Mind map as a tool

Mind maps are really quite a simple idea. They give you a lot of freedom to use them in any way you want. That’s a big contrast to many other computer applications and tools, specialized for certain tasks such as project management. A mind map is more like a Swiss army knife. It’s an excellent all-round tool to help you with almost anything that involves thinking. The downside of the freedom is that you don’t have a clear path ahead of you, but you have to think for yourself how to use the maps. This book’s aim is to help you with this task.

It’s good to remember though that tools are just tools. They are means to get something done. Being a techie I sometimes find myself using tools for the sake of using them. I might have a complex spreadsheet system for managing my tasks with priorities and work estimates, spending more time to manage the spreadsheet than to do the actual job. Often the good old pen and paper are surprisingly handy and fast for doing a task, and using a computer complicates things unnecessarily. If you can get a job done completely without any tool, all the better.

After spending some time regularly with mind maps, you might notice that you don’t need them for many tasks anymore. Just as you learned to calculate 3×12 without paper, you’ll have learned to do all sorts of new tasks, directly in your mind without the use of a computer. The associative structure of mind maps makes them relatively easy to memorize. Can you imagine what it would be like to have hundreds of mind maps and have them structured so well, that you are able to navigate them without your computer, directly in your mind? Now that would be nice, wouldn’t it?