Think you have Too Many Ideas?
You Actually have More!

Too Many Ideas? Mind Map those Ideas!

Ever have so many things flying around in your brain that you feel over-whelmed and don’t know where to begin?

Ever start listing them and trying to prioritize the list so you do the most important thing first, next most important thing second, etc?

Try Mind Mapping those ideas.  Literally and physically you can get them all on one page.  Having the ‘view from the air’ will help you see relationships and prioritize all those things that were spinning around in your brain.

One way to work on all this ‘brain stuff’ is to start with ‘Ideas‘ in the middle of your computer screen.  (I’m assuming you’re using Mind Mapping software  for this, because it makes the process immensely easier.) Use your ‘rapid fire’ function and start ‘popping’ all those ideas onto your screen using the ‘Ideas’ Central Image as your starting point.

Once you’ve got, for the moment, those ideas radiating from the center, you can start prioritizing them.  I start at 12:00 and go clockwise, dragging items either closer to 12:00 or to 11:55, depending upon how important I think it is.

Once I have things prioritized, I usually add pictures or symbols to those ideas.  ‘A picture is worth a 1000 words’ and this will invariably remind me or other ideas and things I want to get done.  I then add those items to the Mind Map.

At this point, patterns usually start to develop, and ideas that are similar in nature can be put into a ‘Parent Box’.  This ‘Parent Box’ is a larger category that might encompass several ideas and projects.  For instance, I am writing a book about Public Speaking.  On the same subject, I also want to do workbooks, podcasts, DVDs, very short videos, a High School and Grade School version of the same subject, etc.  These can all be lumped together under the ‘Parent Box’ – NSPS (‘No Sweat Public Speaking!‘)

I’ll do the same grouping with everything else in the Mind Map.  There are usually relationships between some of the projects and even individual items in different projects.  I can use colors and symbols and connecting lines to show these relationships.

Another thing I’ll do is to link some of those ideas and projects with URLs, documents, and even other Mind Maps that specifically pertain to that idea.  This makes researching the subjects a whole lot easier and usually leads to, you guessed it, more ideas and more editing of my priorities.

Some of those priorities are going to be time sensitive; some subject to funding; and others get goosed up in priority because of the personal satisfaction I have for them.

A benefit of this whole process is, and I’m assuming you’re being honest with yourself, placing things you don’t like doing, and maybe aren’t very proficient at, on the Mind Map, also.

It’s human nature to put off stuff we don’t like and can’t do well.  Often, however, these are important things to do.  (Tax time, maybe?)

One of the beauties of the Mind Map and using software to edit and prioritize things is that, once you get the hang of it, it’s easy! As different projects are completed or re-prioritized, it’s easy to make the changes.  (Try doing this with lots of outlines and vertical lists!)

One last idea – Attach a reward for yourself with accomplishing something,  Maybe even keep a Mind Map of your Accomplishments!

Reaching goals is a process and not an event.  An elephant is eaten one bite at a time, and you can reach your goals and accomplish more, in an order that gets the highest value using – Mind Mapping!