Vincent Sparreboom

Posted on September 17, 2009

Mind mapping software can make such a huge difference to your productivity that you really should think about making it an essential component of your personal toolkit. I am a huge fan of mind mapping software and couldn’t live without it. Here are ten reasons why you should start using it:

1. It is very easy to customize
The greatest benefit of using mind mapping software is being able to easily control, manipulate and analyze ideas, knowledge and information. This software works by condensing ideas and information into containers that can be rearranged as required. 

2. It can dramatically improve productivity
Independent studies carried out by Mindjet and myself show an average increase in productivity of 20% when using mind mapping software. In other words, one day in five or 73 days per year! What could you achieve if you could save that kind of time? What effect would such an increase in efficiency produce?

3. It can help you become a better, more effective problem solver 
The human brain works by association and mapping information visually makes it easier to see connections between pieces of information that appear unrelated. Also, your brain hates anything being unfinished. So if your brain sees an undeveloped map branch, it kicks in and delivers the thoughts and ideas required to complete it.

4. It helps you to recognize gaps in your information
The brain works visually and by association, so when you begin mapping your ideas and knowledge visually, it is much easier to see where gaps exist in your information; which additional facts or knowledge you need to obtain and even to identify new ‘white space’ ideas that you couldn’t see previously.

5. It provides powerful tools to streamline your thinking
If you move a topic in a mind map, you change its context and by doing so, you change its meaning. This allows you to ‘think about how you think’ and to look at ideas and information from a more detached viewpoint. You can then rearrange and rethink your ideas until they make sense.

6. It helps you understand key issues faster
This was judged to be the most valuable benefit by mind mapping software users. You can quickly do a ‘brain dump’ into your favorite mind mapping software and rearrange topics and ideas until you are satisfied. Each time you rearrange a mind map you change the context of each topic. This is very powerful.

7. It helps you reach better decisions
Mind mapping allows you to record a detailed picture of a problem or opportunity, to brainstorm possible solutions, to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each one by assigning weights to them and to reach a more reasoned, considered decision – frequently faster than by other methods of decision making.

8. It helps you to be better organized
You can use mind maps project management tool. You can create agendas, to do lists, keep all the project information in one place. Mind maps can contain links to documents, folders, files and websites. You can use the time you save looking for documents to achieve great things!

9. It allows you to see the bigger picture
By utilizing the option to expand or contract a mind map, you can alternate between macro and micro views in the same document. This is especially useful in a large or complex project.

10. You can easily identify, prioritize and track key project tasks
Most mind mapping software offers many ways of prioritizing and tracking topics including categorizing by color or flag, adding task information to topics, including start and end dates, % complete and priority.

You can even create a personal dashboard to keep an eye on projects you have delegated and those that must be completed. If you use the Getting Things Done (GTD) management method, you’ll find that some mind mapping programs help you to manage your ‘next actions’ and ‘someday maybe’ tasks more efficiently.

If you are still not using mind mapping software to improve your business productivity, I strongly recommend that you consider it.