Case: Writing a book
At first the book was just an idea among others, in a list of ideas I might want to do someday. If I would get another idea related to it, I would store them in the same place, and soon I had a bunch of ideas related to the topic. Then a dedicated mind map just for writing the book. Then another map for managing the project.
Even if you don’t know much about writing or publishing, the same ideas pretty much work for any other subject too. Just replace the writing in your mind with something that is more familiar to you.
Mind mapping as a skill, at least the way I see it, is about understanding the structure of the information and the process of working with it. You can then apply that knowledge to any content, be it writing, studying, running a business, running a family, running a marathon, building a house, traveling or whatever you are or get interested about.
Book content
While writing I was collecting ideas, making notes and playing with the outline of the book in one map. I didn’t have a clear idea of the book contents beforehand making the creative process exploratory. Sometimes I would sit down with the mind maps, listing out ideas and keywords, working my way to complete sentences. Sometimes I would work with the draft and write whatever comes to mind, and only afterwards go to the mind maps and analyze what I just wrote.
Project management
It soon became clear to me that the writing the book is only a part of the project. I wanted to publish the book myself which meant that I would need to also do everything that the publisher normally does. I needed to get organized and learn about publishing and marketing, among other things.
I created a map to organize the whole. Managing a project is different kind of activity than writing. They require different mindsets. Putting those activities in separate mind maps helped me switching between these two roles.
Resource maps
Any other map that would help me in the project I would call a resource map. These included topics like writing, English language, typography and publishing. I also had the archives of mind maps from the last ten years that I could use as a source of ideas and inspiration, as well as to gather understanding how my mind mapping had evolved through these years.
Putting the maps together
Writing of this book was just one thing going on in my life. To make it part of my other activities I had to link them together. I had one home map that was the starting point whenever I opened the mind map program. From there I had links to relevant other mind maps, both for business and personal life. This book project was one of them.