Are You Still Making Mindmaps? Don’t!!!

This may sound strange coming from me, but I want you to stop making mindmaps.

I believe that making mindmaps is something that is only smart when you are just learning about mind mapping. After you learned how to create a mindmap, you should start making as few mindmaps as possible.

Looking at my own mindmaps, and the ones my clients make, I can honestly tell you that most of us only have 3 mindmaps that we use, no more.

It is very important that you understand that these 3 mindmaps show us our current information and projects, where we are going and what information is relevant.

Just 3 mindmaps, nothing more.

I meet many people who do this also… but not exactly like me. They have their planning and to-do lists in mindmaps. Their ‘mistake’ is they create new maps every day. When you do this, you are just working on your mindmaps, and not actually making them work for you.

The moment you move from making mindmaps to using them, you will reach a new level in your information management. Or use more practical words, you will have a mindmap which gives you a complete picture of your information. And this map will help you to make better decisions, reach your goals faster, understand the underlying causes of issues better, etc.

You move from making mindmaps to using mindmaps.

This move is really simple. You create mindmaps which you use more than one day, couple of days or perhaps weeks. The map offers you a clear overview of where you are and what you know, do and want.

You tweak the content to match the ‘real world’. This way the map is valid and it helps you move forward, toward your goal.

You do this by updating the map. You add new content, and you remove old or no longer used content. You update relationships and ideas. You make the map represent your current situation.

When you do this every day, it won’t take more than 1 to 2 minutes each day. Now compare that with the ‘old’ way of doing things. That would easily take 10 times the amount of time. And the end result was clear in the old situation… mindaps upon mindmaps.

Now you simply use only 3 mindmaps and you are good to go!

Enjoy your mindmaps, don’t work on them. Make them work for you!

Tags: Growing, mind mapping, mistakes