Corona virus has given us a break to rethink our lives. We have a lot of time to see things differently, come up with new ideas and be creative. It is my hope when this gets to the end we all will have a plan of action about that business idea you been fearing to fire.
Mind mapping is a helpful tool for exploring ideas and looking for associations and connections. Mind mapping can either be used to explore something that you already know, an existing structure or explore a completely new idea that you’re just trying to get as many ideas out as possible. It’s not a complicated process, but sometimes it’s a refreshing way to look at the information.
So, to start, again, pen and paper, my favorite tools. It’s often helpful to start with a subject matter that you know well. So, I recommend starting with yourself. So what you wanna do is put your name in the middle of the page in a circle. Starting in the middle and then working out. In general, I like to work in a clockwise fashion, but again, all these techniques you’re gonna figure out ways to adapt them for you and what works best for you.
A lot of the time, these processes might get a little bit messy. You can start over, but it’s also okay to make mistakes, cross things out, and just have something be imperfect. So, starting with your life, you might wanna think about your interests, your passions, your schooling, your work experience.
Go ahead and create spokes coming out from the middle of the circle to highlight these different areas of interest. One of the reasons I really love mind mapping is it helps you find associations you might not have made otherwise.
For me, when I was creating a mind map of myself, I realized that my background in anthropology actually directly connected to a lot of my more recent work in design thinking. Don’t be afraid that your background might not be as traditional. Think about what assets you bring to your professional experience. HIDE
