MindGenius 5, launched earlier this week, features significantly expanded project management capabilities and an innovative templates panel that helps users get started faster with common mind mapping tasks.

Templates panel aids new users

The first thing you notice when you open MindGenius 5 is the new, colorful template panel on the right side of the workspace. It aids first-time users of the program by showing them what they can do. Large, square buttons enable you to start a new blank mind map, access recently-used templates and open map templates focused on common business tasks, such as brainstorming, strategy planning, managing meetings and marketing.

When a button is clicked, the rainbow-like array of buttons elegantly glides out of the way to reveal another set of buttons, drilling you down into the area you have chosen. For example, clicking on the “brainstorming” button reveals a set of buttons that enable you to create 5W+H (who, what, when, why, where and how), PEST and several types of SCAMPER maps.

Within two clicks, you can find a template or resource that is relevant to your needs. The panel’s colorful design encourages browsing, and features a very attractive, contemporary “flat” design. In other words, the buttons appear to be completely flat, on the same plane as their background.

Additional resources are always close at hand

Once you’ve selected a template and are starting to modify it to meet your needs, the panel displays a number of helpful resources, such as links to a getting started guide and video, additional resources on the MindGenius website, the program’s Help file and product support contacts. The templates panel can easily be closed if you decide you’d prefer to use this screen real estate for something else.

You may be saying to yourself, “Big deal. So MindGenius has a new templates panel. So do many other programs.” Yes, but this is different, and in my opinion much more useful to new and experienced users. One of the biggest challenges for new users, according to MindGenius managing director Derek Jack, is that when they open a mind mapping program, they get easily overwhelmed. They don’t know what to do next, and many programs in this genre don’t provide any relevant hints.

The template views of some other programs scroll on and on, providing dozens of choices, frequently overwhelming the user, who doesn’t know what these map types are, much less how to use them. In contrast, the MindGenius template window exposes just a handful of intuitive choices at a time. It’s much more focused on tasks users want to perform – not upon showing thumbnail images of mysterious templates. For experienced users, this new feature is still useful – because it enables them to create a new map in a single click. If they tend to create the same types of maps frequently, then the “recent templates” button should also be handy.

In summary, the templates panel is an elegant solution to a common challenge with the usability of mind mapping software. The large, square buttons are also ideally suited to tablet computing, if MindGenius should decide to move that direction with the program.

Enhanced project management capabilities

The other significant upgrade in MindGenius 5 is its project management capabilities. The developer’s goal in this new version was to expose more project data in intelligent ways to the user. In previous versions of MindGenius, you had to hover over a branch or look at the program’s ribbon toolbar to see the status of a task.

This important data is now displayed in new “task cards,” which float just below map topics and display current status, start and end dates, percentage complete, hours required and priority level. Task cards may be pinned on a topic-by-topic basis, so they stay in view, or can be turned on and off for the entire map. The default color of cards is tan; if a task is overdue, it is displayed in red. This makes it easy to visually scan a large project map and immediately locate those tasks that need attention.

From a design standpoint, Jack said the MindGenius team started with the recognition that nearly every knowledge worker today performs their work within the context of projects. But the majority of them have no formal project management training. Nor do they have access to or understanding of well-accepted project management methodologies. But workers still need to keep their projects under control.

With that thinking in mind, the team sought to make MindGenius’ project management toolset as intuitive as possible for non-PM professionals. One outcome of that thinking was the task cards, which can be intelligently displayed or hidden as needed. Another way that’s reflected in the design of MindGenius 5 is its updated GANTT view, which now displays resource over- and under-allocation using a set of colored horizontal bars below the timeline.

Project reporting gets a big boost

Another important addition to MindGenius 5′s project management capabilities is its ability to export a very elegant project summary to Microsoft Word, which can save ad hoc (and professional) project managers countless hours of time. In my opinion, the program does an excellent job of integrating your project’s data into an informative, easy to understand (and of course highly visual) report format.

One of the ways users can view projects is in a top-down, org-chart-like format. Jack said it made sense to leverage this familiar visual layout, because most people have seen organizational charts and know how to interpret them. First level topics are arrayed left to right, corresponding to project phases. Tasks within each phase then appear below them. All tasks display visual icons that summarize the percentage complete of each task (which is rolled up to an average completion at the project phase level of the map). Square icons display the status of each project milestone, using red, yellow and green rectangles to depict if that part of the project is proceeding on schedule or not. This concise, highly visual view conveys a wealth of information, without a lot of visual clutter.

Other new and enhanced features

Microsoft Outlook task synchronization: MindGenius 5 gains the ability to do two-way synchronization of tasks with Outlook. This can be done automatically, at regular intervals, or you can set the program to do it manually. What’s especially notable about this new feature is the fact that you can not only do it for your own tasks, but also for anyone on your work team who is listed as a resource in your projects. So you can “push” new tasks from your project mind map to the people who have been assigned to perform them – excellent thinking!

Comments and reviews: This new feature enables members of a work team to see a record of the changes made to a mind map and to add comments to topics, enhancing collaboration. These are displayed in a vertical pane below the map explorer on the left side of the workspace. It does not give the map owner the ability to accept or reject changes, or to roll the map back to a previous state. Rather, it simply gives team members a tool to track what changes were made and a commenting system to explain why. Once again, this isn’t high-end, power-user functionality, but is more in keeping with the needs of average users, who want to coordinate the efforts of a small team and keep their projects flowing smoothly.

Conclusion

Version 5.0 is the most significant upgrade to MindGenius in some time. I love the new templates pane, which does an elegant job of “surfacing” what you can do with the program. Creating interface elements that invite exploration is not an easy task, but MindGenius has succeeded in doing so.

The enhancements to the program’s task and project management tools are also significant, because of the ways in which they enable non-project management professionals to do a better job of staying on top of their projects. The metaphor of task cards is an elegant one, and parallels Google’s recent decision to move toward “cards” as a design element or container for displaying a variety of information. It’s simple and it works!

Enabling two-way synchronization with Outlook tasks is an important improvement, because it helps users to connect the dots between their visual thinking and planning tool – MindGenius 5 – and the productivity tool in which they spend the majority of their work day, Outlook. Enabling team members to send tasks to team members is icing on the cake and helps teams to move one step closer to seamless project communication.

In short, MindGenius 5 shows a depth of attention to the needs of its users that is quite refreshing.

MindGenius 5 is available as a 30-day trial download from the developer’s website. A single license costs US$235.

The post New MindGenius 5 shows impressive depth of focus on user needs appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

If you’re a blogger or manage a website, a mind map can be a powerful tool to help you develop a more complete list of keywords for search engine optimization (SEO). It can also help you to capture the data you need to make better informed SEO decisions.

Mind maps are excellent tools for showing relationships between ideas and concepts – such as a hierarchy of words and concepts. That makes it an ideal tool to capture the results of your keyword research. In this new Mind Mapping Insider report, I explain how to do that. But I’ll also show you how to capture keyword and search engine position data in your map, so you can easily identify opportunities to significantly improve your SEO.

This report includes a set of mind map templates you can use to get started.

Members-only resource

This link to this report is only visible to members of the Mind Mapping Insider membership program. It contains a wealth of resources that can help you to be more productive, creative and effective as a visual mapper.

New reports and resources are being added to the Insider area several times per month, plus members get access to over two years of tools, reports and resources. If you’re serious about getting the greatest value out of the mind mapping software in which you have invested, why not check out the Mind Mapping Insider program today?

There’s no obligation. I guarantee you will find this program to be worth many times more than your investment, or you may cancel at any time. Why not give it a try today?

The post How to enhance your SEO keyword optimization with a mind map appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

Droptask is a new web-based visual task management application that aims to help individuals and small teams to manage tasks and projects more effectively. However, in its current early beta stage, it’s missing several essential features.

Droptask looks very impressive: You can easily create groups for your projects, events or teams – any logical gathering of tasks can be contained within a group. Groups appear as large circles within the application’s user interface. When you add tasks to a group, they appear as smaller circles within the larger group to which they are assigned. Tasks can have different properties, such as due dates, file attachments and the person to whom the task is assigned. Droptask also offers some small team collaboration capabilities. Team members can create and assign tasks to each other and can track the progress of other people’s tasks within their team.

All of this is rendered an interface that is so beautiful that websites like Lifehacker and CBS News have raved about it. But I think it’s a case of “pretty object syndrome.” In other words, these sites have been so enamored by Droptask’s good looks that they’ve overlooked the fact that its task management functionality isn’t quite as good as it needs to be. Keep in mind, however, that this is a beta application; its functionality could improve dramatically as its developers respond to the input of users.

I’ve always like to use mind maps for task management, because there is so much that you can do in terms of embellishing topics and tasks to visually differentiate them from each other. For example, you can change the color of topics, add icons or symbols and change the size and styling of topic text. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Droptask. All tasks that you enter into a group are the same size and the same color. You cannot adjust their size or appearance. That’s unfortunate, because the whole idea of displaying information visually is to utilize variables like size, color and styles to add meaning and context to it

Well-designed task management applications give you a high level of control over prioritizing tasks. Unfortunately, Droptask doesn’t. The only two choices are “important” and “urgent.” These appear as little slices sticking out from the side of a circular task. Ideally, this task management tool should provide some sort of A/B/C or 1/2/3 prioritization. It would also be nice if the most urgent tasks could be flagged in a more obvious way – say, with a bright color that makes them stand out on screen. Hopefully, this is something the developers will address before Droptask is officially released as a version 1.0 product. I can deal with the fact that all of the tasks at the same size. But I definitely need more granularity to the prioritization of tasks.

Another thing that is a little bit unusual is that you can set due dates on tasks, but Droptask doesn’t seem to notify you of impending deadlines outside of the application. Perhaps that’s because you can sign up for this service with either a Google or Facebook account – which means that Droptask may not be capturing e-mail addresses for all of its users. There is a notifications button above the workspace that displays deadlines and other messages from Droptask. But it would be much more convenient if the application also sent out e-mail notifications, since most people won’t be “living” in Droptask 8 hours a day.

Droptask’s developers plan to release mobile apps that will integrate with the web application. Meanwhile, you can use your smartphone’s web browser to manage your tasks. Droptask auto-detects when you’re accessing its site with a mobile device, and displays a simplified version of the application (see the screenshot at right). This enables you to keep your to-do list and projects up to date, wherever you are  – a big plus. I tried it with the Safari browser on my iPhone and it worked very well.

Conclusion

Like any beta software application, it’s hard to know exactly what functionality Droptext will have when it is officially launched. But what I’m seeing so far appears to be a little rough around the edges.

The post Droptask brings a rich visual interface to task management appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

The first issue of Using Mind Maps, a new interactive magazine published by Faizel Mohidin, debuted last week, and it’s quite impressive. Featuring informative articles and a beautiful design, Using Mind Maps promises to help this visual technique to reach a wider audience worldwide. It is available now on the Apple AppStore and is delivered via the Newsstand app for the iPad.

Topics covered in the first issue include:

• Collaboration – Liam Hughes on his efforts to build a worldwide collaborative mind mapping community via his BiggerPlate.com website and the new “Unplugged” conferences.
• How to explore your career path, explained with a mind map in a video from Adam Sicinski
• Getting started with mind mapping software, authored by me
• Mind mapping principles, explained by Faizel Mohidin
• An interview with Liam Hughes from Biggerplate.com, in which he explains the thinking behind its Biggerplate Unplugged conference series, and his thoughts on how the debut event in London went.
• Book summary on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – depicted as a mind map, of course
• How to take a more visual and strategic view of your LinkedIn profile, using a mind map to outline a more cohesive approach to selling yourself and your skills – a video by me.

The iPad is the perfect delivery platform for this colorful, informative magazine. It features links, embedded videos and other other great multimedia features.  Whoever designed it did an awesome job!

Many thanks to Faizel for taking the lead on this important project. This first issue provides an excellent overview of how the average person can utilize mind mapping software. It also does an excellent job of showcasing the vibrancy of this young technology and hinting at its promise as a tool for productivity and creativity. I look forward to seeing where he takes it from here!

Faizel is the author of the MindMapTutor website, which provides a collection of resources aimed at helping people learn how to use mind mapping.

You can learn more about the Using Mind Maps magazine by visiting its website.

The post Impressive new mind mapping magazine launched appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

Every customer has pain – unsolved problems that you must target and solve to persuade him or her to buy your product or service. But targeting the right one key to successful marketing and sales campaigns.

The latest Mind Mapping Insider report takes a deeper look at three types of customer pain, how each one influences the way prospective customers think, and a list of questions you can use when talking with them to identify their key pain points.

Convincing prospects to make a change

When you’re trying to persuade someone to do something, you’re always battling against the status quo. People don’t like to make a change, because it implies uncertainty and risk. It’s much more comfortable – and appears to be safer – to keep things just the way they are now.

As a marketer or salesperson, your job is to convince them that the risk of doing nothing is greater than that of making the change. They must strongly sense that the change is going to be worth their investment of time and effort. If you don’t focus on the highest level of customer pain, chances are you will never help the prospect to reach that decision point. They may think you offer a nice product or service, but won’t understand why they must invest in it now. What is this highest level of customer pain? You’ll need to read the report to find out!

How can you use the knowledge in this report?

I found my research into this topic to be very valuable. In particular, I found the list of questions to be worth its weight in gold, definitely something I’ll be using in my full-time job! That’s because these questions aren’t just useful when talking to prospective customers. Here are some other valuable ways you can utilize them:

• They’re excellent food for thought when brainstorming new marketing materials.
• They can be incorporated into customer surveys.
• You can weave them into questions you pose in online forums and discussion groups where prospective customers tend to gather.
• You can incorporate them into blog posts, to get customers and prospects thinking about why they ought to think about investing in the solutions your company offers.

This report also includes links to some excellent articles and books where you can learn more about this important subject.

Don’t guess at your prospect’s pain points

Don’t guess at your prospective customers’ pain points (I know I’ve been guilt of that in my work as the marketing manager for a small company).

Get out of your office and talk to customers. That’s the only way to truly understand the challenges they’re dealing with. If you can demonstrate how your company’s product or service can reduce or eliminate them, you’ll increase sales. It’s that simple.

From a marketing and sales standpoint, it’s the difference between darkening the skies with anti-aircraft fire, hoping you’ll hit something, and a heat-seeking missile, which tracks down its target with unerring accuracy.

Members-only resource

This link to this report is only visible to members of the Mind Mapping Insider membership program. It contains a wealth of resources that can help you to be more productive, creative and effective as a visual mapper.

New reports and resources are being added to the Insider area several times per month, plus members get access to over two years of tools, reports and resources. If you’re serious about getting the greatest value out of the mind mapping software in which you have invested, why not check out the Mind Mapping Insider program today?

There’s no obligation. I guarantee you will find this program to be worth many times more than your investment, or you may cancel at any time. Why not give it a try today?

The post Customer pain and its critical role in marketing and sales success appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

Attention, bloggers: I am now in the process of writing The Visual Guide to Blog Strategy, an enhanced e-book that will help you to develop and manage the business of your blog more effectively.

You’ve probably seen bloggers like Brian Clark and Chris Brogan rave about the value of mind mapping software for developing content ideas. But it’s actually capable of so much more. As a tool for business planning, it is unmatched. It can also help you to take control of the torrent of information you must work with each day: content ideas, marketing tactics – social and otherwise – brand building, networking, and collaborating on projects with other bloggers, product development, competitive analysis, customer research and much more.

No type of software can be used to gather, organize, distill, prioritize and communicate information with the power and flexibility of mind mapping software. It can help you take a more strategic approach to blogging, rather than just poking away at it haphazardly. It can help you to:

• Identify the niches and topics with the greatest potential for you to pursue
• Develop a unique selling proposition (USP) to help you differentiate your blog
• Create a dashboard to help you manage your business more effectively
• Create a repository of ideas for future blog posts, reports and products – and prioritize them in order of importance
• Develop and execute an integrated marketing plan that will help you build your brand and grow your blog’s traffic faster
• Manage competitive intelligence on your niche or topic
• Identify adjacent topics and markets into which you can expand your blog
• Outline your next information product – and then manage its development and launch from start to finish

What will it include?

In addition to tutorials on these topics, this enhanced e-book will include templates that will save you time and help you get up to speed faster. For those of you who haven’t used mind mapping software, I will include several videos that explain the key elements of software-produced mind maps and what they do, plus how to understand the potential of this type of productivity software as a business management tool.

Who is it for?

This program is ideal for bloggers who are just starting out. It will help you get off on the right foot, planning your blog with a focused strategic plan that will help you to grow your business and your brand more effectively. Even if you are a seasoned blogger, you will benefit from stepping back and taking a higher-level view of your blogging business. The strategies I will reveal to you will help you uncover new opportunities for improvement and growth.

If you want to receive an e-mail when this enhanced e-book, please fill out the form below:

The post Coming soon: The Visual Guide to Blog Strategy appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

When you’re creating visual diagrams and infographics, it makes a lot of sense to cultivate a “signature” style that is recognizable anywhere. That’s exactly what Gerry Moran has done with his informative “blueprint” infographics.

Gerry’s terrific infographics do a marvelous job of explaining best practices that anyone can use to make better use of social media channels. Recent examples include How To Build The Perfect Google Plus Profile, How To Create The Perfect LinkedIn Profile and How To Write The Perfect Tweet (see image above – click for larger, full version).

Each of these infographics resemble construction blueprints, complete with white-on-blue color scheme, title block in the corner, a light-colored grid pattern in the background and serif typeface. Call-out lines are populated with brief, descriptive text that explains what each element is and, more importantly, the best practices for using it.

Branding of each infographic is understated and consistent, with the MarketingThink.com name appearing in small text in two corners of the blueprints, and in the title block along with Gerry’s name. Why is this important? Infographics like these are likely to be widely shared in places like Pinterest, Tumblr and Facebook, and it’s important that other people who see them know who produced them and can easily find Gerry’s work online. Thanks to the fact that he’s branded his visual work as “MarketingThink.com” rather than just “MarketingThink,” Gerry makes that easy to do.

The genius behind the blueprint

What about the distinctive blueprint style? No, it’s not original but I like the way Gerry has adapted it to serve his needs. Unlike most infographics, which look like a cacophony of shapes and colors, Gerry’s infographics use only two colors – blue and white – which makes them stand out. I also love the connotation of the blueprint itself. In the context of construction or manufacturing, what does an old-fashioned blueprint do? It tells workers how to build something. In this context, it implies that by viewing these social media blueprints, we will learn something about how to “build” effective social media content.

At a more basic level, these terrific infographics simply beg to be shared online and printed off and hung in one’s cubicle or office as a reminder of how to “do it right.” No one is producing infographics that look like this!

Gerry’s infographics are further enhanced by well-written, informative blog posts in which they appear. These write-ups don’t just repeat what’s in the infographics, but convey additional knowledge and advice. Taken together, these words and distinctive stories do an excellent job of conveying Gerry’s social media expertise and his savvy approach to creating distinctive, eminently useful and sharable content.

Other examples of a distinctive visual style

Gerry Moran isn’t the only example of a distinctive visual style helping content its creators get noticed online. Others who have made this approach work well for them include:

• Hugh MacLeod, with his unique and frequently thought-provoking hand-drawn Gaping Void drawings,
• Mike Rohde, author of The Sketchnote Handbook and prolific producer of these hybrid notes/drawings,
• Austin Kleon, who creates “newspaper blackout” poetry in which he starts out with a newspaper article and blacks out all but a handful of words with a black marker to form a clever saying or brief poem,
• Adam Sicinski’s colorful, intricate hand-drawn mind maps with their chunky branches and playful illustrations, and
• Wojciech Korsak’s wildly imaginative illustrated mind maps and dashboards, which I featured in a Mind Mapping Insider report last year.

Each of these people have a consistent style that is unique theirs and immediately commands attention. If you’re trying to build a reputation online, now is the time to start cultivating a style that is uniquely yours – whether your medium of choice is infographics, photography, art or another form of expression, crafting your own signature style will differentiate your work from that of your peers and will help you to get noticed online.

The post How to cultivate a signature visual style appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

The world’s most creative people develop better ideas by looking at situations from different perspectives than the rest of us. In particular, most people tend to start from where they are now when searching for creative solutions. A more productive approach, according to Keith Sawyer, author of Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity, is to “go back from the future.”

In other words, picture your future goal – the problem solved – and then work backward to your current situation. Often, you know what you want to accomplish, what the ideal future state should look like. Where the creativity comes in is figuring out the intermediate steps that will take you there. Mind mapping is a great tool for this kind of “sleight of head” thinking, according to Sawyer:

“Instead of starting with your problem at the center of the (mind map), start with your desired end state. What will your life be like after you’ve found a creative solution?”

Sawyer says this technique, which he has dubbed “BFF,” has been used to solve numerous thorny technical problems, like this one:

“In the 1980s scientists working on the Jupiter space probe Galileo faced a major challenge— how to create a rocket booster large enough to propel the probe to Jupiter without damaging the delicate cargo bay at launch. The creative solution came via BFF: instead of focusing on the booster design, they focused on the goal: ‘We’ve arrived at Jupiter, and with lower rocket power. How did it happen?’

“At first, they were stumped. They’d already failed to figure out how to make it happen. And yet, by thinking back from the future, the engineers could speculate about a way it might have happened: perhaps they could have used the gravitational force of Venus to add force to the space probe long after its launch. If they timed the launch exactly right, a relatively small booster rocket would get the probe to Venus’s orbit, and the gravitational force of Venus would swing the probe around and give it the extra velocity needed to reach Jupiter.

“Launched in 1989, Galileo swung around Venus in 1990 and reached Jupiter on schedule in 1995, after traveling through space for five years. Galileo was an amazing feat of engineering, and BFF played a significant part in Galileo’s success.”

Here are some tips to use a radial mind map for this application:

• You don’t have to have just one “path” from the future back to the present. Use multiple branches to consider different scenarios.
• You can use other branches to contain supporting information, such as the assumptions you’re making about the future state or the solution, or supporting data – such as any constraints within which you must work. Use your imagination here. Add branches for any information that you believe is relevant to your situation.
• I’ve included a set of questions in my mind map, which serve as a helpful prompt to help me remember how to use it. Focused questions are powerful tools; they help us focus our efforts and can often reveal aspects of a problem or challenge that weren’t apparent before.

So how can you use a solution map to go “back from the future” to develop creative solutions to a challenge you’re facing?

The post How to create a solution map appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

Want to make a screencast of you presenting your mind map so you can share it with others or publish it to your website? It’s easy to do. In this Mind Mapping Insider tutorial, I will explain how to use three screencast tools – Jing, Screenr and Camtasia – to create an effective video demonstration.

Thankfully, you don’t need to be an expert at creating online videos to use these programs. They take care of a lot of the technical details for you so you can focus on creating an engaging presentation using your favorite mind mapping software.

Members-only resource

This link to this report is only visible to members of the Mind Mapping Insider membership program. It contains a wealth of resources that can help you to be more productive, creative and effective as a visual mapper.

New reports and resources are being added to the Insider area several times per month, plus members get access to over two years of tools, reports and resources. If you’re serious about getting the greatest value out of the mind mapping software in which you have invested, why not check out the Mind Mapping Insider program today?

There’s no obligation. I guarantee you will find this program to be worth many times more than your investment, or you may cancel at any time. Why not give it a try today?

The post How to make a video presentation of your mind map appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.

Mind mapping on the iPad is a powerful combination for business. Here are 10 ways you can use them to think deeply about your business – and kick your productivity and creativity up several notches in the process!

1. Visually outline your goals. Drill down from high-level goals in each of your life roles to specific action steps you can begin taking now to bring each of them into reality.

2. Start a to-do list. Group items by their context and location. For example, tasks to do at home, items to pick up from the grocery store, topics you need to discuss with your significant other, etc. Also consider adding icons (1,2,3 or A,B,C) to denote their relative importance.

3. Think through a new project or initiative. Create map branches for its key elements: Objectives, people, resources, timetable and more. Then add details to each section, including tasks to be done and who should be responsible for them.

4. Create a list of the top 10 people with whom you’d really like to network, and capture as many details as you can about what you know about them, common connections and shared interests. Then create a timetable for reaching out to each of them. In today’s world, your level of success is directly tied to the strength of your network.

5. Deconstruct a problem or challenge. Break it down into its individual elements and outline all contributing factors. Try to discern the root cause of it. Then use what you’ve learned from this problem definition exercise to brainstorm potential solutions.

6. Plan an upcoming business meeting. Create branches to capture all of the important details, including the agenda, who to invite, supporting materials that will be distributed, meeting location and facility needs (projector and screen, plus broadband access so several people at remote locations can participate via Skype, for example).

7. Create an “idea repository” to capture your best ideas. Include their potential pros and cons in sub-branches. Add priorities to them so you know which ones you’d like to implement first, which should come next and so forth.

8. Think through potential scenarios that may affect your business in the future. What if the economy got dramatically better? What it got much worse? What if a strong new competitor emerged in your industry or profession? How would you respond? Exloring “what ifs?” is a powerful use of mind mapping apps/

9. Conduct online research using your tablet device, and use a mind map to capture and organize your findings. Many apps enable you to attach notes to map branches, where you can add your own thoughts about what you’re reading, and links to the source web pages. Mind maps are awesome research tools!

10. Outline the content of a report or presentation you need to create. Think through the major sections and what you need to cover in them. Create map branches and sub-branches to capture these details. Mind maps, because they are so visually oriented, make it easier to see what’s missing, what’s superfluous, and what needs to be re-ordered to make better sense.

Remember: You can use your tablet device anywhere. Portability is one of its most compelling advantages. So get out of the office, find a quiet spot and do some really deep thinking – and use your mind mapping app to capture it all. I predict you’ll like working in this way so much that you’ll make it part of your regular work routine.

Also keep in mind that many mind mapping apps can export to popular desktop mind mapping software formats. So you can get a strong head start on a map on your tablet device, and then transfer it to the desktop to further flesh it out and complete it.

Thinking deeply about your work and your life is one of the most valuable things you can do to improve them. It’s an outstanding way to propel yourself to higher levels of performance and achievement. Now that you have the tools to do so, make an appointment with yourself for several hours, several times a month. Retreat to your quiet spot and get thinking!

The post Mind mapping on the iPad: The dynamic duo for thinking about your business appeared first on Mind Mapping Software Blog.