The Benefits of Mindmapping

Mind-mapping is a creative tool that can be used for many applications. The following article talks about mind-mapping used for different applications such as studying, journalling, creating menus, and more. As a Personal Brand Strategist with a specialty in corporate branding, I often use my own versions of mind-mapping to generate creative concepts for campaigns, designs, and marketing/brand copy.

Article by Bev Gee

Mindmapping has caught on in recent years as a useful tool in the corporate and educational sectors. Using bright colors and attractive imagery, it is extremely useful in such things as presentations and group brainstorming sessions. However, it can be equally useful in so many other ways too. Here is a look at some of those ways.

It can be used to record information in extraordinary detail on a single page. Whilst studying for my diploma in reflexology, there were lists to learn of which combination's of reflexes corresponded to various ailments - extremely complex stuff which I broke down into mindmaps or perhaps 'footmaps'. I got through my exam with 96%... proof that mindmapping is effective because, giving my advancing years, I wouldn't have achieved such a high mark otherwise!

How about using a mindmap to record a journey or a trip? Rather than pages of entries in a journal, instead simply use a mindmap to jot down places, events, impressions, people, food, colors, traditions, sights and sounds. You can even add your companions' perspectives. When you get home, your mindmap/s will provide you with information to label your photos, write up your journal, produce an article, regale your friends.... a multitude of possibilities.

Use mindmaps in preparing menus, mapping out an educational project with your home-schooled kids, noting down chores and whose responsibility they are. Use mindmaps to outline important stages in a building or remodelling project. Use them to organise your Christmas or wedding or for any big 'do' where there is a vast amount of detail to be attended to.

An imaginative fashionista could use a mindmap to coordinate items in their wardrobe, keep notes of what works, track dry-cleaning and see where there are gaps in their collection. A collector of anything - music, art, toy cars could use them in the same way.

Writers are able to use mindmaps for a whole raft of applications. Develop ideas, weave plots, characterization, cover points for articles... and deal with the dreaded writer's block.

What about learning a language? So much easier to use mindmaps for vocabulary, rules of grammar, exceptions, mutations, etc. Mindmaps help the information slip easily into the brain.

Any subject is easier to learn this way. Any project can be broken down into easily manageable steps. Anyone can use mindmaps to enhance their creativity and imagination. And mindmaps can be adapted for anything. There are no limits!

For more information and a detailed look at the iMindmapping program: iMindmap