Nontrivial Exercises

Mind Mapping - What Is It?

I have mentioned a couple of times that I have become very intrigued by the concept of mind mapping. What exactly is mind mapping? Well, it does not refer (in this context anyway) to any type of psychological exercise or Freudian assault on your psyche.

The term actually means representing information with pictures and connections, rather than simply by words. There is a history of thought and research on the subject (see wikipedia) and it is not necessarily a new concept. However, the utility and availability of mind mapping has significantly increased in the past few years, due to advances in software applications – both free and commercial – that allow easy access to this technique.

I have been using probably the most popular tool available for mind mapping – MindManager from MindJet – for several months now, and I want to write about how it has enhanced the way I capture, catalogue, use, and communicate information.

First, the use of the term “Mind Maps” is trade-marked by The Buzan Organisation, Ltd. in the UK and the USA, so I will simply use the term “maps” to apply to my subject at hand. Some of my readers will be well-versed in mapping and especially with MindManager, but some may not be. I learned about the concept myself from reading other blogs about the subject, so I want to add my input on the value that I derive from maps and how I use them.

So, to the point – what is a “mind map” or map?

As suggested above, it is essentially a means of capturing information in a non-linear and visually-relevant manner. In stead of writing words in sentences and paragraphs on a piece of paper (or a virtual piece of paper in a work processor) in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom serial manner, maps allow you more flexibility about where you put information.

Here’s a simple example to illustrate:

You can easily derive the meaning of the above map – it describes three actions that “I” did and that Debbie did. The information in the map is exactly the same as is contained in the following six sentences:

Yesterday I went to the store.

Yesterday I started a new job.

Yesterday I watched American Idol.

Yesterday Debbie met Steve Jobs.

Yesterday Debbie won the lottery.

Yesterday Debbie had a flat tire.

However, the way the information is represented is vastly different. The map represents the information in a much more efficient and succinct manner. This is due to the fact that there is a groping of information and therefore a lot of repeated – and therefore unnecessary – content in the actual sentences. However, the map is very efficient in how it represents the same information, but with much less content, only showing the required amount of non-repeated content.

Notice also that the map conveys importance or subject matter very quickly. After just a quick glance at the map, you can discern that it is primarily about yesterday, and then it has information about “I” and Debbie. Then, you can read the details of each of these two sub-categories. With the written text, you must read the entire group of sentences first, then use your own grouping abilities to extract the common theme of “yesterday” and the secondary focus on “I” and Debbie. Maps are able to convey the information in a way that allows for quicker comprehension of some types of information.

Of course mapping is not efficient or suitable for every type of information. For example, putting a novel in the form of a map would be excruciatingly confusing. However, a great deal of the information that “information workers” receive, digest, and communicate out would fit very conveniently into the paradigm of a map rather than in the form of simple written text or data on a PowerPoint chart. Maps are well-suited to represent information that is categorized, grouped, or related in some way to other information.

In my next post on the subject, I will further discuss how mind maps can actually communicate more than just the content on the map – stay tuned.

If you have any thoughts on the basics of mind mapping or if this has helped you in any way – please let me know!