10 Essential Mind Mapping Links

When I posted about Mind Mapping I asked for you to provide any links you had on using Mind Maps. Here are 11 of the best resources you provided. Do keep them coming if you have any more to tell us about!

  1. Tyner Blain tells us about Concept Maps
  2. Glenn Nicholas pointed us to excellent examples of Mind Maps on global warming
  3. Mind Maps help us see the big picture – Smart Wealthy Rich on Brainstorming
  4. Jon has reviewed a new application for Taking Task Management, Brainstorming
  5. Gaelen took my list of lists and turned them into Visual Maps with MindManager
  6. Innovation Catalyst told us about an approach called Lotus Blossom
  7. Yvonne has reviewed Mindomo and used it to choose a blog topic
  8. Scot tells us why a Writer Should Use Mind Maps
  9. There is a new collaborative mind mapping tool called comapping
  10. Raj has done some screencasts of Mind Mapping

If this wasn’t enough then Eric gives us 99 Further Mind Mapping Resources, Tools, and Tips!

Do post any additional resources you have, we want to see and share them :)

Using Mind Maps for Creativity, Note-Taking and Productivity

Bubbl.us mind mapping tool screenThat headline makes a bold promise, doesn’t it? Creativity, note-taking and productivity? Mind Mapping really is that useful. Read on and I will explain!

What Are Mind Maps?

Mind Maps are a visual diagram with lines and bubbles representing ideas and relationships between them. The core idea sits in the middle with related topics branching out from it. Ideas are further broken down and extended until your page looks like an impressionist painting of a spider colony.

That is my description. Here is a video direct from the source!

Why Are Mind Maps Useful?

There are lots of reasons Mind Maps beat other note-taking methods, not least of which I find drawing Mind Maps fun, here are some more serious reasons.

  1. Mind Maps are fast to create and no effort is wasted
  2. Hierarchy and categorization are visually and clearly defined
  3. Rather than writing out lots of superfluous words only the key ideas are represented.
  4. As well as using words you can draw symbols and diagrams to illustrate ideas
  5. You can read back a Mind Map at a glance, jumping right to the part you need

What are Mind Maps Useful For?

In the headline I mention three categories that Mind Maps can be used for, let’s look at some examples:

There is an interesting description of three categories of Mind Maps at the “Beyond Mind Mapping” blog.

Mind Mapping Software

Traditionally Mind Maps were drawn with coloured pens and paper. Tony Buzan recommends you use at least three colours. Of course computer technology has become a more popular method, bringing in searching, import/export and archival benefits, and since the rise of the web the ability to collaborate over distances.

More packages are listed and reviewed at a blog all about Mind Mapping software.

Summary

You might tell I am a Mind Map fan! Do you ever use Mind Maps? Have any links you can share? Let us know in the comments …

Ten Ideas For Productive Lists

One of my favorite online productivity tools is Tadalist from 37signals. It really is sad how much I fell in love with this tool. It takes minutes to sign up, and it is instantly usable.

It is better than other list tools because:

  1. It is so simple, you can only do what you really need, so there is no clutter
  2. It is online, so when I switch computers, am on my PDA or in a pinch am at a cafe, I have access to my lists
  3. You can share, excellent for collaboration on for informally proposing ideas

Lists? What kind of lists? Here are ten ideas!

  1. To-do Lists – The classic list, it is such a common thing the productivity gains can be overlooked. It really does help to write out what you need to get done, and ticking off the items feels good!
  2. “Did-Do List” – Taking the above idea of ticking off items one step further, write down your acheivements to make a record of stuff you have done, and seeing it all written down helps to keep motivated.
  3. “Not-To-Do List” – We all have distractions, interruptions, time-wasters. This idea is to keep a list of things that you should not do. Share the list with your family and colleagues.
  4. Ranking, Prioritizing and ordering – It is not just the items on the list, some times the priorities and the order you work through them can be just as important. A list that you can rank and re-order can be a very useful tool.
  5. Recording Ideas – If you don’t note down your ideas you can forget them. Forgotten ideas will not help anybody. Record your ideas as you have them then come back later to judge them with a clear mind.
  6. Processes and Procedures – When you are trying to explain a step-by-step process or a procedure a numbered list is a useful tool. Especially if you can move and insert items as they come to you.
  7. Note-taking – In the absence of super shorthand skills a list is a great way to take notes. Add bullet points that will remind you of the full detail later.
  8. Checklists – When you have a job to do that involves many elements, things you might forget, vital things that might be a disaster if missed, it is a life-saver to have a checklist.
  9. Daily reminders – If you have things you need to do every day, make a list and keep using the list until the routine becomes habit. Obviously you still have to remember to look at the list …
  10. Writing Top-Ten Articles – Um, lists like this one!

Do you use lists or am I just a sad list addict? Let me know in the comments …

How To Get More Done With Online Tools

What could you do with 20% increase in available time? Would you get more done? Could you be more creative and invent more useful resources for your business and customers? I am going to show you how I did it. You might be surprised at the solution …

Over the last few days I have been concentrating on trying to make better use of my time. I turned to online tools to make my work more productive. I figured with a better set of services, along with more automation, I could achieve a more streamlined workflow.

My first idea was to monitor my daily activities to see what areas could be prioritized. As I analyzed my day I came to a startling realization. The first job jumped out at me. I knew where I had to start.

Rather than finding new tools and websites to help me get more done, I would initially find my greatest gains by cutting back on them!

Just see if this pattern of internet usage is familiar to you …

… of course the list goes on.

Just by cutting down on the trivial, batching up the less important, and prioritizing the vital, I saved a good few hours out of my day.

It’s easy in retrospect how much time I was wasting with these time-leaches and how they could be worked into my work flow as a benefit.

After rearranging my day so that I get my work done before even looking in on the leisure stuff, I further trimmed down the irrelevant by culling contacts from my messaging systems, buddy lists, followers, “friends” and network. Anyone who I really didn’t need to keep track of or talk to were gone. The same with my RSS feeds, if they are not essential I hit delete.

When I embarked on this productivity drive I thought I would be telling you about all the wonderful Web2.0 services I had discovered. In fact my advice is to cut out the unessential distractions, you might find your day is more effective with fewer web services in your life than more!

Have you managed to save time in your day? Let us know how in the comments …

Creative Commons For Bloggers

In our last post on Creative Commons I explained the general ideas behind licensing your content and some of the advantages this gives you. Today I will look at Creative Commons for bloggers in particular.

Since the last article I have added a Creative Commons license to my own blog. An “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported” licsense, in fact. I did this easily using a WordPress plugin made especially for the job called WpLicense. While the most recent version refused to work for me, I had more joy with an older release. As well as painlessly adding the appropriate button and meta data to your blog, it also makes the license selection process easy.

Why would a blogger, someone who makes a living at least in part from selling content, use a Creative Commons license?

It’s simple really. My blog is an advert. Each article is like a free sample. I give away a free ebook (which will also be getting the CC license treatment using Cogniviews excellent Creative Commons PDF Converter!). This is all to get my ideas and advice, and with it my name, to spread. Creative Commons helps spread ideas. Giving stuff away is a great marketing tactic, as the sci-fi author Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing and Craphound fame will tell you.

Most people who download the book don’t end up buying it, but they wouldn’t have bought it in any event, so I haven’t lost any sales, I’ve just won an audience. A tiny minority of downloaders treat the free e-book as a substitute for the printed book–those are the lost sales. But a much larger minority treat the e-book as an enticement to buy the printed book. They’re gained sales. As long as gained sales outnumber lost sales, I’m ahead of the game.

In fact Seth Godin wrote a whole book about the tactic!

As Yoav said in a recent discussion of this topic …

The trick is to license different works with a different license. Use a very permissive license for the work you want to act as your marketing agent. And a very strict license (maybe even an all rights reserved) for the work you want to profit from.

You have to decide for each piece of work what is important to you, which rights are needed and which will hold you back.

For example I am still not sure if to allow derivative works. On the one hand it would allow people to spread my thoughts further, but on the other hand, especially the ebook, it only really works when read in its entirety. One thing I was decided on was the non-commercial use, if anyone is going to earn from my content I want it to be me, but does that stop businesses sharing my ebook with their clients?

So there are some things you will need to decide but I am sure, like me, you will find it useful for your own businesses to think about these things!

Giving away ideas leads to further opportunities

I have always seen blogging as a path to other things rather than an end in itself. Rather than jealously guarding our ideas we should help them spread and provide as much value to our audience as possible. Like me you will discover when you do that your audience rewards you over and over. As Cory says …

It’s good business for me, too. This “market research” of giving away e-books sells printed books. What’s more, having my books more widely read opens many other opportunities for me to earn a living from activities around my writing, such as the Fulbright Chair I got at USC this year, this high-paying article in Forbes, speaking engagements and other opportunities to teach, write and license my work for translation and adaptation. My fans’ tireless evangelism for my work doesn’t just sell books–it sells me.

Are you ready to Creative Commons license your work? What might hold you back? Let us know in the comments …

An Easy Introduction to Creative Commons

Creative Commons is something I now believe all bloggers should know about. While I heard about Creative Commons a while ago it was only after talking to Yoav the other day it struck me how ideal for web content creators, and bloggers in particular, their license idea really is.

What is a Creative Commons License?

Creative Commons license allow you to control how your work is shared and used while retaining the rights that are meaningful to you. They are controlled by a non-profit organisation who oversees the various licenses and promotes them. Using a Creative Commons license you can spread your work and ideas, and even have people create their own work using it as a base, while you still retain your ownership of it.

So it means giving up my copyright?

No, it just means you are allowing certain uses while stating certain things, for example “anyone can use this work however they like providing they credit me and it is not for commercial purposes”. It’s not giving up control, it is about being very specific in how much control you want.

Why is Creative Commons beneficial?

With Creative Commons you are explicitly informing people what rights you are allowing for the use of your work. There are a growing number of people who specifically seek out CC licensed work for use in their own projects, for example looking for a video or photograph to illustrate a point. You can even search for CC licensed material.

People will use your work then attribute you. Your ideas spread, your name gets known. Attribution means links and a growing reputation.

Ever heard of Chocolate Rain? You might not have if it wasn’t for the Creative Commons.

How do you use Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons LicenseTo license your work under Creative Commons you simply have to choose the license that is right for you and your work. If you want people to share your work non-commercially but not alter it, for example, then the “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported” is probably right for you. It looks scarier than it is, just head over to the official site and take a quick read through then attach a “some rights reserved” button.

Summary

If you really want your ideas and name to spread, consider Creative Commons. You will remove obstacles and might even get more attention.

Do you use Creative Commons licenses or plan to in future? Let us know in the comments …

Web2.0 and Our Wireless Future

In this article I am going to discuss the death of the iPod, Second Life and Microsoft Office. Perhaps this might seem a tad controversial to some for only my second post here but I guess it will show if we are on the same page.

I’m basing this prediction on two important trends of the successful technologies

Consider Tivo and other DVRs. That is the freedom of time factor at work, or “Time Shifting”, if you want to get technical. Choosing when you consume media is very liberating. No longer do we have to sit down to some fixed schedule, we can watch whenever it is convenient to us.

Why was the Blackberry so successful? Freedom of location. No longer did you have to be sat at your desk to get vital emails. In fact email is a good example of time freedom too; while email is almost instant you don’t have to reply right away.

Why do we love the iPod so much? Both freedom of location and time. We can take our entire music collection with us anywhere we go, and look stylish doing it.

A huge part of being productive is working to your own schedule, this means having your tools fit your time and location not the other way round.

I believe this is going to get more and more important. We will see devices and services mutate to serve these needs, hence the death of those products mentioned above.

It has been predicted for a while that Microsoft Office would go web-based. I am going to go one step further and predict that the suite will have to be rethought to cater to the needs of mobile users. At the very least the interface will have to react to a user navigating a tiny screen and using a less than perfect keyboard.

The same goes for Second Life. I believe Second Life is doomed unless they go open source and totally web based. While you can dip into Second Life at any time, you can’t from anywhere. The best you can do right now is text chat in a sub-par experience.

What about my prediction for the death of the iPod? I don’t see it going away right now, but I do predict the iPhone taking its place, and it is not because of the current incarnation. The major feature missing from the iPod is wireless connectivity, which the iPhone has. Presently iPods are sold in large part by storage capacity. I predict in future storage will not be an issue because all our media will be stored online and streamed; wireless roaming connectivity and user interface will be the crucial issues. A future generation iPhone with excellent high-speed wifi and 3G capability (obviously partnered with a decent data plan) will make both a killer portable music device and the client device for services I mention above.

It’s not just about these particular products, I believe any service or product that succeeds in helping people achieve freedom of time and location will be more competitive. As our lives get busier we expect to not be tethered by wires, boxed software or someone else’s schedule. This is something all companies must think about.

So those are my predictions, what do you think? Am I making sense or are these the drooling rantings of a mad person? Let me know in the comments …

Introducing Chris

Hello all! My name is Chris Garrett and Yoav has invited me to join him in writing here on this blog.

It’s always like being the new boy in school writing for a new blog. You are never sure what people will think when a fresh face appears. With this in mind I will tell you a little about myself and then give you an opportunity to tell me a little something in return.

Like Yoav, I am a long-time computer guy in my thirties. My first exposure to computers was when age nine or ten my parents delivered my brother and I a Commodore Vic20. That 3.5k beast became my obsession.

Also like Yoav, my first taste of real hard core computing in the world of work was with a VMS machine, for me it was at age sixteen when I started working at the local general hospital. Being straight out of school I wasn’t allowed to tinker with vital patient data so unfortunately didn’t get to explore the system very much but it opened my eyes to what the world of IT had to offer.

My career since then has seen me in many varied roles, from system and network administration through database and software development. While I loved programming and even co-authored three books on .NET, I recently have left the development world and concentrated on New Media and blogging. Since my first view of Mosaic running over that slow, loud, US Robotics modem in the early nineties I have been hooked on the Web and have made it my primary work for over twelve years now.

I hope with my writing on this blog I can bring you some interesting reading on the topics of technology, the web and productivity.

If you have any feedback on this blog, any suggestions, comments or ideas, please either leave a comment or contact us. It’s an exciting world of technology right now and I am looking forward to helping Yoav discuss it here.

Chocolate Rain

When the walls of copyright are gone, the speed of sound equals the speed of light. Enjoy.

Why you should publish your PDF with a Creative Commons License

Over the past two weeks I talked to over a dozen people about publishing content and PDF’s with a Creative Commons License. One question came up again and again – What are the benefits of publishing my content with a creative commons license?

Here is my answer in … PDF form.