smartmarketinghabits.com » Mind Mapping

Using Personal Brain for Information and Knowledge Collection

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:20:36 +0000

Personal Brain is magnificent for linking thoughts, ideas, concepts, relationships. Once you start creating your maps it is a snap to connect what they call “child” thoughts to a topic and include attachments such as mind maps, documents, spreadsheets, hyperlinks.

The joy of using personal brain comes in when you are needing to do rapid jumping from thought concept to thought concept. I use it for mapping new information and resources related to research I am doing, my own learning objectives, training, as well as my personal interests. I include links to documents on my hard drive – as well as embed things like mind maps right into my Personal Brain file. It is speedy and quick and the only 1 draw back for me is that it does not print out well – and yet, for it’s performance on-screen – I haven’t found anything as fun to use – or as quick.

For me – besides the fun – I can “link” concepts from varied different sources together and quickly move from one to another. This isn’t as easy to do in systems like MindManager and the like – because for the most part in those programs you want to attempt to keep each map relatively small – and you are better off just to use multiple maps. With Personal Brain – Your file can be as large as you want it – and you don’t experience “information overload” like you can in other mapping programs.

This is not for everyone, but for those who are collecting large amounts of knowledge or information who want to access it quickly – Personal Brain can be a great resource.

Personal Brain Website: The Brain

On The Brain site they have a good description of 12 ways most people use Personal Brain

In addition, the folks at The Brain also have information sessions and training sessions they run frequently for new and advanced users.

Sherman Hu - uses his brain as a Rolodex-ing.

We have other posts on Mind Mapping

Freemind – an Open Source Mind Mapping Tool

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:20:45 +0000

The visual look of Freemind

Free Mind - Open Source Mind Mapping Tool
The Product Link: Open Source Mind Map Software

What It Does: FreeMind is mind-mapping software. Mind Mapping software can be used as a productivity tool.

Keep track of projects, tasks, links to files, keeping track of small notes, brain storming tool, using colours to differeniate, an organizational tool. Aid to help with right-brain creativity.

CMAP Tools – Directional Concept Mapping

admin — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:49:21 +0000

The Marketer: IHMC

The Marketing Blurb:“Empowering users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps”

Software, self-hosted, no cost if for personal use.

The Product Link:http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/

What it does: Among a lot of other things – CMAP tools is a wonderful product to use when you need to create a concept map of a series of directional steps. Any planning activity that requires a series of forward moving steps is handled quite nicely by this program. You can also do a lot of other things with this program – Have a look at their home page where you can find details about functionality and different versions that are available.

Mind Mapping with Visual Mind

admin — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:12:30 +0000

The Marketer: Mind Technologies

The Marketing Blurb: Visualize Your Thinking and Organize Your Work
The Product Link: Visual Mind

What It Does:

Stand alone software, 30day free trail available

What it does: Does the mind mapping thing -You will want to have a look at Visual Mind’s product comparison chart before you purchase – to make sure you all the tools you need – pay particular attention to the export functions. To have the most flexibility – choose the business version.

What they do have that is a nice add-on is a program called the realizer – it helps you do “chunk” sideways brainstorming, and you can get this kind of tool elsewhere for no cost – so this may not be a big priority.

Mind Mapping with Mind Genius

admin — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:01:26 +0000

The Marketer: Gael Ltd, Scotland

The Blurb: Bring Clarity and Purpose to Individual and Group thinking and greatly enhance productivity

The Product Link :Mind Genius

Stand Alone Software, free evaluation trail available

What it does: With very similar functions to MindManager by Mind Jet – Mind Genious too exports to Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint, MS Project, PDF, HTML files. Different views are available – including a nifty – map explorer view – which for anyone who is used to used to exploring and working with windows explorer – will find it an efficient way to organize thoughts.

Mind Manager

admin — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:29:12 +0000

The Marketer: Mind Jet USA

The Blurb: Work Smarter, Think Creatively, Save Time – Everyday

The Product Link :Mind Manager

Stand Alone Software, low cost trial available – integrates with outlook, excel, Gyronix and more

What it does: This is one of the best known and coach friendly mind mapping software programs available.

I have been a daily user of Mindmanager since 2001, and have purchased every upgrade since then. This is one of those indespensable tools that helps me organize my day, track committments, projects, sessions, meetings and brainstorms. Creating images, pdf, and word documents are a snap with this program.

The program itself is a bit pricy for some – but this is one of those life- tools that I could not do without. I use Mindmanager with Gryonix to help me tame my inbox. What used to take me hours to do – now takes me minutes.

How to Mind Map Without Automation

admin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:53:58 +0000

Be creative – creativity helps with memory, and ideas, and flexibility.
Take a large piece of paper. Flip chart paper works really well for this task.
Get some coloured markers
Create a focus or starting point – somewhere near the center of the paper.
Make the focus a point a strong image that will show the theme of the map
Create sub centers for sub themes
Use key words, or wherever possible images.
If your ideas dry up for a moment – move to another branch
Start from the center of the page and work out or where ever you have energy.
If you run out of space just get more paper.
Hold back your inner critic – this is fun – put your judgment aside for now.
Make the center a clear and strong visual image that depicts the general theme of the map.
You can include Words on the lines – this will enforce the structure in your mind.d
Print – it makes it memorable.
Use colour to make associations and to make things stand out. Colour each theme as you create it. Add in Icons or Images where ever possible.
Use arrows, icons or other visual aids to show links between different elements.

Mind Mapping

Admin — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 04:26:05 +0000

Some Popular Mind Mapping Software Applications

BrainMine – mind mapping software
Buzan’s iMindMap -mind mapping software – for creative folks, create your own drawings
ConceptDraw MINDMAP – mind mapping software- compatible with MS Office
HeadCase – Visually appealing mind mapping software – similar to Buzan’s IMindMap
Mind Pad – a user version mind mapping solution
MindApp -mind mapping software program
MindGenius – mind mapping software
Mindjet – MindManager mind mapping software **Excellent*** On screen mapping and collaboration, works well with personal brain, MS Outlook
MindMapper – mind mapping software – some bells and whistles like Gantt charts
Mindmapping, concept mapping in 3D – mind mappers needing room to stretch, the extraordinary clarity of its 3D landscapes
MindVisualizer – Similar look and feel to Mindjet’s Mind Manager- may be easier for some to use.
NovaMind- NovaMind Platinum is for power Mind Mappers, exports well to powerpoint.
OpenMind- Similar to Mindjet’s Mind Manager – works well for project planning
SMART Ideas -Concept mapping software
ThoughtMapper – Mind Mapping Software connects with MS Outlook and Powerpoint
Visual Mind : a corporate mind mapping software – easy to learn, collaborate
XMIND : Open source, Mind mapping sofware

Web Based Mind Mapping Systems

Mapul :Organic Mind Maps in an online solutions
Mind42.com – A collaborative browser-based online mind mapping too
WiseMapping -Wise Mapping is the web mind mapping tool that leverages the power of Mind Maps mixing new technologies like vectorial languages (SVG and VML) and the power of the whole Web 2.0 concept
MindMeister: online mapping tool – has a free version with limited use – pay by month for premium versions – post maps to blogs, collaborate.

A little note for Mac users:

Mind Mapping software that works with Mac’s:Buzan’s iMindMap, concept Draw MindMap, Mindjet, Freemind

Here is a collection of various miscellaneous mind mapping links

http://www.mindmapperusa.com/products.htm

About mindmapping

A concept map about concept maps

http://tinyurl.com/539kw

An introduction into Process Mapping

http://www.isixsigma.com/tt/process_mapping/

Process Mapping and Process Flow Charting

http://www.process-mapping.co.uk/

Work Flow Mapping