you to ditch the software. So let’s get on to convincing you: Decide upon your time-frame (this week, this month, this term), get yourself a pencil and a sheet of paper and ask yourself what’s important. Then just dump those thoughts! Don't do the cognitive labour of carrying them about in your head. As I’ve said before, tools on their own are useless, you need a process. You can waste hours prettifying and making your mind maps look nice. Don’t bother. Spend your time on what comes next in your process – thinking and prioritising.
If you want to remind yourself of the process (and the software) look at February’s post; Get some tools and use them .
If you really don’t know anything about mind maps read the work of Tony Buzan. If you are looking for inspiration (doing some ‘busy work’) have a look at images of mind maps on that well known search engine. There are some seriously intimidating ones out there, but some are simplicity itself – and if you want my advice, keep it simple.
Happy Holidays!
Image use: If you use this image for any purpose you must attribute it to @Arc52Cathy as per Creative Commons.