Mindmapping Software Is Perfect For Intellectual Chaos
Today I’m going to talk a little about a piece of software.
If you’re afraid of spending money, don’t worry. You can put your wallet away. The software I’m going to talk about in this article is absolutely free.
It’s called Freemind.
It’s an app that creates mindmaps. I’ve been using it for the past week or so. It’s something you can live without, but it makes planning and note taking a lot easier.
Why Would You Need A Mindmapping Software?
If you’re like me, then chances are your brain is only ever one step away from creative/intellectual chaos.
It only takes a simple join-the-dots moment before you have hundreds of ideas. Some of them are big ideas. Some of them are just crazy ideas. Or are they?
Even if you’re a bit more reserved in your ideas, chances are you’ll come up with quite a few great ideas just going about your day-to-day life.
Outside of idea generation, we’re also expected (and rightly so) to plan things out before we do them. This isn’t only a business thing, but it’s also about every area of your life. There’s no point in going to the gym and messing around with no clue. There’s no point in booking a plane ticket and not knowing anything about where you’re staying.
So ideas are great. Planning for things is great too.
I’ve always been a big fan of planning things out on paper with a pen. However, there are two big problems with this approach:
- You can easily get overwhelmed with paper. (I have stacks of stuff lying around from note-taking)
- Ideas aren’t always conducive to pen, paper and linear writing.
The second of those points is why I decided to try out mindmapping software.
I chose Freemind because it was free and looked as though it could do everything I asked of it.
What To Use Mindmapping Software For
As I said above, ideas don’t always come linearly.
Let’s take for instance designing a new website. Do you start with naming your site? Do you start with the keyword research? What about all those other questions you ask yourself before starting on a project?
The problem with answering them is that the question will come to your mind at a different time to the answer. Also, if you have a hundred ideas in a fit of inspiration, you won’t remember them all and writing them on paper will lead to a disorganised, chaotic mess.
Check out this simple mindmap:
I created that in a few minutes. It could cover everything about any new niche website, and I could use it as a template.
I can add to it. I can take away the bits that aren’t relevant. I can fill in the blanks as and when the ideas come to me. Also, the mindmap acts as a checklist. If I haven’t done everything, then I won’t start building the site out.
This isn’t just for niche site building; you could (and should) use this for bigger projects. Offering a new business? Create a template at the beginning with everything you need to do.
Going through a book or a course? This is why I looked for the software in the first place. You’ll get tons of ideas from books and other learning materials, and the best way to learn them fully is to break the lessons down and rewrite them in your own words. You can do that easily with Freemind.
Finally, mindmapping allows you to condense things. I wrote in this article that the last thing you want to do when you’ve learned something new is to go back to it again and again because you didn’t adequately take notes. Mindmaps can be fantastic reference materials because you can break down any subject into subdivisions and only keep the skeleton of relevant information.
Final Thoughts
This has been a short article, but it says what it needs to. Mindmapping software has been useful for me, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be useful for you too.
Some of you will probably use mindmapping software already. If you do, I’m interested in knowing what you use and why you use it. Freemind is the first program I’ve used for this, so there might be much better software out there. If so, let me know and I’ll try it out!