[simonbarker87]

I use mind maps all the time. They were instrumental in helping me pass GCSEs, A Levels, UnderGrad and parts of my PhD. Before I read the book (Tony Buzan, Use Your Head) I did OK in exams and school but nothing to write home about. With mind maps I went from a C to an A across the board.

Whats most amazing about them, for me, is that even after 7 years I can still remember good chunks of my A Level Physics and Electronics mind maps.

The key is to read the book and use them properly, most people use them as a glorified spider diagram (like this software). A good MM stays in your head for years and it's like feeling you way to the information rather than just brute forcing it from memory.

I highly recommend reading the book.

I have 2 MMs on the walls next to me. One for how we are going to get enough traffic to our site next winter and another detailing what we learnt last winter in general in the business.

[keithpeter]

Should you happen to use Mac OS, have you seen Tinderbox (Eastgate systems)? Windows (and Wine) users may want to look at Inspiration.

Both allow 'unconstrained' mind mapping/concept mapping where the spatial arrangement of objects is not enforced.

[porker]

Excellent! I like to work with:

- Loose sentences/notes, which I group into 'clouds' of related topics (without a mindmap's edges). Scapple [0] on OSX is good for this (and spider diagrams), and Microsoft OneNote.

- Spider diagrams - I find mentally these much easier to create when listening to a presentation or in a meeting. The straight lines help for some reason

- Mind maps. My weakest skill, but as someone else commented they stay in the mind better than anything else does, and I can remember some from 3+ years ago.

[0] http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple.php

[gknoy]

Would you go into more detail about how one "uses it properly"? Is there a good book or other resource that describes how to do this?

[simonbarker87]

It's difficult to describe what I call "properly" without doing it a diservice but the original book is called "Use Your Head" by Tony Buzan and I would highly, highly recommend it. The first half doesn't really touch on mind mapping and is more on how memory works but that sets up for the mind mapping section and is just as (if not more) valuable.

It's an old book, I read my Mum's copy when I was 14 and it was hers from uni but it is great.