Tag Archives: Mind Mapping

Seven Decisions for Success Mind Map

Whilst going through some old posts from this blog, I pulled out a review of a great book that I read, and reviewed pretty much within the first month of launching this blog.

The book was the Travelers Gift, Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, by Andy Andrews. As the blog has just launched, I think I had around 5 subscribers and I knew all of them!

The book talks about the Seven Decisions for Success. These are based around a story that the author takes you on. This is a motivational and self development book that is based on a fictional story, very similar to the great Og Mandino books.

These seven decisions are based upon stories from inspirational figures from history. The seven decisions are as follows:

The Buck Stops Here – Based on Harry Truman
I Will Seek Wisdom – Based on King Solomon
I am a Person of Action – Based on Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
I Have a Decided Heart – Based on Christopher Columbus
Today I will Choose to be Happy – Based on Anne Frank
I Will Greet This Day With a Forgiving Spirit – Based on Abraham Lincoln
I Will Persist Without Exception – Based on The Angel Gabriel

I created a free Mind Map for you all to download and read. The Mind Map contains the overview of each of the Seven Decisions For Success as told in the book.

Click on the thumbnail above to download the Mind Map or Follow this Link.

Be sure to also check out the Original Post Review of this Book.

I am thinking of doing some more Mind Maps like this so please let me know your thoughts and if you all like these or not.

Feel free to pass this post on and please share it, I would love as many people as possible to benefit from the Mind Map.

iBlueSky – Mind Mapping for the iPhone and iPod Touch Review

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I recently did a review of MindMaker, the first Mind Mapping tool for the iPhone and iPod Touch. My review outlined a great concept but it was lacking some key features such as the ability to import and export maps and work in landscape mode.

I was very happy when i received an email from the creator of iBlueSky asking me to take a look at their app that provides competition for Mind Maker. I got the app installed and working right as I was leaving the house to attend the A4U Expo in London.

I was planning on writing the review when I got back from the A4U but I did get the chance to try it in the very first session of the A4U Expo. The first session was from Joost de Valik and was about Search Engine Optimization for WordPress.

iBlueSky

Rather than take notes for the session in my trusty Moleskine, I decided to give iBlueSky a live test and use it to take the notes in what was an excellent session.

iBlueSky is very similar in operation to Mind Maker, it is after all a Mind Mapping application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The entry was working out a treat. You are able to use landscape mode and the addition of branches is very straightforward and anybody who has used a Mind Mapping application would be able to pick ip up in no time at all.

There is a default map already installed for you to play around with. The map I created got quite big, quite fast and I found it easy to add new branches, sub branches and also to navigate around the map.

iBlueSky

This is in my opinion the best Mind Mapping tool to date for the iPhone and iPod Touch. There were a couple of little niggles which will hopefully get sorted for the next release. These were that the addition of new branches to a busy map sometimes overlapped existing branches. This made organization a bit cumbersome.

The branches were also quite difficult to move as it required an extremely accurate drag to move the branch and not the entire map. Some way of selecting a branch in drag mode would be great. The only other niggle is that when moving a branch, the sub-branches stayed put, creating a nesting overlapping issue.

All of the issues do not distract from what is a great app. Landscape mode works great, although the screen is restricted by the bars at the top and bottom.

iBlueSky

The killer feature that really separates this from Mind Maker is the ability to email the maps. Once the Map was created, I emailed it to myself.

The map arrives in four formats:

PNG Image
PDF Document
OPML For Importing into various mapping and flowchat apps
Freemind MM Format for use with Freemind, the Open Source Mind Mapping app

How cool is that!

Great app, and look forward to seeing more of these cool apps arise for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Oh, and for those of you interested in the session from Joost, which was fantastic as usual. Feel free to download the map by following the links below.

They even have a nice intro video.

Hope you found this of use, as usual, I would love to hear yout comments..

MindMaker – Mind Mapping for the iPhone and iPod Touch Review

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If you haven’t already subscribed to this blog, now is a great time to do so, especially if you want to be more productive in 2009! Follow this link to subscribe in your favorite RSS reader.

Being an avid Mind Mapper, I was excited to see the release of MindMaker, the first Mind Mapping application on the iTunes store for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I have been using the app for a couple of days and thought I would post a little review of my findings of the app. I am quite experienced in using Mind Mapping applications having used them for around 8 years. My current favorite is Mind Manager from MindJet which works like a dream on my Mac. Mind Mapping works for me and has helped me pass many exams and helps me plan important events.

MindMaker initially presents you with a list of Mind Maps that you have created on the device. When you first install it there is a demo map that helpfully shows you some of the features of MindMaker.

MindMaker

Clicking on an existing Map name will take you straight to that Map in the map view mode. Clicking on the + icon at the top right of the screen starts a new Mind Map with a blank center map piece.

Once you get to a Mind Map the navigation is very simple and exactly what you would expect if you have experience of other Mind Map applications. Adding branches to your map is very intuitive making large maps very easy to produce. The ability to drag branches is nice and the animation of the branches moving is very slick and smooth.

So, what are my thoughts about the app. Well, it is a great concept but I have questions as to how much I would use such an app on my iPhone. I personally use Mind Maps for project planning as well as to brainstorm an idea or technology. I then use them as memory joggers when I need to refresh my knowledge on a subject. The killer for me is to be able to view Mind Maps on my iPhone rather than create them. I am more than happy to create the Mind Map on my Mac and then save it as a PDF and view it on my iPhone using the AirSharing app or similar. This works for me.

MindMaker

Note taking on my iPhone and idea collection is covered off pretty much with OmniFocus and Evernote. I cannot see myself using MindMaker to replace either of these functions.

Version 1.0 is lacking some very important features such as the ability to view the map in landscape mode and the ability to export and import maps. Luckily, the developers of the application seem to have covered these shortfalls in their roadmap.

The current version is 1.0. The developer has announced some features that are coming in later versions.

Version 1.1

Mind maps can be saved as images

Support for Landscape mode

Translucent hideable interface

Version 1.2

MindMaker will be able to upload mind maps to a web application from which users can download it in different formats.

Future features

Cross links between nodes

Reordering of nodes

Editable colors

Export to different formats

In summary, MindMaker is a great little iPhone app but I do feel that it is an app that has limited usability due to the input constraints of the iPhone.

I will update my iPhone with the latest versions as they come out and I will ensure that I follow this review up when the updates come out.

Using MindManager as a Single Project Dashboard

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Mind Mapping is something I have blogged quite a lot about and something that I use on a daily basis. The visual representation of your thoughts and ideas really can help in the planning phase and it is a fantastic way to study or learn pretty much any topic.

Well, I had just found a great link on the MindManager website that provides a ready made Mind Map to show you how to use Mind Mapping as a project dashboard. There are some good links within the Mind Map to further enhance MindManager with third party plugins.

The Mind Map can be downloaded direct from this link or you can go to the MindJet website where I found the Mind Map by following this link.

You do need MindManager to open up the Mind Map but I do recommend Mind Mapping and MindManager to anybody.

Getting Things Done Mind Mapping Templates

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If you are not already, now is a great time to subscribe to this blog in your favorite RSS reader so you can keep up to date with all the posts.

I have just come across these Mind Mapping templates that follow the Getting Things Done Methodology. They are quite simple but good to make a start with.

They are based on MindJet MindManager. Download the Mind Maps directly from here.

MindMeister Upgrades to Version 2.0

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MindMeister 2.0

You will all know that I love Mind Mapping, and I also love MindMeister, the online Mind Mapping Collaboration tool.

Well, the guys at MindMeister have just updated their software to version 2.0 and included a few cool features.

What’s New in MindMeister?

Our users often tell us that they like MindMeister because of its intuitive interface and overall simplicity. That’s why we try to add only the most necessary features in new releases – and still, this time it turned out to be quite a long list 😉

Oh, and don’t fret if you can’t find your pet feature below, in spite of all the talk about simplicity some more updates are coming soon!

Task information on ideas
As a first step to lightweight project management in MindMeister you can now add task information – priority, completion, due date and owner – to ideas. More to come!

Attachments on ideas
You can now upload file attachments to ideas and preview images through inline thumbnails. This feature is for Premium users only, but everybody can try it out for 30 days.

WunderLink and WunderNote
Try out these new functions to magically add links and notes to your ideas, using the wonders of the web. WunderLink gets its link from a little Yahoo! search performed in the background, while WunderNote uses a FreeBase database lookup.

Automatic text wraps
Idea captions will now automatically wrap at a certain length to avoid overlong nodes (you can keep the old behaviour by adding manual line breaks with Shift-RETURN)

More Geistesblitz features
In our constant quest to improve the Geistesblitz tools we have now added email support and a Geistesblitz Activity for Internet Explorer 8. With email support, you can send single Geistesblitzes or while mind maps just through an email.

Subsharing for maps
New option to allow collaborators to invite others when sharing a map – this will also work for already shared maps

Print and export enhancements
New option to center map on printout, PDF export of mind map now includes notes

Formatting and navigation enhancements
Apply text styles selectively to child ideas, nicer formatting of first level branches, ability to expand and collapse levels

More note and link enhancements
Advanced and larger note editor with more formatting options, new links widget in sidebar, “Show popular links” for idea

OpenID and Paypal support
Support for signup and login through OpenIDs and Paypal support when upgrading to commercial licenses.

Other enhancements
Nicer invitation and sharing emails, new user options, improved support for Safari and Opera, performance improvements through better script and image loading.

This is a huge upgrade with some rather cool features. Be sure to check out MindMeister as best of all, the basic version is free and easy to use.

Boost your Productivity with MindManager – Free Webinar

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I am a real advocate of Mind Mapping.

I have just read on the MindJet Blog about an upcoming Free Webinar on the 7th of February that covers Boosting your Productivity with MindManager.

Here is the blurb from the MindJet Website..

Don’t we all want to work smarter, think creatively, and save time? One of the challenges most of us have is getting a handle on all the ideas, plans, and implementation details, as well as organizing them and sharing them with others.

In this session, we will see a demonstration of MindManager from Mindjet and how it can help us improve strategic alignment, bring products to market faster, and shorten project timelines to drive business performance.

You have to register for the Webinar and more information can be found at the MindJet Website.

I will be signing up for the event although I normally watch them after the event due to the time differences in the UK. It is free, and no doubt we will all learn something.