My first steps with mindmapping

Mindmapping is an extremely effective tool to release the creativity in our minds. I have agreed to that statement for many years – and still haven’t started to use mindmaps.

Actually now I have made my first real mindmap about an upcoming product of mine. The result is that I will certainly use mindmaps from now on.

I have tried to use them several times but not found them very effective. The reason for that is probably that I haven’t taken the time to learn how to use them.

This time was different as I was asked by my mentor that I should make a mindmap for my product. Paying for a mentor and not follow his advice is not recommended. Ok, I haven’t done absolutely everything he has suggested and there are several reasons for that. If you are interested in my mentor journey I have a different post about that.

There are several free versions of mindmaps and I downloaded FreeMind. You find it here.

I am not sure why, but 99% of the time I try out a new software I believe that I can use it without checking the manual.

To be honest, I try most everything without checking any manual. Maybe it is my nature…or maybe it is a guy thing. I don’t know. 🙂

That is probably also the reason for not using mindmaps earlier in my life.

So, I downloaded the software and started to use it right away. Well, I tried and found out that I would lose my mind trying to found out how to use it on my own. And, why should I? I search Youtube and found several videos about how to use FreeMind.

I watched 3 of them and this one was my favorite.

The video will not show every feature of FreeMind but it was enough for me at this stage. I wanted to make a basic layout for every part of my product and it was really effective and easy after watching the video.

If you haven’t used mindmaps before, I highly recommend them. FreeMind was my choice and I haven’t tried any other.

The conclusion of my first steps with FreeMind is that I should start to read/watch manuals. There might be some valuable ideas that I have missed because I didn’t take the time to learn about mindmapping several years ago.

Are you using mindmaps? Please let me know in the comments below.