Focused Business Action

For many of us entrepreneurial folks, our minds are usually moving at a mile a minute. I call this “busy brain” and it is both a gift and a challenge. It is a gift because it fills your mind with great ideas which make you the creative person you are. It can also be a stumbling block because there’s so many ideas coming at you that you never take the time to implement any of them. Here’s a strategy to manage your ideas and connect them with action items. And, you don’t have to slow your busy brain down to a snail’s pace.

Mindmapping takes advantage of the tendency of the mind to work in short, intense bursts by allowing you to “dump” your ideas and thoughts onto paper in just a few minutes. This process allows information to flow freely out of your busy brain and it is organized into clusters as it flows from your mind to the page. This is brainstorming with a twist.

1. To begin you only need a piece of paper and something to write with.
2. In a box in the center of your paper, write one or two words which capture the essence of the problem you want to solve or the project you want to implement.
3. Then, as ideas start to pour out related to the topic, write down key words of those thoughts and connect them to the focus with lines.It is critical that you use just key words, because you want to capture your thoughts quickly-just enough to stimulate your memory when you go back later to review.
4. As each idea is generated which relates to one of the branches, write the key word(s) and associate it to the branch with a line.
5. Allow yourself to put down everything that comes to your mind. The longer you keep information in play, the more opportunity that information has to make new connections, to bounce off other ideas and information and to score new ideas.

• Business writing – Whether you are organizing material for a report or exploring an idea for a new business venture, mindmapping will help you bring depth and richness to your writing.
• Project Management – Mindmapping is an excellent way to begin “chunking” down a project.
• Managing Meetings – Much of our work time is spent in meetings. Mindmapping gives you a way to make this time more productive.
• To Do Lists – If standard “to do” lists don’t work for you, try this method.
• Presentations - Mindmapping gives you an easy way to prepare for speeches; it helps your audience understand and remember more of what you are presenting.
• Note-taking – This visually interesting method of note taking allows you to organize information as you receive it, add connections, and increase retention.
• Personal growth – Mindmapping taps into your deepest thoughts and provides an effective method of discovering our inner selves.

How might you use mindmapping in your business. Let us know by leaving a comment.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Scott Lewis and is filed under External Focus, FBA Program. You can follow the comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site.