6 Tips to make activity tracking mind maps more effective

I have been using mind maps towards tracking my several activity threads for the last few months. I must say that it has been a great enriching experience and I have benefited a lot in by this effort. Some clear benefits that I have realized are,

1. Gives me a clear view of my tasks and activities.
2. Allows me to plan better and keep myself updated of all threads.
3. Far lesser number of activities seem to slip between the cracks

Some of the tips that I mention below might prove useful to you folks in case you are also using mind maps for the purpose of activity tracking,

1. Don't completely delete threads which are closed from the map - Many a times tasks are closed but can open up and I would suggest to have a closed thread's branch under which all the activities closed (at least the important ones) can be placed month wise.
2. Load the mind map with information - Most of times action thread have mails, documents, presentations, views, discussions, MoM's associated with them. Without this information the mind map is not a complete information base that it can be. So remember to link up you mind map nodes with the information on them.
3. Tag your mind map branches and nodes with icons - In my understanding a mind map should not only provide you with a single interface to all your activity threads it can and should also provide you an idea of when and what that goes with the activities. Tag the nodes with the relevant icons to the best extent possible.
4. Branch dedicated to 'recurring activities' - Irrespective of the job you are doing you would always have a list of recurring activities that could occur daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly of yearly. It really pays off to organize all these recurring activities under one branch and review them as frequently as necessary
5. Highlight dependencies - In many cases one of your activities are linked on other activities on your map. Make it a point to link these together. This provides you a very good view of how your threads are dependent on each other and helps you a lot in prioritization of your activities.
6. Spread the word - Any project is team work and you getting more productive is only part of the success. The more and more people use this technique on your team the better it is for everybody. If you are convinced that mind mapping is a good technique, I would suggest that you use it for a few weeks and then take it on you to get at least 2/3 members in your project to get using it.

Tags: mindmaps, activity tracking

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A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

I came across this brilliant compilation of visualization methods that exist in a highly innovative periodic table arrangement. You can have a look here “A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.”

I have not yet gone through the table completely myself, but just looking at a couple of cells on the periodic table I am in highly impressed at the thinking behind the arrangement and the innovative approach.

In case you are interested to read a little bit more about how the creators of this artifact Ralph Lengler & Martin J. Eppler worked on this, you can have a look at their short paper titled "Towards A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods for Management"

Tags: periodic table, mindmaps, visualization

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Options for online mind mapping

Over the last few weeks that I have been blogging if there is one tag cloud that I have been exposed to it must be web 2.0 and I tend to agree that we would see more and more of the move towards a virtual desk. Key source of content generation would be through communities on the web and collaboration with the web as a platform is something which is here to stay.

That's looked very good at a concept level and there are innumerable applications where this is already seen. From my recent postings it should be obvious that I am currently using mind maps for my day to day working - both office and personal life. So I went to the web to search for online mind mapping solutions and it was not very surprising that I just found one such service from Mayomi. Anyways not be discouraged by this, I went ahead and registered myself there and at the very least I can summarize what I found there as a interface not ready for professional use.

So that led me to think a little deeper on why in the first place I did not firstly find more options and secondly something more ready for large scale use. Let me try to explain why

1. Mind mapping is a very nascent concept without any widespread acceptance as a better tool for several activities that we do. There also seems to be no agreement on the fact that it would be tool for productivity improvements.
2. Point #1 could either be seen as a opportunity or as a hurdle. Looking at the scenario it appears that people look at it as more of a hurdle than any opportunity
3. Lack of standardization in creating and saving maps. If a company comes up with this offering but I cant move a map created there into another website or product the acceptance of this will be limited

Anyways would love to hear somebody starting a website where this service is provided - are you listening folks ?

Tags: mindmaps, web 2.0, web2.0, mind maps

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What is Web 2.0 - Mindmap view

After I made my last posting I was looking for examples of large scale mind maps that people are working on and I came across this brilliant compilation of what web 2.0 is and will be on a mind map - I am reposting the download link here for the benefit of my readers

The map is organized under the following branches

• Introduction
• Basic Themes
• History
• Technology
• Product Vendors
• Enterprise Web 2.0
• Cultural Issues
• Trends - 10 years from now
• Conclusions
• References
  

Download the latest map from here.

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3 Problems with Mind maps

Over the last month of using mind maps I have come to realize that they have some restrictions. I will list three of them which I feel are important, but will love to hear more

Linked to the creator(s)
Mind maps are excellent aids in a number of situations - brainstorming, problem solving, activity tracking, note taking etc etc. But one major problem with mind maps is that they are very closely tied to the creator(s) of the mind map. It is only the creator(s) who can extract the maximum value from the map that he(they) have created. Reason for this is very simple in that the source of the map is the thoughts on the mind(s) of the creator(s).

Even if you look at the suggested guidelines for mind mapping by Tony Buzan (as below), it becomes rather obvious that mind maps are more a work of 'creativity' than completely rule based.

1. Start in the centre with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colours
2. Use images, symbols, codes and dimensions throughout your Mind Map
3. Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters
4. Each word/image must be alone and sitting on its own line
5. The lines must be connected, starting from the central image. The central lines are thicker, organic and flowing, becoming thinner as they radiate out from the centre.
6. Make the lines the same length as the word/image
7. Use colours – your own code – throughout the Mind Map
8. Develop your own personal style of Mind Mapping
9. Use emphasis and show associations in your Mind Map
10. Keep the Mind Map clear by using radial hierarchy, numerical order or outlines to embrace your branches

Sharing them is difficult
As a project manager, just imaging a situation where as a request for project status you get back a mind map. For the creator all the information is there on the map but as a person outside this map creation process, it becomes extremely difficult for you to get any valuable information.

Most of the uses of mind maps and even the sample ones I found on the web are tuned in on the idea the the creator and the reader are usually the same. If the objective of the map is also that it will be shared, then the creator(s) need to put in special attention to this aspect when creating the map.

I am not too sure about the features supported by all the mind mapping software but it should be easy enough to get a summary view / presentation view of a map. If this can be optimized I personally think it will go a long way in making the use of mind maps more acceptable.

No standard
If you look back at the past, one of the key drivers for faster acceptance and adoption is the presence of a standard. The 'creative' nature of mindmaps automatically rules out the possibility of getting a standard form of creation of mind maps.

Don't know if this is feasible, but I think there should be some rules which are just agreed upon which will push up the usage of mind maps.

Tags: mindmaps

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Using Mindmaps - 5 Tips to help you start

We have been trained and retrained to think in a way that we cant apply directly to create and use mind maps. So lets agree that this can be a difficult first few attempts to move your activities and thinking into mind maps. But, based on what I have realized let me give you 5 tips which I feel will smoothen this transition.

Tip 1 - The tool does'nt matter too much when you start
Don't waste too much time thinking which is the best software to use. For a starter all software's are more or less the same. The mindset change in thinking is higher importance than the tool - you can always change the tool at any point. Just download Freemind and start !

Tip 2 - Keep it simple
When you start creating mind maps remember to keep the idea simple. Some possibilities I can think of

• Map any one task on your place this day/week
• Prepare for one meeting / discussion using a mind map

Tip 3 - Update regularly
When you map anything you need to remember that it is a live document. Don't create a map and forget it. Make it your companion and track your work through the map. Even if you think you cant manage that, spend at least 5 minutes everyday to update the day's happenings into the map

Tip 4 - Map goes out of sync is not useful
If you are using a hard copy as I had suggested earlier ensure that your soft copy remains in sync. You should have quite a bit to update into your map every week. If that is not the case give your map a rethink. Also remember if you dont update your map every week, your map will quickly go out of sync and getting it back to reality will be a big hurdle to cross.

Tip 5 - Implement the feedback process
If you have to collate information / send any report about the task you are using a map to work and track ensure that you use the map to construct it. If you need some information which is not in the map that should be a lesson learnt in your next map.

Even if you have everything on your mind somehow the first map does not flow onto paper. But don't worry one of my readers sent me this brilliant link of maps which I am sure will serve as just the right catalyst.

Tags: mindmaps

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Mind maps - Tool towards enhancing your productivity

If you have worked for a while I am reasonably sure that you would have hit almost all the following situations

• Tons of notes - but cant link the data / extract what you want when you want
• Can see the links between discussion points - leads to a non optimal decision
• Making a presentation and you get pointed 'why have you not considered this ?' - thought about it but got missed ?
• Started a work weeks with 10 threads - completed 5 at the end of the week leaving you wondering how the others slipped ?
• Just had a promotion and are finding the level of information overwhelming ?

I can go on and on .... but the point of providing this list is simple - if you want to avoid these just get to using mind maps.

There are a multitude of resources on mind mapping on the net and you can find them here and here and here and here. In this post I will try to summarize one survey I found on mind mapping and found it interesting.

Primary mind mapping software programs

1. Mindmanager - 72.6%
2. Freemind - 10.4%

Conclusion - Like any other product people would like to try a free application before moving into a paid software to manage mind maps. This in my understanding reflects two things

1. Freemind has a great chance of gathering market from Mindmanager - I would love this being a fan of Opensource software platforms.
2. The information availability on mind maps is relatively low which makes people to take route through a free application to get convinced about the relevance of mindmaps
   

Top 5 applications of mindmap's in today's context

1. To Do Lists (58%)
2. Preparing for Presentations (58%)
3. Making Notes (56%)
4. Problem Solving (53%)
5. Project Planning (52%)

Conclusion - The range of applications for which mind maps are being used only implies that essentially mind maps can be used for anything and everything. Its only a matter of realizing the need for that and able to map the activities. A approach with such a broad range of applications is definitely bound to catch on

Time spent per day on mindmap's

1. > 1 Hr - 40.4%
2. 1-2 Hr - 33%

Conclusion - The large % of people seem to be spending only 20-30% of the work day on mindmaps which probably means that it still remains a support system and not a mainstream activity.

Top 5 benefits from mindmap's

1. Clarity of Thinking
2. Manage Information overload
3. Improved Productivity
4. Better organization of tasks
5. Visualize information relationships

Conclusion - No other type of program enables you to record your ideas, thoughts and knowledge and rearrange them up with the flexibility that mind mapping software enables.

Top 3 hurdles for widespread acceptance of mindmap's

1. Lack of adequate knowledge of mindmapping
2. Acceptance of mindmapping by others
3. Software not easy and intuitive

Conclusion - Seems to be a difficult issue which needs an all round effort to ensure better acceptance and mainstream usage of mindmap's

The survey itself covers a few more topics and ideas. Pls go here to get a copy of the complete pdf of the survey results.

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My experiment with using mindmaps - update #1

For the last month I started using mindmaps actively for managing all my office and personal work and I must say that it has been of great help. Yes it was quite a burden to put all the information in verbose form on one map - but I did that and that I must say was half the battle won ! I use a full expanded form of this map on A3 as my companion in all my meetings and discussions. All discussions point during the week get synced up and the map get cleaned every week.

Pros

1. Extremely helpful for tracking activities - chance of losing sight of a thread is minimal
2. Any day you want to generate a one page summary of your work thus far on a activity this view will come in handy

Cons

1. A lot of motivation is needed to get it started primarily because it a change in our way of thinking
2. Time and patience to keep your working paper copy and the copy on the computer in sync is necessary

What features might be helpful on the product I use
(at the moment I definitely don't want to graduate out of the free version I use)

1. Can I link task lists with a map element - I agree I can still do it but I cannot attach dates, reminders to that
2. Generate some reports out of my mind map - pending activities for a task for example, my action items as on a given day etc.
3. Mark and print parts of the mind map is another feature that I found missing

Will add more as I use the mind maps further. Read my previous post on mind maps here

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"A picture is worth a thousand words" - Mind Maps

Don't think there are too many people who have not heard the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". As I see it, a mind map is probably just a pictorial representation of the thoughts in the mind. Our mind uses maps and links to remember most of the information we know. For example, if I were to just examine how I would remember a route to a place not many times do I use a take left, take right approach but use some landmarks as links.

Capturing thoughts in the form of mind maps would definitely do away with a whole lot of superflous information that we might have otherwise needed to transfer a thought onto paper. I have been attempting to use mind maps for a few weeks now - currently using a free mind mapping software to capture thoughts, ideas and action items at office (Details on Freemind can be obtained at - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

It has been quite difficult to capture the thoughts in our mind on a map. So, I would rather capture the line items (or probably the leaf nodes in the map) and then let the mind do the rest of the mapping internally.

Although I have'nt used maps much, at this juncture I seem to feel that we need to strike a right balance between the level of detail that goes into a mind map format and what goes as a simple linear format. For me there appear to be advantages in both approaches to do away with either method

As we go forward,

1. Need for agreement on using Mindmaps as a acceptable format - possibilities to embed mind maps in wiki pages for instance (Google/JotSpot - listening guys ?)

2. As mind maps start moving towards a more wider accepted usage, it may be necessary to arrive at a standardized format for mind maps (standardization usually further fuels growth)

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