Distributing a budget

Many times in a professional work, a manager has to distribute a budget on top-down basis (in these cases I do recommend making previously a bottom-up analysis to determine needs in order to avoid problems).
Once the budget is approved, it must be distributed among the different estimated costs, here it is developed a mindmap to distribute the budget.

Mindmappnig for multiple scenarios analysis

Hi all.
Many times in professional and personal life, one should face different problems, these ones must be anlyzed in detail, specially due to the consecuences, one could have.
Mostly these studies have to consider different variables.
One way (extraordinary good from my personal point of view) is using the multiple scenarios analysis, when you first determine the different possibilities to solve the problem, once they are identified, one could go deeper by studing the pros and cons of every possibilites.
Here in the blog is shown a template to simplified using this tool.
Hope it would be useful enought.

Notetaking

Hi all.
Another issue we have been talking about in the blog is the possibility to take notes (from meetings, from presentations, from different ideas someone is showing you,...).
Here there is an example of notetaking.
Mindmapping for notetaking opens up a great amount of chances, among them forces you to think about every question you take notes, specially in the case you were using figures, colors, different markers and so on.
That is the issue of utilizing the two brain hemyspheres (the creative and the mathematical one).
Newly I must say I couldn´t make the map by using different markers.

Updating To-dos template

Hi all.
I was thinking about how to apply a suitable To-dos template to a real working day. I have found that the following one could be suitable enought to gather all the tasks that can be programmed.

Getting ROI from Mindmapping in your personal life - Supermarket

One of key issues I will like to focus on, is being able to determine how to get ROI -stands for Return Of Invesment- by using Mindmapping techniques in you professional and personal life.
Obviously, there are two main ways to get a higher ROI:
1.- Generating more incomes or
2.- Reducing costs.
(It is just a simplification to understand easily)
In this particular post, I will talk about how to reduce cost by using Mindmapping techniques, when one goes to the supermarket.
I have developed a particular template with the most common articles in a supermarket shopping list, grouped in different branches.
Within this template (I am also looking for a new repository to put on all the templates that I am using in the posts), I am using different labels and markers to determine which are the cheaper prices in the different supermarkets for the different items.
Every week, I think in advance the items I must shop and by filtering out, I am able to determine which items should I buy, in every supermarket, in order to get best prices.
Obviuosly some improvements can be added up:
1.- Determining not only price but price and quality to make the further choice.
2.- In case of using one only supermarket, determining the position of every branch in a clockwise direction consecuent with the location of every articles group, within the supermarket.
As a result of using these techniques in your shopping list, you will get:
1.- Not forgetting any item, which implies revisting the supermarket.
2.- Taking advantage of the prices, discounts and so on.
To sum up, it is just a simple application to show that some kind of ROI can be returned by using these techniques in both, personal and professional life.

Mindmapping for sort of CRM

Hi all.
As you can see by reading the blog, I am a great supporter of handmade maps but I also see the advantages of using a software to get the work done. Lately (on future posts), I will talk a little bit more about the differences I perceive).
One of the advantages of the software mindmapping, for me, is when you utilize these techniques to gather large amount of information, which you must refresh every certain period of time.
Let us talk about a particular case. If you are a company manager (CEO, Sales Manager or any other management position) you will like getting information about the different projects that are on the market right now, some kind of market transparency information (some sort of particular CRM -stands for Customer Relationship Management-, let´s say, maintaining the distances). Also you would like getting the most information about the projects, the companies, the key players and also your competence out there. One way to proceed is gathering this information on a huge map, where you should use labels, text markers, icons, colors and so on, to make a suitable search of what you are looking for.
These issues (icons, markers,...) help you managing tons and tons of information in a map without losing perspective by filtering out what you want.

Mindmapping on a napkin

Yesterday afternoon, I was thinking (in a cafe) about the mindmapping keys from my point of view.
A curiosity is that the mindmap was made on a napkin (for first time in the blog), let´s say it is another "allowed" format.
Basically they are:
1.- Having the whole map at a glance.
2.- Perspective. Moving fastly top-down and botton-up in concepts.
3.- Freedom. Not constraining the thoughts, allowing a free flow.
4.- Style. By using a brain fiendly design, it is easier getting back to work later on.
5.- Colors/Images/Icons. Using both brain hemispheres (creative and mathematical).
6.- Central Concept in the middle. Focusing from the beginning.
7.- Previous thinking. Forcing you to think in advance, mantaining concentration on the concepts.
An improvement point for me will be openning up new formats for the coming handmade mindmaps. Let´s go for that.