Hello!
Sorry, I posted my last message so long time ago, but I'm back)
Since I wrote here last time I have tried to use mind mapping in two different, new and interesting ways.

First, I wrote an algorithm with mind map tools. To put it more precisely - I wrote requirements specification for a software product. Advantages of mind mapping here is a high speed of creating.
When you write requirements specification, you should imagine all possible situations and soft' behavior. And you should FIX IT!
So, put the first state of your program as a main topic of the mind map. On the first level you should place all states which can be reached with one action from initial state. Next level is organized by states which can be reached from one of the 1 level states and so on.
In the end you will have a scheme of states of your program.
Mind mapping here is more comfortable then UML, for example. Because you can create mind map quickly and you should not think about correct formats of lines).
This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad(www.mind-pad.com).

On of the most interesting variants of the tools I saw for organizing the tasks in Getting Things Done conception is Post-It Portable Workspace (PPW). I found it in Tammy Cravit's blog - here (visit it for some pictures and notes).
He says:
"The basic idea of the PPW is simple: I took a series of plastic sheet protectors, which provide a nice surface for Post-it notes to adhere to. Inside them, I placed sheets of card stock (file folders, cut down to 8-1/2 x 11) for rigidity, and I put the whole mess in a 3-ring binder.

Some features of the PPW that are worthy of note:
 - Inside both covers of the binder, I’ve arranged extra Post-it notes; this allows me to capture incoming stuff on the go.
 - The context labels on each page (in this view, the blue square in the far upper right corner, which says @Computer) are under the sheet protector. This prevents them from getting lost or stuck to the notes arranged on the page, but allows panels to be easily re-purposed if need be.
 - Each panel is double-sided; my Getting Things Done contexts occupy both sides of the first three pages; I have another three or four panels in the back for projects.
My last panel is labeled “Inbox”, and provides a temporary storage area for incoming Post-its before I process them. "

This idea seems to me very interesting, because in such workspace you have two-dimensional space instead of notebook and list. It allows organizing your sticky notes as you need. For example, in mind map format. On the other hand, I'm afraid, that stickies are not such sticky as I need for stable fastening of my notes.

Here, on the Visual Thesaurus web site you can find an interesting application of mind mapping. From what I saw, you can use a trail to test it. I just did and it works)))
Maybe, in future time, all vocabularies will be presented as such map with usable search engine.

On the home site  of Idea Champions you can find a set of articles  about different methods for creativity increasing.
Idea Champions is a consulting and training company specializing in creativity, innovation, team building, leadership and out of the box products.
For example, you can find there an article about 68 Ways to be More Creative on the Job. They say: “It's possible to be a creative superstar at work without ever using a creative thinking technique. How? By adding one or more of these CREATIVE PICK-ME-UPS to your daily routine.”
I hope it will be interesting for you.

Here Hendry Lee introduces readers to some tools to help them in their blogging endeavors.
He describes some characteristic properties of such activity as blogging. And then he talks about tools, which support one or more basic activities blogging consist of.
I tried to categorize these tools into more general categories.
So, in blogging for you can be useful:
1. Internet Browser
2. Blog editor. You can use special editor for your type of blog engine, or you can prefer general WISIWIG editor.
3. News aggregator for reading RSS and so on.
4. Special program for capturing text, images instead of standard image editor, for example.
5. Image editing software
6. One of the personal organizers to store your ideas, to-dos, resources, links and so on.
7. Communicate tool.

On the Mindjet.com you can find a new page – “Recommended Reading” , which contains a list of books about mind mapping and corresponding ideas. For example, project management, business improvement, productivity, team productivity and collaboration and so on.

In one of the Tony Buzan books he talks about list of words memorization. His test illustrates a mechanism mind mapping based on.
Let’s try to do it.
1. Try to memorize a list of 20 words in 5 minutes. I tried and it was only 7 words (((.
2. Think out what object does an each number look like? It is about 1-10 numbers. For other 1-10 numbers try to think out a rhyme. For example, for me 1 looks like a baseball bat. For better use – mind map your associations using pictures.
3. Try to compare your words with your associations and rhymes. Compose it into single sentence. For example, if your number is one and your word is “egg”, you may write something like “The egg was broken by the bat”.)))

As interesting – I really memorized all words!
According to this we may conclude all this:
- associations and pictures are one of the most powerful methods for thinking;
- we use this method not so often and we get used to think with words and it is not so good as it could be;
- mind mapping allows us to combine both of these methods and increase our effectiveness.

When you start mind map one of your projects, you can face the challenge with too long branches. Many people I know create mind maps, where one or two branches are too long in comparison with others.
I noted that often such unbalanced mind map means that its author doesn’t have a clear idea of the mind map topic. Or maybe author was keen on some aspects of the problem and forgot about other sides of it.
So, be careful, bear in mind that balanced mind map is one of the sure signs that you considered most important points of the problem.

When I read special books, which are difficult for understanding, I always use mind maps for creating my own view of this book.
It is not about creating summary after reading, it is a visible reading. You draw what you see.
Mind map technique allows you to interpret book as you need and to fix your mind about it.
The problem of all this – is changing your mind during reading. But there are only two tips to solve it:
- use special software to create such mind maps, because you will need to change branches and topics;
- choose software such as Mind Pad, because changing the position of child-objects is always a routine in mind mapping software, especially, if map is big. In Mind Pad 2.6 this problem was solved, now instead of moving across a map with a lot of objects and using drag-and-drop function, one can run a "Reorder children" dialog and re-arrange objects represented as a lines in a text list.
There are some advantages of reading books with mind maps:
- you will not need to read this book again – all you need is in the mind map;
- you will get a visual presentation of all book;
- you can use this mind map as a summary;
- your level of understanding will be deeper, because you will think during reading.

As you see, AKS-Labs has released v 2.6 of Mind Pad, a .NET mind, process and concept mapping software for Windows.
Corresponding to one of its features I would like to tell you about one interesting technique of data storing.
Nowadays many people have to be very mobile. They need their data on the beach, in the airplane, on their vacation, business trips, home and so on.
They have some variants: laptop, flash drive and Internet.
Everything is clear with laptop. But I would like to give you some tips for using flash drive, Internet and Mind Pad.
1. You can create your own mobile office on the flash drive. Use some programs from http://www.portablefreeware.com/. All of them can run without installing from your flash drive. So, you can tune your office for your needs without thinking about specific computer.
2. Use Internet as data storage. It can be your blog, your site, your photo catalog, special site for data storage (for example Google Base).
3. Use Mind Pad to organize your information by saving URLs. From release of new Mind Pad: “There is a new function in Mind Pad. Now you can pass any frame's property as a parameter to URL hyperlink.
For instance, you can point your web-browser to the web-site www.mind-pad.com and use the text from frame as a parameter (see the screenshot). Note: you can pass any property as a parameter.
Also, we have added a new custom designed icons, so this dialog now is very nice.”
So, at the end you will get a mobile office, most suitable for you, accessible anywhere. Good Luck!

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com)

Raleigh, NC (AKS-Labs) January 16, 2006 -- AKS-Labs has released a version 2.6 of inexpensive and competitive mind mapping software, Mind Pad. The key idea of Mind Pad is to exploit the potential of an object-oriented approach to mind and concept mapping. This approach allows Mind Pad to serve as an personal or company informational center, representing various data in a most suitable way.

In Mind Pad people can use custom designed objects. Using "Contact" object at map allows to visually show employees and the processes they are involved in. With Mind Pad one can create a Contact object on map and incorporate in it some graphical and text information. For instance, it's possible to put employees' photo, name and describe his role within the process.

With the new version of Mind Pad people can link to their favorite web resources. Mind Pad now allows to pass any object's property as a parameter to URL. So, user can easily point web-browser to some web-site, for example, read the latest news about your subject or get up to date financial quotes.

Changing the position of child-objects is always a routine in mind mapping software, especially, if map is big. In Mind Pad 2.6 this problem was solved, now instead of moving across a map with a lot of objects and using drag-and-drop function, one can run a "Reorder children" dialog and re-arrange objects represented as a lines in a text list. 

Two more function in version 2.6 make it easier to create maps. First, if it is needed to print map one can use a new printing option, where Mind Pad can be configured to print map on a specified number of pages. For instance, Mind Pad can fit map to a single page. Second, in new version of Mind Pad user have more free space on workspace where he or she can design map. Now, you will have a lot of free workspace even if running Mind Pad at laptop.

Mind Pad supports Image and Style libraries.

Style library is a way to manage Mind Pad frame and link styles. It possible to copy style from library to project. Style in Mind Pad is a single file, so it's easy to share it with others.

Image library provides users with a way to apply small pictures (icons) to objects within map.

Mind Pad suggest a new techniques for managing frames and links. Now it allows writing text on links. Double click on link between two frames and put some comments into the text box.

Frames 'Hot Linking' is now available. Instead of moving single frames user can now move whole branches and link it to another frame by just drag-and-dropping.

Also, New tree layout algorithm was design to help building tree and automatically manage frames' positions. It is now easy to build and layout a whole map or disable map layout and apply this function only to some branch.

Mind Pad supports reporting feature. User can now generate a report that will contain all topics from map. Two types of report are available - plain text and htm.  Full screen mode is now available in Mind Pad. Once map was designed go to the Full Screen mode to have an overview or show the map to someone else. For instance, it's a good way to manage presentation.

Download and check the latest version of Mind Pad. It's a features-rich mind and concept mapping software at low price. Is an ideal choice for small businesses.

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About AKS-Labs:

Headquarters of AKS-Labs are located in Raleigh, USA and Moscow, Russia. AKS-Labs was founded in 2000 and now is focusing on creating powerful and easy to use solutions for getting and managing valuable information. The most known file management project is Compare Suite - file compare utility. Now AKS-Labs is promoting a new approach to mind and concept mapping that was released in Mind Pad product. AKS-Labs is a member of Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) since 2001. 

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I would like to draw your attention to this new book - Goal Free Living by Steve Shapiro.

Than main idea, as I understood, is that not all people can be goal-oriented. Many people can't motivate themselves by the goals of our achievement-oriented society.

Steve said:

"I've done a number of surveys on the relationship between people's goals and their happiness. What I've found is that most people keep sacrificing "today" for "tomorrow." They'll set a goal, plan it out, work hard, achieve the goal, and then say, "Okay, that was great; what's next?" They're constantly striving to achieve these goals in the belief that life's going to get better."

Maybe, such point of view also can be useful. For me life is great as a process, including the process of goal achievement. But if you have problems with being happy in this process - you should review the necessity of your goals.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

I promised to write about creating mind map for revision situation with your current projects. Creating a list of your current projects also corresponds to Getting Things Done (The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen) method. You can read more about GTD here. And here is the blog of its author, David Allen.
This post is about creating the list of your current projects. With these projects you ended last year and begin the new 2006 year.
Steps are very simple:
1. Main topic of your map: "Projects list".
2. Next level topics are the names of your projects. Remember, "project" is any problem or task which requires more than 2 steps to solve it. Be careful and try to recall all your projects. Don't hurry, because usefulness of this map directly proportional to its completeness. After filling your list go to the step 3.
3. Now you should review each projects and answer for the following questions. Each question - is a subtopic under the topic of the project. If you have more than one answer - you should create branches for this subtopic.

Questions:
 - What is the end result of the project?
 - What problems could appears during this project?
 - How many ways do you know to execute this project? (Each way is a branch)
 - What you can do with all this right now?

4. As the result, you will have a simple view of your current situation.

I advise you to list your "right now actions" (last question) on the peace of paper and to follow this list.
To make it all work you should regularly review your map with projects.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

Here you can find new mind mapping software blog from the founder of the InnovationTools website.

The main idea of this blog is to give some tips about using mind mapping tools, visual mind mapping and its applications.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com) 

Happy New Year!

Everything begins again and again) And now, in the beginning we need to review last year and to plan new year. I'll try to help you.

1. Here, in Life Beyond Code Blog, you can find a post about new year resolutions. Author suggest to ask yourself some quastions about last and next years. Also, he posted some thouhts (or suggestions), such as:

1. "New year resolutions work
2. Create a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
3. Decide and implement a reading plan.
4. Develop the right relationships
5. Mind your attitude
6. Mind your language
7. Distinguish yourself"
8. I would like to add "Mind map your life"))
9. In addition to reading plan, you can also create an "eating plan". There is a whole book about it - "Never it alone" at Amazon. The main idea is to use your eating time for meeting people.

2. I would like to introduce an interesting podcast about personal productivity. Here it is - The Personal Productivity Show.

3. Use mind mapping to review your current projects which will pass to the 2006 year. You will find some instructions about it in the next post.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com)

In Innovation WebBlog you can read about great idea:

"Vj Mariaraj is a big fan of mind mapping - so much so that he has created a new online business, selling mind map summaries of popular business books. This format can provide you with a useful overview of the key ideas contained within a book, without having to invest many hours reading it from cover to cover."

Read more about it on Business Book Mind Map.com.

Maybe, mind maps cannot replace reading books, but undoubtedly it is very useful to have needed book in mind map format if you want:

• recall an idea from this book;
• prepare for something using this book and so on.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

I have found one interesting link about creating self-made calendars.

It is really fun to compose it. Also it could be a useful tool for you or a gift for your friends. Download a dodecahedral calendar after your own specifiation from this site.

You just need to print it and to laminate. That's all. Have fun!

I have recently found an interesting way to keep myself orgenized: Pocket Mod.

As they said: "The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card."

You can keep it in your back pocket and it is really comfortable. Take notes during your day for further planning and thinking. Then, it is cheap as one piece of paper, it opens like a book and this book and can be designed as you want. You can easy create your own format of your Pocket Mod, becouse it is just a good idea.

During my work with mind maps I have understood one important thing and I want to share with you.

One of the most powerful advantages of mind mapping is universal viewing. Possibility of seeing all sides of the problem, all nuances and points of view. All you need – is to use brainstorming for describing your problem in the mind map. Other structures, such as lists and trees, restrict your thoughts, because they assign a direction of your mind somehow or other. Your ideas are organizing in compliance with a structure they should be wrote. So, if structure has limitations and directions, your ideas will be the same. And you may lose something.
Security professionals have an assertion that security of the whole system depends on security of the weakest link. In project managing it means that carelessness with only one side of your problem or project may cause a total failure.
I think mind mapping should be the same habit or rule of good form as a representative appearance or collective discussions.
It is not just a tool for increasing your effectiveness. It is a tool for protecting your work from unfortunate mistakes.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com)

I found useful idea in John's Ideas and Creativity blog. He suggest a technique for naming and listing people who can help you with your project.

As he said: "It can help to generate a list of disparate people to help with creativity; considering the fantasy input of others - both real people and fictional people - can provide interesting perspectives on creative effort or problem solving. The lists can also be used to help kick-start creativity at the blank page stage." Then he talks about concrete directives for doing this.

You can see details here. As I see - it is an interesting creativity technique. Other useful note: when somebody tries to think as another person, it helps him to access other ideas in his mind. Without such position changing he could never find many alternative ideas.

Remember, when you try to think - you think as Mister Smith, for example. You have an image - what exactly you should think as Mister Smith. It is not effective, isn't it? But you can also change your mind if you want. And you will think as somebody else.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

A new visual mapping e-book Visual Mapping: A Systematic Framework for Business Improvement has been released recently. Its focus is on how to use mind mapping software to improve business processes and to encourage systems thinking. Visual mapping is the same that mind mapping, I think. They also talk about improving brainstorm sessions, vizualizing business standards and using software tools for mapping instead of hand-writing for business needs.

As a software tool such programs as Mind Pad can easily be used.

If your job involves information management or process improvement, you'll find much to like in this new e-book. Click here to download a 9-page excerpt.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

Brian Mayne has developed a system if goal mapping, corresponding to SMARTER-goal setting, described below. You can read about it on his site.

There is a seven steps' system:

1. Describe what do you want;
2. Set your priorities;
3. Create a mind map;
4. Define your motivation;
5. Build your time profile;
6. What should you do to achieve all these?
7. List all people and organization, who can help you.

Here is the understandable template of the mind map.

Here you can download some related articles.

And here you can buy some books about all this.

In Phil Gerbyshak's blog you can read about modification of SMART planning method. It seems to be very useful:

"In the past, I've written about, and used, the SMART goal setting model, but after much reading and thought, I realize now that goals need to be SMARTER in order to be most successful for me.

SMARTER goals, broken down:

S - Goals must be Specific and the more specific the better. State your goal in as exact of terms as possible.

M - Targets should be Measurable. That which you measure will be treasured, so think about what will be the measurement of your achievement of your goal.

A - Goals should have Accountability. Who or what are you accountable to for the goal?

R - Goals must be Realistic. Unrealistic goals will lead to discouragement.

T - Targets should be Time based. Decide your time-table for completion, and stick to it.

E - Goals should be Exciting. Exciting goals will be met far sooner than boring, bland goals.

R - Goals should be Recorded, in a place where you can look at it every day.

OK, so let's break down one of my goals for 2006, and see how this works in action.

I will earn by Competent Toast Master (CTM) designation by December 1st, 2006.

Specific - Yes, this is very specific. It says exactly what I am going to do.

Measurable - Yes, this is measurable. CTM designation is something that takes 10 speeches to do in Toastmasters, so if I do these 10 speeches, this goal will be achieved.

Accountability - I'm sharing it with you, so I'm accountable to all of you. I'm also including this in my goals at work, as public speaking is part of what I do, and letting my Toastmasters Mentor know about my goal (I'm sending him this post), so I am accountable to many others.

Realistic - This is absolutely a realistic goal for me. I have given 2 speeches in 2005, so I have to increase my output 4 times. I can do this, but it will take effort.

Exciting - Definitely an exciting goal for me to achieve. As a new Toastmaster, I will be able to improve my speaking ability by doing this, and it will also help our club achieve more distinguished status.

Recorded - I wrote it down here, I'll be putting it on a note card with my other goals, it will be in my HR system at work, and I'll review it every day to remind myself of its importance."

Long-life and short-life mind maps in Innovation Blog:

"According to Nick Duffill from Gyronix, many users of mind mapping software only use them to meet short-term needs – to brainstorm ideas or outline the agenda for a meeting, for example. But he believes one of the most powerful ways you can use them is for what he calls “long-lifetime” applications. That is, maps that you return to again and again to update the information contained within them.

Typically, many users of mind mapping software use them for a few days to get them through an event, such as a brainstorming session or an upcoming meeting. Because of this short-term perspective, Duffill says they may be missing an opportunity to get even more value out of their favorite visual diagramming application.

In contrast, long-lifetime mind maps are focused on strategies or projects – assignments that take a longer timeframe to develop. Often, connections between related pieces of information in our maps aren’t immediately evident at the time you record them. It’s often only after days or weeks of perspective that you may get hit by the legendary “a-ha!” and see where something fits. Long-lifetime maps, therefore, are works in progress, which you continue to refine as your project evolves."

Earlier, in "Help yourself in learning foreign language. Use mind maps."  we discussed using mind maps for learning foreign languages.
Here I attached an example for this theme. It is a mind map considered to English verbs for Russians. However, it could be useful for English-speaking people also.