Angela Booth’s Life Stream

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July 22, 2009

Mind maps: my #1 productivity tool

  1. Controls information overload. Freelancers – especially writers – often have to do a fair bit of research. Information overload can be a daily problem, but when using mind maps, it’s easy to build a reference map of articles, group and regroup information as necessary.

 

via geekpreneur.com

I use mind mapping constantly. It's my #1 personal productivity tool. It's not too much of a stretch to say that mind mapping keeps me sane.

Currently, my favorite mind mapping tools is iMindMap; I've got two other commercial programs on my Mac and PC, but iMindMap wins. (Not a surprise, since it was designed by Tony Buzan, who's popularized mind mapping.)

I love iMindMap for many reasons; not least because the program makes it easy to write while you're mind mapping. The notes window opens up into a large word processing window, and turns your notes into HTML, all ready to paste into a Web page or blog post.

Read the above article to discover how mind mapping makes freelancers (especially writers) more productive.

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Filed under  //   creativity   Writing  

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July 8, 2009

Mind mapping for writers: what's the best tool?

I mind map every day, and I'm always looking for a better mind mapping tool.


I define a tool as "better" when it makes me more creative. It's got to make my brain sizzle and pop with ideas. 

Over the past few days, I've been testing Imindmap, this is the tool created by the master mind mapper himself, Tony Buzan. Once I've worked with the program a little more, I'll write a review of it.

Since Tony Buzan more or less started the mind mapping craze, you may know that he has a "one word" criterion for each branch of a mind map. Let's say I'm not good at this -- my mind maps tend to be verbose.

Not to worry, for the length of the trial, all my branches will have ONE word only. :-) It will be a trial in more ways than one.

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July 3, 2009

Brainstorming: it's all in the gap

Gap Filling. Identify your current spot – Point A – and your end goal – Point B. What is the gap that exists between A and B? What are all the things you need to fill up this gap? List them down and find out what it takes to get them.
via embraceliving.net

Check out the above article link "25 Brainstorming Techniques". It contains some wonderful ideas. In addition to using mind maps, the gap filling technique is one I use every day.

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July 2, 2009

Freelance writing and FEAR: overcome it

When I'm coaching writers, whether in Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) training, or straight coaching there's always one thing we need to overcome before the writer can use his skills effectively: FEAR.

Fear kills creativity, and unless you make your own accommodations with your terror, you'll never be the writer you could be.

Here's how to overcome your fear.

* If you're procrastinating, create a mind map and chunk your writing project down into itty bitty tasks you can complete in ten minutes;

* If you don't know how to write something, get a model to see how it's done, and/ or ASK. If you're one of my writing students, you KNOW I'm always here for you;

* Schedule your writing time, and then write when you're supposed to be writing. Once you've written it, you can fix it (that's called editing). BTW, researching is NOT writing :-);

* Meditate. If you don't know how, get a book or a teacher. Ten or 20 minutes of meditation a day clears the junk out of your mind and lets you focus -- I'm much more creative when I meditate than when I don't. If you have an iPhone/ iPod touch, I recommend the Mindfulness app, it's great;

* PLAY. Writing should be fun. When it stops being fun, stop writing -- you're making things worse when you try to force yourself.

Links:

Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) http://sellwritingnow.com/Home/training.html

Coaching: http://angelabooth.com/For-Writers/For-Writers/coaching.html

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