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have you tried mind maps?

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urlwolf:
D. Allen was using mind maps (instead of powerpoint), he seems to swear by them. Have you tried them? Any thoughts? I cannot help but be reticent with a highly hyped up thing like this one...

brotherS:
D. Allen was using mind maps (instead of powerpoint), he seems to swear by them. Have you tried them? Any thoughts?
-urlwolf (October 16, 2006, 09:44 AM)
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I have and it's a nice way to structure thoughts and ideas. I can't say that it changed my life, but I like it.

Check out FreeMind, a free and quite nice mind mapping program: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

nudone:
i sort of got into using mind maps many years ago after reading a few books by Tony Buzan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Buzan.

well, when i say 'got into', i mean i thought the idea was brilliant but after creating a few i didn't find it helped a great deal. during my big 'backlog' clear-out for the DC GTD experiment i came across several of these mind-maps that i had done about 15 years ago - i couldn't understand them at all - it was like peering into the mind of a lunatic.

so, if you do try using them, i'd say it's best to keep it simple - and obvious to yourself so you can read them without having to get the enigma code busters to work them out.

i'm tempted to try making some again - but i really fear that i'll just end up with a load of scribble that i can't understand.

i guess it depends on what you are trying to do with them - i'm sure they are the best way of looking at the 'big picture' when you want to see all the connections between your topic - again, just keep it simple.

like brotherS, i didn't find that they changed my life - though, Tony Buzan gave me the impression that they would.

cranioscopical:
I find them a good way to diagram an issue that's just a little too complex to hold in wetware.
For me, they're useful for practiacl issues that need some organizational logic applied. As an example, I recently bought an investment property and 'mind-mapping' it quickly established the most time-effective and cost-effective sequences of steps between making a final offer and installing tenants.

melitabel:
I have tried Personal Brain.  The problem is that I have tried too many things in the search for the best software for all my information needs.  I'm a research librarian who works with about 200 staff in an institute within a university (I work with few students).  I also advise people on KM stuff, and would like to be able to show them options for managing all the stuff they need to keep track of, keeping in mind that different things work for different people.

I have also tried EverNote and am trying Surfulater (as a result of the Note Taking software discussion, on the strength of which I became a member of this site).  I use Net Snippets for stashing research and editing it for client reports. Of course what happens is that I only skim the surface of each AND my information gets split up in different places.

What I liked about Personal Brain other people hate: whatever you're working on at the moment becomes central, and you can see the parent and children of that thought.  It's also good at lateral links.  Most people want to see the whole hierarchy, and Personal Brain probably leaves some people feeling lost or unanchored.  That's not a problem for me, though.  Still, I haven't completely committed to it over the other programs.  In fact, I'm still dating them all.

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