The Mind Mapping Show

I don't know about you, but I often find myself with more to do at the end of my day than I am usually comfortable with and so being able to get more focused and more productive is something I regularly strive for. Now in this interview, I am speaking with Productivity and Focus Coach Phil Olley who explains how easy it is to use Mind Mapping to get more things done faster as well as sharing his favourite practical business Mind Mapping applications. Phil specialises in helping people get more focused and become more productive and during this interview he shares the many different ways he uses this powerful tool in his business. Specifically, here is what else you will discover….. The Simplest and Quickest Way To Get Started Using Mind Mapping Right Now Why You DON’T Have to Be Artistic To Use Mind Mapping – In Fact It Helps If You Are Not! How Using Mind Mapping Helps You Write Your Book (Or Indeed Any Report) Much Quicker and Far Easier The Two-Stage Mind Mapping That Helps You Stimulate Even More Creative and Profitable Ideas How To Tap More Into Your Entrepreneurial Brain Using Mind Mapping To Develop a Better Business Episode Show Notes 08:56 - How Phil uses a Mind Map to create an action plan to set up the following day for success 09:38 - How Phil discovered Mind Mapping 11:01 - Phil explains his journey from first seeing a Mind Map to embracing it as part of his toolkit 12:03 - A rapid list of just some of the beneficial ways to use Mind Mapping in a professional context 12:50 - An explanation about why he draws his by hand instead of using software 13:25 - A confession about NOT being artistic (and why it is not necessary to use the technique) 15:25 - I try to convince him why you should do Mind Mapping by hand AND use software 16:26 - How (and why) Phil used Mind Mapping to write his books 17:09 - The two stage book writing process 18:09 - What his clients think about the Mind Maps he uses with them (and how he sneakily introduces them into the conversation) 19:16 - The benefits of Mind Mapping to his clients 19:49 - How Mind Mapping makes you far more productive 20:14 - Advice to first time Mind Mappers (and I didn't pay him to recommend my stuff :-) 21:01 - A quick tip on how to get started You can find out more about Phil Olley on his website and I do encourage you to go there if you want to find ways of becoming more productive.

I am not a parent myself so apart from being on the receiving end of parenthood, I don't really have any idea what it is like to carry that responsibility and commitment. I know that it takes me enough of my time to develop and maintain a successful career so I can't even begin to imagine what it is like to be able to do that AND run a family as well.   And so I am always incredibly impressed with people who take on the parenting responsibility and juggle their commitments to also have a successful career and be able to do both equally as well. Of course for many these days it is not a choice but a necessity but even so when someone pulls it off and does so enthusiastically and with a big beaming smile on their face I think it is worth finding out how they do it. I think Moms are the hardest working group of people on the planet second only to Working Moms and today's guest is one of the latter. A project manager by day and Mom to 3 young kids every second of what is left at the end of the working day, Chiamaka Okafor is an inspiration. Interestingly she (partially) attributes her ability to be able to pull this off to her use of Mind Mapping and so we manages to track her down to find out exactly how she uses it. This is a great interview that will cover: How To Use Mind Mapping To Manage Complex Technical Projects How To Write Your BlockBuster Novel Even If You Have A Busy Job And A Hectic Family Life What To Do If Your Colleagues Don't Get Mind Mapping But You Do How Understanding How Mind Mapping Works Helps You Get More Out Of Your Mind What To Do If You Want To Introduce Your Kids To Mind Mapping (Especially If They Are Under 6 Years Old) Episode Show Notes 02:43 Chiamaka shares her background (professional and personal) 06:49 The challenge of juggling a young family and a professional career 07:15 ConsultantMama.com is her website 07:54 Why she wants to write a novel (and how she manages to fit it in to her busy schedule) 08:48 How Chiamaka was introduced to Mind Mapping (it was her bosses "secret to success") 09:29 Why a Mind Map is the first thing she uses when she has an idea 09:51 Her reaction when she first saw a Mind Map 10:25 Why she thinks it works so well 11:41 Why it mesmerised her 12:05 The Mind Mapping software that Chiamaka uses (it's free!) 12:47 The first thing she used it for was her novel - here's how it helped her get started on her dream 14:40 How Mind Mapping can help you write 50,000 words in a month 15:32 How you can use Mind Mapping for Brain Storming 16:15 Chiamaka expands on how a Mind Map helps her write her novel 17:30 She explains how to use it for anything - whether you are left brain or right brain dominant 18:52 How a Mind Map can be used to plan going out for a beer with your friends! 20:30 Chiamaka explains how she uses MInd Mapping for a technical challenge at work 22:20 On using Mind Mapping for collaboration (and meetings in particular) 23:26 Her colleagues' reaction to them 24:26 How Chiamaka has benefitted from using the technique in her professional life (it is her "Work Buddy") 26:04 If it has been around for 30 years, why has she only just discovered Mind Mapping? 26:49 How she intends to introduce it to her kids 28:20 Her recommendation to technically minded people considering using it We found Chiamaka on her blog where she wrote a great article about Mind Maps and we do recommend you check out that post and indeed her whole site especially if you are a busy Mom who would like some ideas on how to juggle the many demands on your time.

Welcome to this week's episode of the Mind Mapping Show and in this episode you are going to discover how Mind Mapping can help any student with ADHD quickly harness their unique creativity, easily increase their concentration and rapidly improve their school results. Today's interview is with Michelle Raz who is an academic coach who used Mind Mapping to help students identify and use their own unique strength and talents with a focus on students with ADHD and people who have suffered brain trauma. It's a really interesting interview packed full of great practical tips and I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak to Michelle and find out how she uses the technique. As well as the focus on helping students with ADHD you'll also discover: How you can use Mind Mapping to easily improve your memory How you can use it to give you laser-like focus if you've got a butterfly mind. A step-by-step plan to help you use Mind Mapping so you can remember anything you want. And if you're a parent and you want one of your kids to understand how to use Mind Mapping, well, in this episode, we'll explore that as well. Episode Show Notes 02:46 - Michelle shares how she got into helping students with ADHD 05:11 - The similarities and differences between the challenges faced by ADHD students and Business Executives 06:05 - Applying Mind Mapping to student goals 08:27 - The importance of achieving early success when working with students 09:06 - Why the structure of Mind Mapping is not new to educators 09:45 - How Michelle discovered Mind Mapping and why it is great for her students 11:14 - How ADHD students use a Mind Map to manage their thoughts and goals 12:12 - Why her students prefer this approach to "traditional" methods 12:46 - How and why Michelle does the Mind Mapping for them…at first anyway 14:02 - The students' reaction to using a Mind Map 15:35 - The value of focusing on what the students can do 16:00 - Successfully using Mind Mapping with a Brain trauma injury 17:25 - How using this approach can help improve memory 18:24 - Why Michelle recommends software 19:12 - Why Mind Mapping works so well 20:15 - Why the same technique can be used by high performing executives AND struggling students 22:10 - Answering the question - "Software or Hand Drawn Mind Mapping?" 24:01 - Michelle's top 3 benefits of using the tool 25:07 - Using a Mind Map for planning 26:03 - How a college student with ADHD has raised his grade point average and exceeded his goals 28:07 - How using this tool has helped her daughter 28:58 - How to introduce your kids to using it 30:55 - The hidden benefit of kids using Mind Mapping 32:29 - Where to find out more about Michelle and her work In the interview, also Michelle mentioned a software called MindWerx but following a Google Search, it seems that MindWerx is a consultancy specialising in Mind Mapping and related ideas and they promote the software found at www.eMindMapping.com which we highly recommend. Michelle is extremely passionate about Mind Mapping as you will hear in the interview and in addition to this podcast you can also find out more about her suggestions for using Mind Mapping for ADHD

Mind Mapping is great for being able to take complex ideas and break them down into more meaningful and easily digestible chunks. In this episode of the Mind Mapping Show we interview a Robotics Scientist who uses the technique to keep track of complex projects. Xander Soldaat is an Infrastructure Architect by day (something to do with IT projects) and a Robotics Scientist by night (something to do with clever Lego pieces!). He was recently introduced to FreeMind by a client and now uses it all the time in both his work and in his nocturnal activities building lego robots. Whenever I interview fans of the Mind Map I generally get people who fall across two different spectrums. There are those who use software versus those that do it by hand and then there are those who are very structured and logical versus those who are more creative. Xander falls into the quadrant of being highly technical and logical and is an avid user of Mind Mapping software in his application of the tool. However what we discover in this episode is how even using it in this way does stimulate his creativity (and his memory) when solving complex problems. My favourite quote from the whole interview originally comes from his blog and it is "Mind Mapping is great for you if you are bursting with ideas but cursed with the memory of a goldfish". Additionally in this interview you will discover: How using Mind Mapping helps keep you motivated on tough projects How you can easily prioritise the conflicting demands on your precious time How a Free Software proved infinitely more reliable than easy-to-lose Post-It Notes The simple way to avoid overwhelm on complex and difficult projects The fastest way to give stakeholders in your work confidence in you How to focus & organise your thoughts AND improve your memory Episode Show Notes Although Xander is still new to Mind Mapping, he has become quite a sophisticated and prolific user of the the technique through his use of FreeMind (see below for details of where to get FreeMind from). Here are where you will find these key points that came out of the interview: 03:21 - Xander explains exactly what an Infrastructure Architect is 06:18 - Here Xander shares his nocturnal passion - he is a robot scientist! 09:08 - Find out how Xander discovered Mind Mapping and why he was initially sceptical 10:18 - why he felt the need to force himself to use the technique 12:59 - How he uses Mind Mapping to manage complex projects (including the benefit of doing so) 15:44 - How and why he limits himself to a certain number of branch levels 19:19 - His colleagues "interesting" reaction 21:11 - Why his wife doesn't like them (you can't please everyone I suppose!) 22:30 - I summarise the key points that emerged from my conversation with Xander In the recording I promised that I would provide you with the two links we talked about in the interview. You can Download FreeMind from here and you can find out more about a productivity system using Mind Mapping here.

Mind Mapping is great for overcoming Writer's Block and in this interview with Daphne Gray-Grant we find out how.  She is a former journalist and editor who now helps people write better, quicker and with less stress to produce publications that get results and does that using Mind Mapping in her work. If you are an aspiring writer and you sometimes struggle with getting your ideas down because you have hit the "wall" of writers block then this interview is definitely one you will want to listen to (and be prepared to take plenty of notes).  In this interview you will discover: •How Mind Mapping can help overcome writer’s block •The Simple two stage process to stimulate great writing •How to tap into your latent but brilliant writing creativity •Why Outlining should be Outlawed - and what to use instead (hint: it might just be Mind Mapping!) •Why Mind Mapping is “Magic” for aspiring writers •Why you don’t need to be able to draw to use Mind Mapping Episode Show Notes There are some really good nuggets in this great conversation with this experienced writer and publication coach.  Some key points you might want to watch out for in this interview are here: 5:22 - The Magic Bullet For Writing 7:08 - Why you shouldn't discount Mind Mapping just because it appears so simple 13:20 - Why Daphne thinks the Mind Map works so well for writers 15:48 - Her famous "Pancake Story" about how it helped a client of hers write a successful book 18:02 - Why outlining doesn't work 22:13 - A true life story how a 2 hour mental block was shattered in 2 minutes 28:33 - Daphne's thoughts on whether you need to be able to draw to use Mind Mapping (hint: by her own admission, she can't draw to save her life) 34:47 - How Daphne uses Mind Mapping to help draft and deliver her speeches Daphne has very kindly shared one of her Mind Maps with us and you can see this in more detail in a post I have entitled "You Don't Have to Be Able to Draw To Use Mind Mapping". You can also download a full transcript of the interview here.