Today we’re lucky to have a post from Joanna Maxwell, owner of WorkInColour. Joanna specialises in helping people tap into their creative side and also coaches those looking for a change in career. In today’s tough times, standing out from the pack is more important than ever – so let’s get those creative juices flowing!

I’ve been a fan of Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping technique for at least 15 years. I use it most days for one thing or another. I plan workshops, map out articles to write, prepare my class notes – and daydream possibilities for fixing up the back yard.

Mind mapping has become so much part of how I think that I had really begun to take it for granted. Whereas I used to teach it to every group and most of the individual clients I came across, over the last year or two I had started to think it was as obvious and unnecessary as trying to teach someone how to make a shopping list….

So, for a while I got slack about it. (I even started to wonder if this Tony Buzan fellow was really worth all the fuss – after all, anyone could have invented shopping lists.)

But then a few weeks ago I went to the Happiness Conference in Sydney and heard Tony Buzan give a keynote. I also went to his post-conference workshop and was awestruck all over again with his presentation and examples of the uses for this simple technique. It only seems obvious because it mimics the way we think, the way the brain actually works. That’s the power of it, and its elegance.

Mind mapping allows you to tap into your left and right brains at the same time – to use images and association, logic and intuition, big picture and fine detail all at once. It’s a bit like making a street map to your destination.

(And it’s fun.)

So, starting with my corporate workshop in Melbourne on Wednesday, mind mapping is back on my agenda.

Here are some tips:

• Put an image in the centre for the main idea – add a word or phrase.
• Use a colour to draw a branch out from the centre…add a word that relates to an aspect of your project.
• One word or concept per branch, each branch connecting to the central image.
• Add sub branches around the main ones.
• Let your imagination go – you can always edit later.
• Use pictures to prompt your memory.
• Lots of colour is great.

Check out Buzan’s website for ideas, a gallery of maps and more inspiration: http://www.buzanworld.com/Mind_Maps.htm

Joanna Maxwell, Owner, WorkInColour