Capitalogix

Using Mind-Mapping Tools - Part 1

Mind maps are going mainstream. They're showing up throughout the office, with a wide variety of users and uses.

Initially, mind maps were simply a brainstorming, outlining, or note-taking tool. Now, they are showing up in thought processing, visual thinking, project management, process planning and presentations.

Tony Buzan is the father of modern mind mapping. Here is a video where he describes mind mapping and why you might want to use its "radiant thinking" process.

 

 

 

Tony Buzan's company recently released iMindMap 5. It is software that helps you create mind maps.  Here is a map made with iMindMap that explains the basic best practices of mind-mapping.

 

iMindMap 5 is a great tool that keeps getting better. You can certainly use it for a lot more than taking notes.

The product comes in various versions (starting with a no-cost basic version) and moving up to a full-featured Ultimate version, which includes rich project management and 3-D presentation tools.

Here is a video showing the software.

 

 
 
The current generation of mind mapping tool is considerably more powerful, yet easier-to-use, than its predecessors. You can download a copy of iMindMap to try for yourself.

 Next week, in part 2, I will show examples of maps made for specific business uses.

Related Articles

• iMindMap 5 launches with a goal of taking care of business (mindmappingsoftwareblog.com)
• Mind Mapping Software: More Powerful Than You May Realize (mindmappingsoftwareblog.com)
• BiggerPlate.com mind map gallery adds support for iMindMap (mindmappingsoftwareblog.com)

Video Captures Obama's Favorite Catch-Phrases

‘Make no mistake,’ Obama is a big fan of his own catchphrases.

This video shows that there’s no mistaking it: “Make no mistake” is President Obama’s favorite catchphrase.

  

Statistics gathered by the Global Language Monitor reveal that Obama has said it 2,924 times since he was sworn into office more than two years ago.

Other signature Obama sayings include: "Win the future" (1,861 times),  “Here’s the deal” (1,450 times), and “Let me be clear,” (1,066 times). In a nod to the tough financial times he has faced, the president’s fifth most popular motto is “It will not be easy” (1,059 times).

 

Related articles

• Charlie Sheen To Copyright His Phrases (now100fm.radio.com)
• Obama Begins Bid for 2012 Re-Election With Video and E-Mail (businessweek.com)

E-Mail Merge: Sending Holiday Wishes, Without Losing Your Holiday Spirit.

If you hate writing personalized holiday cards, you'll love this tool.  It does what it is supposed to, it's easy to use, and it's going to save you a ton of time and effort.

The Task I Put-Off Every Year.

I just finished writing a handful of holiday greetings to send to my family. Even though composing a message and signing these cards was a relatively simple task, some part of me resented it.

Call me Ebenezer Scrooge, but I don’t enjoy writing thank you notes and holiday cards. On one hand that embarrasses me a little, because I recognize that both are expressions of appreciation and being grateful for relationships and nice things. On the other hand, it's the thought that counts. I can be grateful and appreciative without suffering. How much time and effort I spend is irrelevant to how much goodwill I feel or express.

EMail Merge Pro.

That's why I recommend you try this e-mail merge software. It allows you to send personalized holiday cards, invitations or other messages, in a fraction of the time it used to take.

This easy-to-learn, easy-to-use Outlook mail merge solution has a helpful Wizard interface that gets you up and running in minutes. It takes you through a step-by-step process that makes it very easy to select who you want to send to, and how you want to personalize the message (for example, adding a first name or some other information from the contact record).

Now that I have a "Holiday Card" category in Microsoft Outlook, the hardest part of the process is tagging the new people who I want to get a holiday card.

It is the Right Tool for the Job.

If you need to tap a nail into the wall, a chain-saw is not the right tool. Likewise, most people don't need commercial e-mail services. Still, it is a great convenience having a tool that you can use, from time to time, when you want to send personalized messages to a bunch of people.

EmailMerge is a one-time purchase that allows you to send unlimited emails to unlimited contacts no additional fees or costs.

I tend to use this program two or three times a year; and every time I use it I'm happy it's there and thrilled with how it performed.  Here is a link to a video demonstration.

I've used this software for many years. It is stable, mature, and continuing to improve. I highly recommend that you download a trial from their website.

They also make a number of other add-ins for Outlook worth checking-out and have a blog worth reading.

Remember Everything with Evernote

I have been using a software tool you might find useful.  It solves a problem that you probably have, even if you don't think about it often.

A Cure for Information Overload.

It In the old days, you could photocopy something and put it in a file.  So finding it was relatively straight-forward. 

Today, you are faced with a different type of challenge (and chances are your filing system is so "1990s").  Nowadays, you might be looking for a picture, audio snippet,  or video ... a document (or more likely, just a part of one) … or a scrap you saved (like a quote, web-link, or blog post).

Moreover, as you use the computer for more things (and a bigger percentage of the work you do), it gets harder to find a random "something" that you might be looking for.

Part of the problem is that we are getting more efficient at creating "stuff", so there is more of it.  In addition, that stuff is a lot more varied than it used to be.

Capture Everything to Your Personal Digital Memory.

Evernote makes it easy to store, organize, and find virtually anything.  Even better, it is also good at sharing it with others (award-winning good at it).

Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screen-shot. It will be there when you need it.

Finding it Fast, Wherever You Are.

Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and searchable. That means you can find things quickly and easily.

You can search for items by keywords, titles, and tags. Evernote even makes the printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too (for example, the text on a photo of your white-board).

There is an application program. However, you can also access your information through a Web interface (wherever you are, even if you are away from your computers). In addition, there are versions that work on various smart phones and Evernote provides "Capture" buttons that integrate with Microsoft Outlook and whatever browser you might use. What that means is that it's easy to use, and it's there when you need to use it.

Here is a video showing you how it works.

One Tool That Takes the Place of Many Others.

I've tried dozens of programs that do similar things. In the old days, they were called "personal information managers".

Many of these tools are specialized, so to handle it all you might use a to-do list (or "Getting Things Done" organizer), Internet bookmark manager, screen-capture utility, document management system, and free-form database.

Evernote does all that, and virtually anything else you throw at it ... yet, it doesn't cost you anything until you throw enough stuff into it to pass its generous monthly threshold.  For what it is worth, I clipped over 200 items before passing the limit.

Bottom-Line:  Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free.  It's worth a try, you might like it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Note-taking Tool, Evernote, Reaches 3 Million User Mark (mashable.com)
• ThinkWasabi interview with Evernote CEO, Phil Libin (evernote.com)
• On Managing Information Overload and Extremely Lame Superpowers (blogs.hbr.org)

A Matter of Perspective

What could turn this boy, who I happily go to Cowboys games with ...

... Into this boy?

When it happened, I posted this comment on Twitter: "My high-school age son came home today as a Platinum Blond. Hooray ... it makes guessing 'What's Next' so much more fun." 

The responses were clever.  One guy said: "Grounding is next, I expect."  Someone else thought providing a little contrast would help. They said: "Here's what could be next ... Well, hope not ... but you never know".  Click this link to see what they were referring to.

As it turns out, his blondness was something many football players did to celebrate their team making the play-offs and getting to play at the new Cowboys' Stadium.

Somehow (in this context) he looks better to me already ... But he doesn't have my burst of slowness, yet.

The point is that many things we initially perceive one way, may turn out to be something quite different all-together.

Here is a Story to Illustrate This Better ... And to Make it Stick.

This is another one of those stories I get, in different forms, from time-to-time.

It is called "Who Knows?" And sometimes it is told as an old story from China, while other times it is set during the American Civil War.

Nevertheless, "Who Knows?" is one of those  "sticky" stories that people like to re-shape and re-tell.  So, with no further ado, here it is for you to read for yourself.

Who Knows?

A farmer's horse ran away one day and all the villagers came to him saying, Oh what bad luck you've had! Your horse that you need to do your work is gone!

The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?

Several days later, the farmer's horse returned, followed by a herd of wild horses!

Oh what good luck you have, cried the same villagers! Not only has your horse returned, he has brought you many horses!

The farmer again shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?

One day not long after, the farmer's son was trying to break one of the wild horses. He was thrown off the horse and broke his leg.

Oh what bad luck you have! Cried the villagers. Now your son has a broken leg. Who will help you?

The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?

Not long after, as the son was recuperating, an army came through the village and took all the young males to fight in a war in another region. They did not take the farmer's son because of his broken leg.

Oh what good luck you have! The villagers cried once again. Your son has been spared being taken off to war because of his broken leg!

The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?

We Don't Know ... Yet.

This is a great story to remember when you're projecting far beyond the present moment ... or even when you're just worrying about what will happen next?

The things we think are good fortune can often have bad endings; and vice-versa. How many times have you looked back on what seemed like bad luck, when it happened, but later realized that it was the start of something better?

Made to Stick: 

This story reminded me of the book by Chip and Dan Heath, called Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.  It is a fascinating explanation about what makes an idea memorable or interesting.

The premise is that you should focus on the six things that make ideas stick – which they summed up in the mnemonic "SUCCES" (yes, I know that success has two "s"s at the end ... I didn't make up the acronym).  Here is what that represents:

• Simple — find the core of any idea;
• Unexpected — grab people's attention by surprising them;
• Concrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered later;
• Credibility — give an idea believability;
• Emotion — help people see the importance of an idea;
• Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative.

Other Resources:

• Link to the Book: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
• Link to the Heath Brothers' Made to Stick Website
• Link to Videos about Made to Stick.

Clusters of Thoughts

It surprises me how many of my thoughts cluster on a particular theme for a period of time. I guess it makes sense because I think and write about things I notice that catch my interest.  And as my focus changes from time to time, what interests me changes.  It is kind of like not being able to get a song out of your head ... only it's about what you focus on.

I heard a good explanation for this at a Tony Robbins seminar this week.

He has an exercise where you open your eyes and look around the room, paying attention to anything that has a bright green color to it.

Try it, look around the room noticing everything you can remember that has green in or on it.

Then close your eyes, and without looking around again, try to remember anything that was red.  You probably can remember a lot more green things, than red things.

Tony calls this "reticular activation". But it's just a fancy name for the same reason that if you buy a white Lexus, all of a sudden you see white Lexus cars everywhere you go. The things you focus-on show up more often in your life simply because you notice them more often.

If you're curious, this week, the theme that I'm noticing in my personal, professional and business life is time, speed and pace. Here's a link to that post.

Software to Help You Manage Your Mind

Visual Thinking, Idea Mapping or Mind-Mapping ... whatever you call it, there are some terrific new tools available to help you think, plan and write better.

I find I'm using it more often and for more things, like: note-taking, process maps, brainstorming and presentations.

How Does It Work?

Mind-Mapping is related to outlining. So you already know how to do it.  It is intuitive, and makes it easy to see thought structure and relationships. It also makes it easy to review and re-organize the framework that organizes your data. Here is an example showing what you can do with a tool like this.

How Can You Use Mind-Mapping Software?

I use this type of software like a virtual whiteboard.  It helps me organize a meeting or present a thought process. What used to be a form on a piece of paper, now becomes the dynamic center of collective focus.  For example, here is a map template from Mindjet's MindManager; it is used to evaluate an idea using SWOT analysis (which stands for: strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat).

The structure of the outline and actually helps control focus and trigger new ideas. And the software allow me to add detail and new items in any order.  The result is better understanding and often, new ideas and possibilities.

Brainstorming.

The computer age has made it a lot easier for me to collect data. Then what? Data is a raw material, but I often want to think better ... rather than to just have more data. So, I use visual thinking tools to help me make sense of lots of ideas. It often helps me see relationships and move items around to places where they fit better, or trigger new thoughts.

For brainstorming, the software is a lot like writing ideas on Post-It Notes and moving them around on a whiteboard.  I like being able to enter information the order that occurs to me, rather than having to understand the bigger picture.

In fact, it's by placing all the seemingly random bits of information page and dragging them around into piles, that the bigger picture often reveals itself to me.

To do that, I try to figure what relates the piles, and I create a label for that category. I then try to figure out how categories fit together, and ultimately come up with a better understanding of the thought framework. From there, it doesn't take much work to fill out weaker areas of the outline, adding an idea here, moving an idea from there.

The Software Tools.

Even if you tried a tool like this before, it is time for a fresh look.  These tools have evolved and are worth having and using.

Mindjet's MindManager is the tool I use most often. The current version is stable and mature, with a nice feature set and the ability to export information into a variety of programs and formats. I especially like the new option to export a live branching version of the mind map in PDF format.

Mindjet offers a template gallery for you to download 70+ sample maps to use.

Another tool I've been using more of lately is Tony Buzan's iMindMap.  Buzan is a well-known proponent of mind mapping and has created a visually appealing tool.

It's compelling, and I'm trying to use it more. They also have a nice collection of videos explaining the software and concepts behind mind-mapping that is worth exploring.

Personally, though, for real work I find myself going back to Mindjet product.

In addition, there's an open-source version called FreeMind. Here's the link to try that tool as well.

How To Type More Accurately and Much Faster With Asutype

I'm surprised by how much of my typing is now done outside of traditional e-mail or business software (like Microsoft Word). Instead, my typing is done in web-based applications like my blog, Facebook, or Twitter. That's where a program like Asutype really shines.

I have been using a very effective spell-checking and text expansion program for several years now. It works so well that I forget it's there, even though it automatically fixes most of my typing errors and makes it easy for me to enter repetitive phrases or pieces of information.  The bottom-line is that it helps me type more accurately and much faster.

There are three basic ways to use the software.

1. Correct Mistakes Interactively. The first is an interactive spell checker that works as you type (hence the name "Asutype"). When you type something that isn't in its dictionaries, it pops up a correction box with several of the most likely replacement candidates. This provides a quick and easy way to fix your spelling without having to retype anything.
   
   
   
   
2. Correct Repetitive Mistakes Automatically. The software also keeps track of the mistakes you make as well as the corrections that you apply and allows you to create a list of automatic entries. From time-to-time I'll review the list of corrections and choose to add them to my permanent list. When I do that, then next time I mistype that word or phrase, the software automatically fixes it (without even asking). This means I type much quicker because most of my typing mistakes are repetitive and that means I make them consistently). I'm actually surprised by how many different ways I could misspell certain words. It's not so much that I don't know how to spell them, it's that my fingers don't do the right thing when I'm trying to type quickly or get distracted.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Automate Repetitive Typing.  The software also has some very powerful text expansion capabilities. I think of them almost as abbreviations or shortcuts. There are certain words or phrases that I type often (examples include: Capitalogix, our web address, or phrase like "please contact me if you have questions or comments".). Another example might be to use the abbreviation "VTY", which could expand to "very truly yours" …  and then your signature block.

You never have a second chance to make a first impression, so I'm glad that Asutype helps me seem like a good speller. Here are the links for you to find out more information or to download a trial copy yourself. I don't have anything to do with the company other than I'm a happy user. I've had my license for years, and I can vouch for their service, support, and the good experience that I've had with their tool. I hope you like it too.

Turn Talking Into Typing, Automatically

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 gets it right.  Finally speech recognition that is surprisingly accurate, even with little or no training.  Here is a 20-second video of me talking - and it typing.

I wrote about using dictation before.  This is different, because it gets smarter as you use it. There are easy ways to edit results, and the program learns from each correction.

For me, I know it works because I find myself using it to create drafts of many things.  And if it wasn't easier and more convenient than typing ... I wouldn't use it.  Instead, I often wait to create the draft at the computer with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  The writing ends-up sounding more natural if the first draft was spoken.

This program has matured nicely.  Earlier versions were temperamental and took a long time to train.  This one worked out-of-the-box.  I use it with a simple usb microphone (not even the noise-canceling headset they include). It also works with my handheld Olympus voice recorder.

Give it a try.

LiveScribe - All Things Fit to Print

I got a new gadget. It is a Livescribe pen that records both what it hears and what you write.

From a small sample of using it about a dozen times so far, I am impressed; Livescribe works great, and delivers immediate benefit at meetings and seminars.  I use it to review conversations and brain-storming sessions for clarification, or to catch something I missed the first time through.

It generates an interesting polarity of responses though. Some people get it instantly and want to know where they can buy them.  Others couldn't care less.  No one objected to its use during the meeting - and I suspect that it became invisible quickly.

It records about a hundred hours of surprisingly clear audio.  The pen has a camera, just above the tip, that captures the image of what is being written -- and synchronizes this to what you hear or say.  And if you go back and touch the tip of the pen to writing on the page, you hear what was being said while it was written.  You can even control the playback speed to go faster, or slower, when you want.

The Livescribe pen looks and feels nice.  It comes with a leather travel case and a dock to sync it with your computer.  There is well-designed software that lets you manage and share the results. Livescribe created a place to post "pen-casts" online, to share with your team.  You can limit who see it with an access control list or leave it open.  Click here for an example.

I'm sending my son to back to school with one.  It seems like the perfect environment for a tool like this. 

All-in-all, Livescribe is worth a try. For more information about this interesting technology, here is the Livescribe's site.

Here are some video demos.

It looks like college book stores and Amazon are expected to be the big distribution channels.