I’ve been using mind maps now for well over 10 years on and off.  It started off from just the general spider diagrams I used at school to the elaborate, colourful drawings and more recently the online or application based maps such as Mind Manager or Mind Meister.

One thing I’ve come to realise in that time is that mind maps are absolutely revolutionary in what they can achieve.  It seems to sort my thoughts out and helps in following paths and getitng things done.  I’ve used them for planning a day, week, year.  Writing blog posts, reports, long emails, taking notes and managing projects.

Mind maps fit very nicely with my development too with my notebooks being filled with project plans, notes, code layouts, UI ideas all in mind map form.  Another area I’ve found them really useful is mapping books.  I’ve found no better way of studying, learning and reviewing books than with mind maps.

If you’re not a fan of the paper and pen approach then you may prefer one of the apps like MindJet Mind Manager or an online app called Mindomo.  Both offer a lot although Mindomo is free and Flash driven.

I’d seriously give it a go – does anyone else use mind maps and if so what for?

What I’d kill for is someone to build a mindmapping todo platform.  Like Remember the Milk + Mindomo.