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Personal uses of mind maps
Mind maps and concept maps can be used in personal life, for hobbies and as a supporting technique in your work.
Below is an outline of personal uses of mind mapping. It is not just a list of possibilities. Follow the More... and other links to find ideas and explanations of how to use mind maps for these actions yourself.
Alternatively you can navigate by a mind map like the one on the right: The following two links open an active mind map in a separate browser window. This map has expanding branches and hyperlinks to other parts of WikIT.
Interactive map: Flash (recommended)
Goal setting
Deep and fresh analysis of something you know well
Self-study
Projects
Planning
Mind maps are an excellent tool for planning. Weddings, parties, travel -- your whole life, in fact.
Career
Plan out your career, or your next career move if you are already on the ladder.
Prepare for interviews, plan for new jobs, get ready for your next appraisals (or map out your subordinates' appraisals), map your way to promotion.
Life
Consider your further education in a mind map, decide if you want to hire a life-coach. Or if you are a life coach yourself, maybe map out your coaching plans or coaching tactics with individuals.
Time management
Mind maps work well with To Do lists, Getting Things Done (GTD), managing study plans and organizing freelance writing work.
For larger-scale time management, see also project management with mind maps.
Pomodoro Technique
Extending knowledge
Explore subjects that are new to you with a paper mind map on the desk beside you, or a mind or concept map open on the screen. Learning new material and build reference sources with a mind map or concept map.
Taking personal notes during meetings using a mind map.
Building a reference source
Mind mapping software often allows for the addition of files and notes to nodes. A mind map on a given subject can act as a useful repository of your own selected items.
Organizing personal records and documents
Thinking methods
5W1H (WWWWWH)
What? Where? When? Who? Why? How?
Favorite questions of schoolchildren (or their teachers, anyway), reporters and researchers.
An addition well worth thinking about (recommended by Richard Veryard) "for whom".
These questions can help with analysis, planning an enquiry, writing a report and in many everyday thinking activities. They also help at the first, sometimes the hardest, point of making a mind map -- the first layer of breakdown of the central topic.
