Motivation on the Run

Are you the type that prowls the Internet looking for ways to increase your productivity or makes things simpler or easier? If so, this review is for you. I seem to spend a lot of free time in this pursuit, and on occasion, find a gem. About a year ago, I found such a gem and wanted to tell you.

I heard the term mind mapping and didn’t have any idea what it meant. I began a research project to discover the secrets of mind mapping, to explore the inner most depths of my existence. The Internet was the logical place to begin, so I headed over to Google and typed in mind mapping to get the scoop. As of right now if you search for that term, you will receive 28,000,000 + hits, but in early 2005, that was not the case. I found discussions on the genome mapping project, mind theory, and research on mapping the synapses patterns. This and other extremely interesting pages kept me looking and reading for a few days, but my interest was waning.

Then a link to a page that had mind mapping software. WHAT? How could this be available when research scientists were still working to determine the most basic information on the brain. Of course, that wasn’t what the software was. It was a way to quickly brain storm an idea, capturing information quickly and easily onto a computer screen, without trying to work the outline features in MS Word ( I always get so frustrated with this).

I downloaded and installed the trial version of the software and played around with it. After a short time I could see the value of this type software, but wondered when it would be capable of delivering what I thought it promised. Disappointedly, I un-installed the software and bookmarked the page to check in later.

Later, I thought about the mind mapping software again and began a more thorough search, defining more parameters in Google to assist in the fresh endeavor. This resulted in finding an open source software package called, FreeMind. It looked awesome in the screenshots and I downloaded and installed and within minutes was creating extensive mind maps quickly and easily. I WAS IMPRESSED!No reading help files, no book to download and work through. This is great!! Open the program and mess around a few minutes and bingo. Now I will admit that some of the more advanced features required some reading on the website, but for basic maps, it was just easy.

OK, so how easy is it to get started? Open the program and click the center box. Type in the title for the project, then hit Insert on your keyboard. Now type the first major branch, hit enter and type the second, then enter and the third major branch. Want to add more detail? Roll the mouse over the label to highlight and hit the Insert key. That’s it. I’m not kidding.

Freemind is written in Java and is available for any platform (operating system) you are running, whether Mac, Linux or Windows. The features are too numerous to delve into with this short article, but if you will head over to the website, you can read for hours. I have done that myself over the last year, learning more about how it works and discovered even more uses than I had thought of. I use it at work to map websites in development. Different branches for the different segments, smaller limbs for the specific pages, and additional detail added beyond that.

I find it fast, easy, and reliable in it’s current version, 0.8.0, available at the FreeMind site. It does come in several forms and if you have room on your hard drive, I would recommend the Max version for Windows. It includes many of the plug-ins that give additional functions to the software, including printing to PDF.

I now use it for all types of brain storming sessions at work and home. Need to build a project plan for that upcoming camping trip? Does the new assignment at work needs a huge project plan? Are you committed to organizing your CD collection? FreeMind can help you organize your lists and your thoughts with easy mouse clicks and tons of my favorites, keyboard shortcuts.

Now, that’s a great piece of software. Easy to use and easy on the pocket book (that’s free, if you missed it).

Technorati : FreeMind, brain storming, mind mapping