New Year´s Resolution

Here a first approach to the new year´s resolution. It´s a very good way to open up my new mindmapping notebook for the coming year.

Voyeurism

Long time without posting... feel shame about it!
Another point about my evolution in mindmapping, it is my Voyeurism. I look into maps from other people to learn, to get fresh things, to admire, to get deeper into it... at last this is a collaborative evolution.
In that particular course, I have found some nice maps at Buzanworld web page

Stock markets analysis through Mindmapping techniques

One of the hobbies I am suffering is the stock markets observation. I do remember those times when I used statistical parameters in the University. In this case I observe several stocks in different markets to determine tendencies by means of exponential moving average in different periods of time and analyzing crossed among them.

I keep track of what it is observed by using a mindmap.

Business Plan Guidelines

My business year tis about to end this month, so this is a very good time to prepare Business Plan for the coming year.
I have written down a little map with guidelines worth enought to prepare my own Business Plan to be presented to top management.

Habits from highly effective people

Several years ago I read some notes about how to increase productivity, beginning from oneself. Based on these lectures and some experiences on my own I did quickly draw a quite simple map.
This one is part of the remembrances I usally post.
I am sorry cause it is in spanish, I will translate into english later on and perhaps in a colorful version.

Capturing ideas everywhere

In one of the last posts we have been talking a little bit about how to handle the multiple tasks effectively by using mindmapping.
Similar concept to GTD (Get the Things Done) but of my own.
One of the topics whenever you want to use mindmapping to control your work is how to capture the multiple ideas that are constantly popping up.
This issue turns out quite easy when you are at the office, just get another new branch in your map and you write it down. What does it happen when you are outside "on the field"?
I am not a proud owner of a mindmapping-inside application portable device, so I attack this problem by using "notes writing" applications on my handy (if I´ve got enought time) or just by dictating the note to the recorder application.
Whenever I came back to the office, I look and listen to my handy and put the different news taks, notes, ideas, links, phone calls reminders... into the mindmapping.
I have also added a new branch to my Activities Framework map, named Rather Urgent Issue, to attach these notes in case they were urgent.

Mindmaps usage from a different perspective

One of the topics I would like to cover is how other users are taking the most out of Mindmapping techniques, either hand-made or software-made.
In this particular case, I show the case from Deepak Ravlani, who is a Business Development Manager at a smartphone software startup, who has also a very interesting blog.
Deepak is a newbie working with these issues, although he foresees great potential for him from these techniques.
Here it is showed a mindmap coming from him, where he takes advantage of the different mindmapping features (and specifically of the different software tools) to have documents, thoughts, files, folders,... at hand.
I think learning with other people can provides us with a hugh range of new usages, possibilities, features and so on, that can takes us to reach further in this world.
Thanks Deepak for your contribution.

What is about me and my blog on the Web

I am pretty sure you already know about this particular mindmanager feature to make Google searches within a map.
I have made a very simple usage of this feature to make two particular searches: one about me and the other one about my blog (which, of course, is all yours).
These two searches have showed me that Mindmanager could be a very interesting tool in order to determine and classify the Web impacts you get from some specific Internet action you want to make.
Of course you can get the draw in flickr.com.

Upgrading my resume

These summer days I´ve been working with my resume. I have taken it our from linkedin and I have polished it up to get a brand new one.
I have always thought that a visual resume provides more information than the written one, specially in those cases where you don´t have enough time to dedicate.

Managing work with MindMapping

I am pretty sure this procedure that I am ready to explain, is not the best in class, but it is the one that works suitably for me.
It is my personal answer to the question, how do I deal with the large amount of tasks, which I am responsible for?
My answer to this questions is composed of different linked mindmaps:
#1 called Activities Framework
It is the root map composed of two diffent parts.
The link part contains links to the different folders, files, mails, appointments in calendar, contacts,... which I require to do my job and also for my personal issues.
The right part contains access to the different maps, where the taks are evolving. I could be able to reach any task in any year, and in any quarter and in any week.
#2 called Taks
You can access from Activities Framework.
Whenever a new task come up, it is included inside. This task is inmediatly added to a customer or to personal diretory and it is categorized with follow-ups icons, deadlines, responsibles and so on, so it can be suitably filtered after to keep track of it.
The different tasks are there till they are completed, their next step is the Follow-up Map.
#3 called Follow-up
It is composed of the different tasks that are accomplish but they also have to be tracked, because you are not the direct responsible, because these tasks depend on other (let´s consider the case in which you bid to a customer, your task is already done but it is stopped until your customer requires dealing on).
#4 calles Finished
When a task is completed and finished reaches this map.
Is case of bids is when you know its status (won, lost) and you know who was the winner, prices differences and so on.
#5 called Finished LT
Where are store the whole set of completed and finished tasks.
It works as a long-term repository, where you go whenever you require some information from the past.
These are the different steps to successfully accomplish the great amount of tasks, which I am direct responsbile for or the ones I must have under control.
If you have some suggestions to improve the procedure, please feel free to contact or to comment.
As most part of my job is related to customers, I used to group up all the tasks related to the customer they are coming from, so I don´t have the complete freedom to show all the different tasks becuase of confidentiality. Unfortunatly, the maps are showed incompleted, but after every maps there are hundreds of tasks.

50 Useful Mind-Mapping Tools for College Students

Interesting post related to useful mindmapping tools for college students.

MM8 feature

I knew a little bit about that but I hadn´t checked it until I saw the Mindjet Blog post. I am talking about File Explorer feature and the many different possibilities it enables.
Rather interesting post.

Remembrances

One of the tasks I like the most is getting back to the maps I made some years ago and compare the current and the former style.
Here you get a weekly to-dos map, it is about 3 or 4 years ago.

House 5x24 "Both Sides Now"

Yesterday night I was watching House on TV (House 5x24 "Both Sides Now") and it turned out to be one of the clearest definitions about two brain hemyspeheres working. It seemed to me a pretty good summary about what I am publishing in my latest posts, as a manner to determine that mindmapping techniques helps us improving creativity.

Getting experiences accessing the right hempysphere

Getting deeper into my last post and into Betty Edwards´ book, I have been completing some of the exercises she propose in order to get the left hemysphere bored with some tasks and to get the right hemysphere doing the whole job.
It was about drawing a picture in a particular way, watching it upside down.
While doing the job, I took some notes into a mindmap about how I was feeling under this "right hempysphere ruling" state.
Most part of these experiences are commonly perceived by everyone, but they are also extraordinary good to identify such a state.

Using your "righty" friend

I am currently reading Betty Edwards' Drawing with the right side of the brain and it is being a quite interesting book with fascinating theories and exercises. I reached the book to improve my drawing ability, which I would say, it has been since I was a child a disability.
From the first page you find quite interesting and solidly based theories about the brain, it is composition (some had been treated in this blog between right and left parts of the brain) and how every part works and how to stimulate every part.
One thought quite interesting is the existing stuck in the brain functionality study (in comparison with other subjects) mostly due to the fact that the brain is the only part of the universe which is observing and investigating itself.
Another quite interesting topic is how to get into the right part operation and the "synthoms" you get by being working into that part (time absense, lower cardiac rhythm,...).

Mindmaps on flickr.com

Taking into account some suggestions in the blog comments, I am currently working to get some extra free space on flickr.com, so I can locate all the mindmaps I used in my blog. Further on I will locate every mindmap into that webpage, so they can be more easily accessed.
Thanks for the suggestions and please don´t hesitate giving suggestions to improve the blog, I will follow your recommendations.
Hand-made Mindmaps repository
Software-made Mindmaps repository

Reading Books by mindmapping

One of the most common applications, in my personal case and already explained within this blog, it is mindmapping the most interesting books contents.
In this particular case, I have taken advantage of the easter vacation period to get back (for third time) to Idea Mapping (by Jamie Nast), an extraordinary book, where everytime you get back, you discover something new to go deeper.
What is put into the mindmap are different ideas, which I consider important, from my point of view, it doesn´t intend to be a summary or something like that. Just some notes.

Philippe Boukobza´s digital identity

It turns out to me rather interesting the Philippe Boukobza´s mind map related to his digital identity.

The power of the images

Mindmapping success to my opinion resides on the seductive attraction that images provoke in our brains. To illustrate this I will make some examples showing up.
How do you explain how a bison is? You can start talking it is a four-legged animal, brown, etc I estimate 10 minutes to get your mate knowing what you are talking about (obviously if you don´t say the word "bison"), I presume there will be lots of TV contests around that. If you show her an image of a vison, she will understand immediatly, so you save 10 minutes less some seconds.
OK, let´s get back thousands of years ago in a cavern located in the north of Spain (Altamira), the same episode with paintings to explain other mates how a bison was (the photo).
So we haven´t evolved so much, in that sense!!! --)))
Next example. During many years the radio was the preferable way of communication in the world, till TV showed up and the radio reduced drastically its influence. The main advantage was the image vs the oral communication. More easy to understand, more easy to interpret, more easy to remember.
Third example. The communication problem, when something is explained to you, just a little percentage of the original message can be understood by you (cause of the channel, of the talker interpretation and also the listener interpretation,...). This communication losses are much more lower with an image, cause you get directly the original message.
Fourth one, how many memories from you are not tied up to images? Our memory is based on images received from our visual sense.

So far, so good!

36th Birthday map

Mindmapping for clearifying ideas

Last week, as every month, I had a meeting with my CEO to talk a little bit about the results, evolution, budget to-day fulfillment, strategies, actions plans, investments and so on.
I am also located in a part of Spain, where we of course are suffering part of the global economic crisis, specially in its industrial part (due to the lack of financement and also to the bad sales in constructution and automotive environment). I was preparing the night before, what to talk about the different issues, in order to have all of them clearly defined in my mind and with all the differente links connected and that was when this map showed up. I was thinkg and suddently it came up to me.
The differente colors and images helped me to have it on my mind when I was on that "hard" meeting.
I have taken some "licenses" in this particular case, cause I am talking about current issues, I have deleted some companies names, investments names and so on, cause I think the important it is to show how mindmapping can help you to put your ideas in order oriented to a concrete goal and that was the case.
Let´s wait mindmapping can help me improving the results.

Interview at Usine Nouvelle

To those of you familiar with French language, there is an interview in Usine Nouvele where some of the intervinients were Philippe Boukobza and me.
In my personal case, I talked a little bit about how putting both brain hemispheres on something, can take you to get new ideas, points of views and so on, which otherwise could be impossible.
The French magazine has made an extrordinary report on mindmapping from different approaches.

Mindmapping reading books - colorful version

That´s another example about taking notes when reading books.
That thing helps me to:
1.- Keep focused on the topic.
2.- Connect ideas with previous knowledges (making links)
3.- Store the information deeper in my mind.
An advice, don´t ever lend me a book! Otherwise I will bring you back colorful mindmapped.

Mindmapping reading books

One of the most important mindmapping features is the ability to link different concepts. I mostly use it whenever I am reading a book, linking the new concepts I got with the previous concepts I had.
This was the case when reading the Jean-Luc Deladriere and his friend´s book (extraordinary to my opinion, I do recommend).

Particular time management

One of my main problems, in my professional life, is the amount of issues I must deal with or I must be involved in. Too many in too little time.
In such a environment you need either getting a suitable and comfortable method to take the most of your time or be prepared for your crash.
Of course, I use mindmapping but I also use continously different pieces of paper with different maps to optimize time.
Being able to take to the higher levels the optimization your time is the key to transform yourself in to high performance (recession-proof) worker, let´s deserve that!!

Looking for leadership models - The West Wing serie

I am a "The West Wing" serie fan and there is one chapter in the 6th season, which is titled "Liftoff" and, to me, it is a clear leadership model.
I have tried to look for hints by analizing in order to take out conclussions.

Securities to follow

One of my favourite leisure activities is analyzing stock market, I know for sure it´s a crazy activity and I know the competitions between a donkey and a broker in Wall Street.
I use to look at the stock figures once a day and keep track about some alarms. Whenever I get an alarm about one security, I began to look at it closer.

Updating my Digital Identity

XMind: Online Search for External Information

To those of you not quite familiar with XMind, the following post by Stephen Zhu will give you some information about how to check out more information on the web about an specific topic, obviously within XMind.

http://xmindusers.ning.com/forum/topics/xmind-great-design-online

XMind Roadmap for version 3.0.2

I got news about the XMind Roadmap for the version 3.0.2.
Features Content:
File Security
Sub-Map*
Topic text alignment
Hyperlinks in Notes
Find/Replace in labels/notes/relationships
Import Omni Outliner
Auto Hyperlink**
More languages support

Milestone Plan:
Feature complete: Middle at Q1, 2009
Final release: Late at Q1, 2009

*Select a topic and create a new sheet in current workbook whose
central topic is just the selected topic. And the central topic is
linked with this topic.
**When you type "http://..", it will become Hyperlink automatically.

Happy New Year 2009

I don´t see any better way to express these wishes than publishing out the map from Philippe Boukobza, which is extremely good.

1 year timelife

One year ago, I began this experience as a way to show how mindmapping is helping me in either my professional or my personal life. It was also a way to show many people who were asking me about how I was gathering up information in these kind of "spiders" and what was the use of such a figure.
The main goals were helping to develop (from a modest point of view) mindmapping, showing how it can contribute to improve performance and also as a meeting point to receive suggestions, comments and ideas to go further.
Throughtout this blog I have met quite interesting people from many different world locations sharing experiences and with a fascinating wisdom and promoting free ideas interchange.
Talking about the blog, these are the main figures that we all have achieved.
(Source: Google Analytics)
7,680 Visits
15,793 Page Views
5,564 Users
116 Countries
96 Feeds subscriber (Source Feedburner)
To me these figures are a success and I am really keen on developing on this blog with your help and with your inputs, from my point of view I am currently working on new contents to be posted.
Thanks so much for your support.