Friday, April 15, 2011

M is for Mindmapping/Full View Outline - A-Z Challenge

This is what I do before writing articles or chapters in my books. I create my 'spider,' something I've been doing since I was a little girl. And, it still works great, today!

This can grow like Grape-Nuts if the project is bigger. Then, I'll take a 'leg' and create a new 'spider' for that section, alone. By seeing everything you need at a glance, you can see what should be added, dropped, or what you've missed, and helps to keep you focused.

When I was consulting medical offices and entrepreneurs in the 80s and 90s, I made it more attractive and professional-looking and called it and called it a Full View Outline. This was included in some articles I wrote for a medical magazine and it's just easier to give you a link.

This generation is more visual and enjoys pictures along with text and Mindmapping is the name given to this old concept. You can see some great examples that will help you, here. But, if you would love to see some absolutely fantastic mindmapping art, you need to check out Mindmap Art.  This may work as an art form, but would be far too distracting for me to accomplish my initial goal, which is to get my own project finished! But, they're both wonderfully creative sights and may well have something that will help you.

What do you do to keep focused on your projects?

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See that The A-Z Blogging Challenge button on the right? With more than 1100 bloggers participating, there's bound to be someone you'll discover by just clicking on the Next Blog or Surprise Me button.

4 comments:

  1. Wonderful and some good suggestion there,

    Yvonne,

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  2. I've used mind mapping for years. I don't always use them though and not at all during the A-Z.

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  3. I've been known to make mind maps. I don't use them for brainstorming as such, but more for organising my thoughts and spotting patterns afterwards.

    Thanks for this post, and for the link to Mind Map Art! :-)

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  4. Mind mapping is fun! The creative side of it makes the goal less daunting.

    What keeps me focus is the thought that, "I'm going to succeed on this!" What's the point in proceeding with the project if one has doubts and fears? Got to be positive about it -- just like blogging.

    Thanks and have a fantastic day! :)

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