Mind mapping is one of the best exercises I know when you need to come up with a solution to a complicated problem, declutter your mind, regain focus or come up with new ideas. There is a wide variety of situations you can use mind mapping for.

However, the basic principle is the same—you are essentially brainstorming; the only thing is, you are doing it alone.

It’s one of those exercises, that I was rather skeptical about and thought to myself: “Here’s another idea that could be a complete waste of time. Well, let’s give it a try anyway…”

I guess I’m pretty ignorant  because little did I know how powerful mind mapping turned out to be despite my usual skepticism.

Many times you encounter a difficult situation you feel overwhelmed and you get stuck because the problem is never simple. There are all these other little and not-so-little things around it that make finding the solution that much more complicated.

It’s really difficult to identify what are the key elements that require the most of your attention when every little thing seems just as important.

Do you have a complex situation or problem that needs a solution? This is what you do. First of all, isolate yourself. Get yourself in a place, where you don’t get distracted or interrupted during the exercise. But before you get started, you gotta do something first. 

Define Your Issue

Clearly set the parameters for the problem. What is it? How does it affect you? What or who else does it affect, or involve? What kind of damage does it do, if any? 

You want to have a clear understanding of what situation you are dealing with so you can come up with a solution better suited to your specific situation.

And sometimes, what happens is, once you put all these pieces together, it might give you a new perspective and make you realize, maybe you don’t have a problem as big as you thought you did. Maybe you overreacted. Maybe you let your emotions or ego in the way.

Obviously, it’s not always the case, but it’s good to know those things before you do some stupid things you’ll regret later.

Once you defined the problem, you can begin the exercise.

Set a Timer: 10 to 15 Minutes

Knowing there’s a deadline, will make you more effective. It’ll push your brain to accelerate and work harder than it otherwise would.

Write Down Every Idea That Pop in Your Head

Think of any possible solutions to the problem and jot them down on a separate piece of sticky notes. Be concise: use 1 to 4 words to summarize each idea.

Don’t Filter and Don’t Edit Anything as You Write

That’s crucial. 

No matter how stupid the idea might seem—don’t judge. Get it out of your head by writing it down and move on to the next one. You need to get every single idea out of your head without discrimination.

It might seem dumb to you at the time—it’s fine— write it down. You need to get each and every idea out of your head.

Editing activates a different part of your brain than creating does. Don’t disrupt the flow. Stay focused on the task and generate ideas. 

Don’t think too hard about it, but rather whatever thoughts come up in your head, write them down immediately. You will do all the editing later.

That’s why it’s so important to be in a place where you don’t get interrupted. So it’ll keep you concentrated, and you let your creative brain do the work for you.

Keep notes concise. Use the main keywords to keep the essence of your ideas.

And once you have an idea pop, write it down, and move on to the next one, and then the next one. When the time is up but you’re still on fire and the ideas keep flowing, don’t stop, keep going.

When You’re Done, Time to Edit

When you go through your notes, you’ll quickly find that some of the ideas are plain stupid or not really related to the problem you’re trying to solve.

Great! Get rid of those.

It’s funny but also super important—now you know what NOT to do.

What’s left are your valid options. Now go through your sticky notes and rate how good the ideas are on a scale of 1 to 10.

Get rid of anything below 7.

Whatever ideas you have left, elaborate on them. Try to develop them a step further.

Set different criteria for what constitutes a great idea, and get rid of those that fall short of that. 

Now see which ideas you are left with.

Rate and filter them again. Pick the top 3. Develop them further. Make them more detailed and precise.

Write the Pros and Cons of Each

Evaluate the results, and now you should have a clear winner. If not? Keep testing the ideas against different markers to see which one is the best.

And here goes the most difficult and important step.

Implement the Idea

I hope your idea will pan out.

If you do this exercise correctly, you are gonna be surprised by all the ideas you’d be able to come up with. You didn’t even realize you had them in you. Your brain is a monster computer. I can’t even tell you how many times I foolishly underestimated it.

It turns out it subconsciously knows things you don’t, you just need to access it, and this method is one of the ways you can do that.

I use this exercise for so many different things, but it’s absolutely amazing for achieving clarity and focus and setting your priorities straight. You have so many different things you juggle in your life? 

Do mind mapping, you’ll have a clear picture of what’s the most important thing, and what you can let slide. Just give it a try and see the results for yourself.

I think mind mapping is heavily underrated. 

It helped me dozens of times. You can do it the old-fashion way by using sticky notes, or you can use your laptop or even phone to do it. 

There are several mind-mapping applications on the market. Some of them are free. I use the free version of “SimpleMind Lite.” (No affiliation.) I like it very much. Simple and intuitive, not much of a learning curve.

I actually use a combination of both: paper and digital.

I use sticky notes to come up with ideas. It works best for me. I find it to be so much faster; you don’t allow your “editing” brain to kick in when you generating ideas (which is the absolute must thing to prevent from happening if you want great results. Don’t think much, just write:))

When I’m done with writing ideas on sticky notes, I type them all into a mind map application. Personally, I find it easier to edit and develop the ideas further on a computer rather than on paper.

It’s also easy to add new ideas when you’re editing. And you can structure your ideas nicely and have them all in one place. Imagine having 60+ sticky notes laying around. It can get messy real quick. But try whatever method works best for you. It’s a personal preference.

I love this exercise so much, I cannot stress enough the value that it has provided me personally over the years.

I wanna give credit to whoever introduced me to this method, but unfortunately, I don’t remember who that was. It might have been Pat Flynn, so thank you very much, I’m very grateful!