Training your visual thinking muscle can take some time. However, the effort you put in will allow you to expand your understanding of your problems and circumstances to such an extent that you will be better able to spot critical patterns that will shape how you think and work through your problems visually.

It’s All About the Eyes

Because we are discussing the subject of visual thinking, I will focus on developing your visual awareness. However, it’s also important to recognize that awareness can be honed through all your sensory organs. In fact, when your awareness comes through more than one sensory organ, you have more information to work with that can help you gain deeper insights into your problems or circumstances.

Throughout the day, most of us feel as though we are conscious and awake. We go about our lives hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling and tasting our environment. It certainly feels as though we’re awake, however little does our conscious brain recognize that what we physically become aware of is actually only a very small fraction of the information we could potentially capture if we took the time to train our awareness muscle.

Let’s for instance look at the eyes. Research has shows that our eyes are exposed to more than 10 million bits of visual data every second. However, our brain only takes-in about 40 bits of that data, and consciously we only become aware of about 16 bits. So out of 10 million bits of data, we only take notice of 16 bits. This just goes to show how much of the world we are completely missing out on. It’s almost as if we’re walking blind.

It’s of course very difficult — if not impossible — to imagine that we could ever become consciously aware of several million bits of data every single second of our day. That would certainly be quite an overwhelming experience. You can however train your visual awareness muscle to boost the amount of data you take-in on a daily basis by becoming a little more like Leonardo Da Vinci. But more about him later. Let’s first take a look at the Reticular Activation System.

The Reticular Activation System

The Reticular Activation System (RAS) is a concept introduced by Anthony Robbins in his book Awaken the Giant Within*. It shouldn’t be confused with the part of the brain known as the Reticular Activating System, however they are related.

The RAS is a filter that is applied to the staggering amount of data that gets picked up by the five senses. This filter works 24/7, and it’s the only thing that keeps us from being overwhelmed by the massive amount of information passing through our sensory organs.

The RAS determines what we consciously decide to give our attention to at any given moment in time — while the remainder of the data gets filtered out and transferred to the unconscious parts of the brain.

The moment you consciously choose to become aware of something specific within your environment, is the moment the RAS goes to work and begins filtering through anything and everything that is associated or connected to your desired intention. As such, you receive data from your environment that can help you solve the problem you are working through more effectively.

What all this really means is that you are consciously choosing the 16+ bits of data you are pulling from the 10 million bits of possibilities within your environment, which means that you are exposing yourself to the right kinds of information that will allow you to solve your problems more effectively.

Become More Like Leonardo da Vinci

One of the best ways to train your RAS to help you become more aware of the right type of data that will assist you to work through your visual problems more effectively, is to become a little more like Leonardo da Vinci.

In today’s day-and-age, we view Leonardo and what he managed to accomplish as an act of genius. However, what we might not realize is that his “genius” is not some kind of mysterious gift that he received the moment he was born. Instead it’s a skill he worked on throughout his life. And the key to his skill lies hidden within his sketchbooks.

Leonardo was a curious man. This curiosity enabled him to become more aware of his circumstances and environment, which led to ingenious ideas and breakthroughs that he outlined within his sketchbooks.

What’s important to understand here is that Leonardo’s curious nature and willingness to capture his thoughts and observations on paper helped him to train his visual awareness muscle. This awareness allowed him to transform his observations into breakthrough concepts and ideas that we marvel at today.

Let’s explore Leonardo’s methods of observation a little more within the next post where we will look the concept of randomness and describe how to sketch your thoughts and observations down on paper like a modern day Leonardo da Vinci.

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When a Chart is Not Enough

Several years ago I came across a very interesting article written by Dave Gray, who is the founder of Dachis Group (formerly known as XPlane). Dave wrote a short article titled: When a Chart is Not Enough.

Within this article Dave mentions that visuals are great to use if you want to communicate large volumes of information in a simple and effective way. Charts and graphs are especially useful for presenting statistics and making comparisons. They help make the information more engaging and appealing to the senses. However, Dave mentions that when describing something new and different, that charts and graphs are often not enough to get your message across.

During the days of global exploration, early explorers would often come across very unique things within their environment. These are things that they hadn’t seen before, and as such they had to be extra-careful to make sure that they captured the essence of what they were seeing in a visual way that could be easily understood by others. For this purpose they often used sketches that helped depict animals like the elephants you see below.

Looking at these drawings you can see that the elephants are quite odd looking. They look more like donkeys or horses with trunks than elephants. This just goes to show that even talented visual artists do have trouble visualizing things that they hadn’t come across before. However the images certainly give readers a visual idea of what an elephant looks like. But what if instead of drawing a picture of an elephant, the artist drew a graph like the one you see below.

This graph somehow doesn’t seem to have the same appeal as the elephant images presented above (excluding VizWiz of course). It does however represent the information in a very different way that could be useful within a specific context.

I guess the lesson here is that not all visual communication methods are created equal. We must therefore be very aware of the types of visuals we use to express our ideas and use them with a specific purpose in mind.

Selecting the Right Types of Visuals

To help you select the right types of visuals to communicate your ideas successfully, ask yourself the following questions:

• What type of information am I trying to represent?
• What is my goal? What am I trying to do with this information?
• How many different ways could I represent this information?
• How does each way of representing this information help or hinder in the communication of my message?
• Which visual communication techniques must I use to help me get my intended message across?
• How could I potentially combine different types of visual communication techniques to enhance my message?
• What have I learned from this experience?
• How can I use this knowledge to improve my visual communication in the future?

When In Doubt, Draw a Picture

It’s very easy to get a little lost among all the visual thinking techniques that are at your disposal. For this very reason, when in doubt, just start drawing a picture. This is important, because a picture will give you a starting-point that will allow your ideas to flow.

Simply begin in the middle of the page and draw the first thing that pops to mind. This could be a face expressing an emotion, something within your environment, or even a bunch of squiggly lines that represent your thoughts and feelings. From there, draw the next thing, which could be another picture, or maybe a graph, chart, metaphor, diagram, or something completely out of the ordinary that adds another element to your visual message.

As long as you keep drawing while making relevant associations and connections between different pieces of information, and you keep in mind the questions mentioned above, then you will continue to make progress in the right direction. However, always remember the 6-12 KISS Principle of visual thinking — ensuring that your message is clear, straightforward and understood.

Creating a Collage of Your Thoughts

In its simplest form, visual thinking is all about creating a collage of your thoughts. It’s about using a variety of visual thinking techniques in combination to help express your problems and ideas in a visual way. It’s also about unleashing your brain from the confines of the linear thinking process, and channeling your thoughts in creative and unconstricted manner.

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A picture is any type of graphical or organizational tool you use that helps you to represent your thoughts and ideas in a visual way.

When it comes to visual thinking, I have divided the concept of a picture into six distinct categories:

1. Sketches
2. Diagrams
3. Charts
4. Metaphors
5. Tables
6. Combos

To stay consistent with our visual thinking MAGIC metaphor, these categories are akin to potions that can help you represent your thoughts and ideas from a variety of perspectives.

When it comes to magic, ingredients are mixed together in a specific way that help us develop the potions we need to create a magical spell. Further to this, a combination of potions creates a concoction that can be used to ward off evil dragons and spirits.

In terms of visual thinking, our ingredients are known as components that are used in a specific combination to create techniques (potions) that we use to solve our problems or represent our ideas visually. Individually, each of these techniques can also be defined as an element — an element of the visual thinking technique periodic table.

Just like with magic, while thinking visually you must be careful not to fall into the trap of using too many techniques (potions) at one time to try and represent your thoughts and ideas. Mixing too many potions (techniques) in a concoction can literally spell ”disaster” and will tend to over-complicate your visuals.

The Six Visual Thinking Categories

As discussed above, there are six distinct categories that are relevant to the process of visual thinking. Within these categories lie the answers to all the problems that you will be working through while thinking visually.

Let’s now take a look at each of these categories in a little more detail.

Sketches

Sketches are simple rough drawings that tell a story or present a scenario on a flexible canvas or landscape that is open to many possibilities. In fact, sketches are used as a basic foundational tool that initiates the visual thinking process. As such, other elements/techniques are often added to sketches to enhance the visual message you are trying to convey.

Sketches are used in many different ways throughout the process of visual thinking. Five common ways to use sketches include:

• Storyboards
• Comics
• Mindscapes
• Perspective Lenses
• Treasure Maps
• See more…

Diagrams

Diagrams are simplified drawings that help show the appearance, structure or workings of something in a practical way. Moreover, a diagram shows the relationship between parts and how they come together to form a whole.

Five common diagrams that you will use throughout the visual thinking process include:

• Mind Maps
• Concept Maps
• Venn Diagrams
• Flowcharts
• Fishbone Diagrams
• See more…

When creating diagrams you must prioritize the information, determining which parts of the material are most important to include within the diagram. Furthermore, you must also decide how each of these pieces of information should be placed within the diagram.

Diagrams are built upon relationships. As such, you should always be focusing on the relationships between different items and pieces of information, while examining the meaning attached to each.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that diagrams grow and expand in a variety of ways as you are working with them. This allows you ample flexibility while thinking visually.

Charts

A chart is a visual representation of data, in which the data is represented by symbols such as bars in a bar-chart or lines in a line-chart.

A chart can represent tabular numeric data, functions, or some kinds of qualitative structures. Charts are often used to ease understanding of large quantities of data and the relationship between parts of the data.

Five common types of charts that you will use throughout the visual thinking process include:

• Bar Charts
• Pie Charts
• Line Charts
• Gantt Charts
• Spider Charts
• See more…

Metaphors

Visual Metaphors are representations of something in real life that you use to help conceptualize your ideas and put them into perspective. They are often used to help clarify certain concepts and ideas that you are working through.

A visual metaphor uses a type of diagram that is used as the actual metaphor to describe the information you are working through. They are ideal techniques that will help you to tackle your problems and ideas from unique angles and perspectives.

Five common types of visual metaphors that you will use throughout the visual thinking process include:

• Icebergs
• Bridges
• Trees
• Funnels
• Targets
• See more…

Tables

Tables show a set of facts and figures that are represented in a grid-like structure that help to piece the information you are working with in a more structured way.

Five common types of tables that you will use throughout the visual thinking process include:

• Decision Grids
• Examination Grids
• Check Sheets
• Rank Order Grids
• KWHL Tables
• See more…

While working with tables it’s important to keep in mind that they are difficult to visualize and put into perspective, especially if they are comprised of many pieces of data. In such instances, you would use other visual elements to represent the information you are working with. However, tables do have their advantages and can be used quite effectively in the right context.

Combos

A Combo is a visual thinking activity that uses a combination of sketches, charts, diagrams, tables and/or metaphors for a specific purpose to achieve a desired outcome or goal.

In addition to these elements, combos also use a variety of visual thinking creation tools that help assist with representing your thoughts and ideas in a visual way.

Five common types of Combos that you will use throughout the visual thinking process include:

• 6 Thinking Hats
• Affinity Maps
• Forced Ranking
• Post-Ups
• Empathy Maps
• See more…

Breaking Down all the Individual Elements

This is of course only an introduction to the large variety of visual thinking elements/techniques that we will explore throughout the visual thinking process. We will not only explore them individually, but also explore them in combinations — providing you with a roadmap you can follow that will help you solve your problems visually.

For more information about each technique, please visit the Visual Thinking Element Gallery.

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Colors

Colors are not an essential ingredient for visual thinking, however they are extremely helpful because they enable you to highlight ideas; they can be used as boundaries to segregate and categorize concepts, and they allow your visuals to pop-out — making them more effective and memorable.

Colors can also be used to label diagrams, maps or charts to help make your content more meaningful. For instance, you could use a variety of colored sticky-notes to represent different kinds of ideas on a whiteboard.

It’s important to also understand that when it comes to visual thinking, there are some general rules for color selection and the meaning that they imply. Here is a quick summary:

• Yellow = Lateral thinking and opportunity spotting.
• Black = Critical thinking and innovation.
• Green = Imaginative thinking and innovation.
• Brown = Judgmental thinking and quality appraisal.
• Blue = Holistic thinking and environmental scanning.
• Orange = System thinking and design.
• White = Meta-cognition and thinking about thinking.
• Grey = Chaotic thinking and ambiguity.
• Purple = Strategic thinking and directing.
• Red = Decision-making and action.

You can use this list of colors to create meaning during brainstorming or idea generation sessions. You can also use them throughout the visual thinking process.

Written Language

When it comes to visual thinking, it’s important not to get lost in writing too many words. After all, visual thinking is not about words, it’s rather about simplifying your words and turning them into something that is memorable and leaves a lasting impact on the brain.

While thinking visually make sure to use only single words, short-phrases and punctuation wherever possible. If you find yourself using long sentences or paragraphs, then it is clear that you are not thinking visually, but rather bogging yourself down in details — details that could be represented in a much more simple visual way.

Words should only be used to help support your visuals, and not to replace your visuals. Take a comic as an example. When reading through a comic the main focus is almost always on the visuals, and the words are only of secondary importance. In fact, certain comics tend to use words sparingly or not at all. They get their point across using a variety of visuals and punctuation.

Many times, punctuation can actually be used independently of words to help accentuate the visuals you are using. Sometimes a single exclamation-mark or question-mark can speak louder than words.

Numbers and Figures

In a similar way to written language, numbers and figures are also used as a way of supporting and enhancing the meaning of your visuals. However, be careful not to use them over-extensively. Too many numbers are likely to bog the brain down with too much detail, making it difficult to concentrate.

There will of course be times when using numbers will become paramount, especially when you are working with graphs and charts. In such instances by all means use numbers, however also consider how you could potentially simplify these numbers by representing them in a visual way.

Finally, numbers can also be represented as a combination of formulas and pictures that help get your visual message across to your audience.

Shapes

For the most part, drawing is nothing more than a combination of basic shapes that help you structure your visuals. However, shapes can also be used to link visuals, to communicate movement, space, flow of ideas and to segregate concepts.

When it comes to visual thinking, shapes can come in the form of:

• Circles, triangles, squares, stars, etc.
• Arrows
• Borders
• Connectors
• Separators
• Lines, including straight, curved and wobbly lines

Your main challenge as a visual thinker will be to make the best use of each of these shapes in an appropriate way that will help you to communicate your visual message and/or solve your problem far more effectively.

Breaking Down the Ingredients

Within future posts we will break down each of these ingredients in more detail, providing you with all the knowledge you need to utilize them to their full effect while thinking visually.

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One response that I tend to get over and over again is that visual thinking is all about visualization. It’s about closing your eyes and visualizing what you want to achieve in your life. In fact, some people believe it has something to do with Neural Linguistic Programming that uses — among other things — the process of visualization to help people overcome emotional and psychological roadblocks.

Visual thinking is actually none of those things, however it’s very interesting to hear that many people aren’t yet familiar with what visual thinking is all about. I guess that presents an interesting opportunity that all of us who are familiar with visual thinking can take advantage of.

Within this article I would like to discuss an important part of visual thinking that forms the bedrock of how we think visually. This bedrock is made up of specific components that all of us will be using as we work through the visual thinking process. However, in order to stay true to our metaphor of magic, we will call these components “ingredients” that work very much like a recipe that’ s made into a dish.

These ingredients include:

• Pictures
• Symbols, Signs and Icons
• Colors
• Written Language
• Numbers and figures
• Shapes

Each of these ingredients are used as a means of communicating and clarifying your thoughts and ideas in a visual way. They will help you build a consistent visual language that will allow you to become a proficient and capable visual thinker.

Let’s now take a look at each of these ingredients in a little more detail.

Pictures

For the novice visual thinker, it’s easy to assume that visual thinking is all about drawing pictures and visualizing your ideas and thoughts on paper using sketches. To a certain extent that may be true, as pictures are certainly the main ingredient of visual thinking. However, pictures are only one of six ingredients that form the bedrock of visual thinking.

Pictures allow you to visualize complex ideas in an eye-catching way that gets your message across from very different and unique perspectives — enabling you to simplify concepts that otherwise would be very difficult to understand or piece together. 

When I’m talking about pictures, I don’t just mean drawing ideas down on paper. This would certainly limit your ability to express your creativity. What I do mean is to think outside-the-box when you are thinking about pictures making sure that you include:

• Sketches
• Doodles
• Photos
• Images
• Clipart
• Clippings (magazine cutouts)
• Videos

The key is to use all of these parts to express your thoughts and ideas in a visual eye-catching way that will leave a lasting impression on your mind as well as on the minds of those listening to your message.

Symbols, Signs and Icons

Symbols, signs and icons (SSIs) are a short-form of visual thinking that allow you to develop a simple universal language that gets your message across in a clear and concise way — more so than you could using words alone.

SSIs provide you with a means of representing a complete thought in a streamlined and effective way. Moreover, because they are easily and universally understood by others, they can therefore be used to express a combination of ideas in the form of diagrams and maps that allow you to communicate sentences and concepts in a simple and straightforward manner.

Every SSI you create stands for something and transfers meaning that is unique to that SSI alone. And that is where its power lies.

Icon Creation Exercise

To develop your skills in this area, take out a sheet of paper and walk around your home drawing everyday objects in the form of icons. Make sure that these icons are simple and straightforward, and that they get your intended message across. Above all else, remember that this is not a drawing exercise, it’s rather all about simplifying everyday objects into their most basic shape and form that is universally understood by others.

To help you with this exercise imagine being hired by Microsoft to develop a set of icons for a new Windows operating system. How would you go about piecing them together?

Once you become proficient at drawing icons for inanimate objects, proceed to draw icons that represent emotions, ideas and actions. When done, share these icons with others and ask them to label each icon with a word. Only in this way will you know if your visual message follows the 6-12 KISS Principle of visual thinking.

Colors, Language, Numbers and Shapes

Within the next post we will discuss colors, language, numbers and shapes and outline how they can be best incorporated into the visual thinking process.

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Having accomplished this step, let’s now find a place for everything, and put everything in its place.

Creative People are Messy and Disorganized?

In January 2006, Cleveland-based PsyMax Solutions studied the work styles of hundreds of CEO’s and other top executives. What they found was absolutely shocking. In fact, this discovery rocked the foundations of corporate America.

These researchers discovered that the CEO’s and top Executives were considerably less organized, however far more creative than individuals in other professions. Learn more.

Given the fact that visual thinking is a creative pursuit, does this mean that you should strive to keep your thinking space messy and cluttered? Well… yes and no.

You should strive to keep your thinking space organized, however when you’re in the midst of a creative breakthrough, it’s perfectly okay to completely mess up your thinking space and simply allow your creativity to flow. In such instances, use all the visual thinking tools you have at your disposal to express yourself in as many ways as required to help solve your problem.

It’s therefore perfectly okay to be messy, just as-long-as at the end of your visual thinking expedition, you have a place for everything, and put everything in its place. This will help you save time and will likewise boost your levels of productivity. In fact having an organized space:

• Saves you time looking for stuff.
• Saves you time when working and thinking.
• Saves you time cleaning.
• Saves you time making decisions.

In addition to the time saving benefits, an organized space also provides you with the following advantages:

• Reduces frustration, distraction, overwhelm, stress and mental clutter.
• Improves productivity, focus, efficiency and concentration.
• Provides accessibility and convenience.

Your Thinking Space in a Nutshell

Having an organized Thinking Space means:

• Using your space and time more efficiently.
• Placing things in a logical sequence, in logical groups or within a logical system.
• Simplifying your environment.
• Things are conveniently located, easily accessible, added, removed, re-arranged and tidy.
• Ordering items in rows, columns, by size, color, hierarchy, type and shape.

Please don’t get me wrong. When it comes to your Thinking Space, it’s not about achieving perfection. It’s rather about creating a system that naturally allows space for your thinking to flourish. However, in order to optimize your Thinking Space appropriately you must first understand how you will be:

• Performing tasks
• Making decisions
• Using items
• Spending your time

For this very reason you should identify activity zones where you will be doing different types of visual thinking work. For instance:

• Working on the computer.
• Brainstorming on a whiteboard.
• Playing around with index cards.
• Pacing around the room.

Everything you do and how you organize your thinking space must be built around critical decisions that you will be making while you’re thinking visually. These activities must help you to automate the decision-making process while at the same time allowing you the freedom and flexibility to think creatively.

Thinking Space Functional Storage

When it comes to organizing your Thinking Space, one of your main objectives is to make sure that you have suitable functional storage facilities and compartments available to help you find a place for everything. You must in essence create a system for organizing all your stuff, because in the end, the less you have to think about “looking for stuff”, the more you can think about visually solving your problems.

To assist you with this task, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I need to have a place for?
• Does it need to be within arm’s reach?
• What supplies will help me to stay organized?
• Under what conditions will I require certain items and tools?
• Within which activity zones will they be required?
• How must I label things?
• Is there a simpler way to organize this?
• Do I like how this looks and functions?
• How will I remind myself to use this system?

Sketching Out Your Thinking Space

Having answered the above questions, spend some time sketching out a blueprint (floor-plan) of your Thinking Space — exactly how you imagine and picture it in your minds-eye. While sketching, keep in mind that it’s important to create dedicated areas for major activities and decisions, and to also create a space for every one of your visual thinking tools. Once this is done, begin physically piecing together your Thinking Space using relevant equipment, furniture and accessories.

Finally, keep in mind that your entire Thinking Space must be organized around two elements: Convenience and Accessibility.

Follow these guidelines and you will create the ultimate visual thinking environment that will help enhance how you think, work, solve problems and generate ideas. Ignore these guidelines, and your proficiency as a visual thinker may never come to full bloom.

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The purpose of this article is to help you optimize your Thinking Space; to help you raise your levels of productivity and create an environment that naturally supports your ability to think creatively and visually.

Before we move on, let’s take a look at your current home or office work environment. Ask yourself:

• Is my thinking space clean and uncluttered?
• Does my thinking space excite and inspire me?
• Does it provide me access to the tools I need to think visually?
• Does this thinking space encourage me to think visually?
• Does it make me feel happy and productive?
• Is everything I need easily within my reach?
• Is the thinking space clear of visual and auditory distractions?
• What can I do to make my thinking space a more enjoyable and productive place to spend my time?

Keep in mind that your thinking space isn’t just your desk, it’s a place you work, think, visualize and create. It could be a room, a study, a section of a bedroom or living room, it could be a cafe, a library or another place that allows you to work and think visually. Above-all-else it must be a place where you switch-off from everything else, and tune in to your creative visual problem solving ability.

Identify Your Thinking Space

Your first task is to identify a place where you will create your Thinking Space. This is a place where you will have the freedom to think visually and explore concepts and ideas clearly without distraction. Consider the following questions:

• Where do I think best?
• Do I need a window or can I do without one?
• Do I prefer the indoors or outdoors?
• Do I need plenty of space or can I work within a small area?

For the purpose of this article, let’s explore a Thinking Space you set-up in your office or home. Let’s create this thinking space within a single room where you have the flexibility and freedom to adjust your space as you see fit.

Your thinking space must be well-lit, have good ventilation, and be well spaced with adequate storage facilities to house all your visual thinking tools and accessories. In addition to this, your space must be flexible and customizable, meaning that you have the ability to easily move things around if required.

De-Cluttering Your Thinking Space

Before you dig deep into designing your ideal thinking space, consider your current environment and be merciless — making sure that it’s clutter and stress-free. Get rid of the stuff that you simply won’t need — the stuff that simply takes up space and nothing else. To help you with this task, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I really need this now?
• Will I need it in the future?
• Have I used this within the past year?
• Is this something that could help me to think visually?
• Does this have personal value?
• Could someone else need this more than me?
• Do I have more of this than I could possibly need?
• Will I miss this if I don’t have it?
• If I do need it in the future, can it easily be acquired?

Getting rid of the clutter will help you to begin anew with a clean canvas, which will allow room within your Thinking Space for the visual thinking tools and accessories we’ll discuss below. In the end it comes down to simplicity — simplify your environment, and thereby you will likewise free-up your mind to think more creatively and visually.

Your Visual Thinking Tools

Once you have decided where you will create your Thinking Space, you must now consider the kinds of tools you will need that will help you to brainstorm, create and solve problems visually. You must essentially have a mix of high and low-tech tools at your disposal.

Here’s a list of tools you might want to include within your thinking space:

Furniture and Accessories

• Computer desk
• Desk lamp
• Computer and/or Tablet
• Comfortable desk seat (or stand-up desk)
• Separate table (for laying stuff out)
• Internet access
• Printer
• Drawers and storage compartments
• Access to fresh water

Physical Creation Tools

• Standing or wall mounted whiteboard
• Small hand-held whiteboard
• Colored whiteboard markers
• Whiteboard cleaner
• Notepads
• Sticky notes (Post-Its)
• Flipchart
• Pens, pencils and erasers
• Loose colored paper
• Index cards
• Audio equipment
• Video equipment
• Cork board and pins
• Scissors and glue
• Magazines and cut-outs
• Plasticine
• Lego
• Write-On Cling Sheets: ideal when you don’t have space for a whiteboard

Software Creation Tools

• Mind mapping software, e.g. MindManager, iMindMap*, NovaMind*
• Other graphic mapping tools, e.g. SmartDraw
• iPad and Android apps for drawing, mapping and sketching
• Online drawing software and apps, e.g. Sketchbook Pro, DeviantArt Muro
• Goal setting software, e.g. Goalscape*
• Presentation software, e.g. Prezi, PowerPoint, Keynote, SlideRocket
• Teleconferencing software
• Project management software

Aesthetic Decorations

• Inspirational photos
• Artwork
• Interesting artifacts, ornaments and statues
• Music played from computer or external speakers
• Plants (real or plastic)
• Zen garden
• Tabletop water fountain
• Lava lamp
• Colored lighting
• Lights that can be dimmed and brightened
• Comfortable sofa or couch
• Partitions

Within future article posts, I will explore how to utilize some of these visual thinking creation tools in detail. However, please don’t let this stop you from making use of these tools starting today. Each of them serves a purpose and will add tremendous value to your visual thinking space.

Within the next post we will discuss in detail how to organize your visual thinking environment in order to create the perfect Thinking Space that will allow you to maximize your capacity to think visually and creatively.

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