I have become a big fan of mindmapping. And specially the application SimpleMind Pro for Mac.
When you have a lot of ideas, keeping a hold of them can be super tricky. This is exactly where mindmapping comes in handy; with the right application if allows you to structure your thoughts at more or less the same pace as your train of thoughts.
I now use mindmapping for several specific purposes;
I use it during meetings for notes and for structuring comments and ideas that arise from our discussions. And also for mapping out follow-up items, to do’s and the likes to make sure that I never leave a meeting without an idea about what to do next.
I use it for preparation of meetings and workshops and for something as basic as structuring an agenda, so I don’t need to fire up Powerpoint and do it as I start building a presentation out slide by slide. I find that it gets a lot more concise when I do it this way.
I use it for structuring arguments ahead of difficult conversations or meetings, where I can think about every possible argument and how to counter them in order to achieve alignment and progress on what we need to achieve.
And of course I use it for regular brainstorming and structuring thoughts and processes needed for work.
Come to think of it, I have a hard time understanding why I haven’t been using it before. It is just so efficient and perhaps one of the best productivity hacks, I have ever come across.
You should try it too.
(Photo: Pixabay.com)