Probably the biggest challenge with running my own home business is wearing all the hats all the time. I switch constantly from sales guy to marketing guy to writer, videographer, copy editor, strategist…ad nauseum.
Truth is, I can’t do it all, and I can really only do a few things really well.
Maybe you’re in the same boat. Have you started using virtual assistants yet? This blog will eventually dive in to outsourcing at some point, but for now I’m going to suggest that when you are finally ready to hire some virtual assistants to help share your hatload, the following strategy will help you keep it organized.
“Now what was I just doing?”
Managing a print shop, mail room, and fleet of copiers for a busy hospital for almost two years, I interacted with 900 or so people daily. It took me too long to come to grips with the fact that “INTERRUPTION” was the nature of the job. How frustrating!
So I had this idea of creating a personal bookmarking system where I could just push a button to pause what I was working on, switch hats, and pick up from there. Like a “Life Tivo” or something like that. The idea was that I could just hit the chapter marker and resume work as soon as I dealt with the current interruption.
But since I didn’t really know how to hard wire functioning electronics into my cerebral cortex, I fiddle-farted with dozens of tools and techniques that might approximate this idea of personal task bookmarking.
From simple to-do lists to complicated GTD programs, I never found that perfect tool to get me back on track when I derail for one reason or another.
But in my quest to find this über-tool, I started playing with a concept I picked up from Sterling and Jay from Internet Business Mastery. It’s called Mind Mapping, and it will forever change the way you run your home office.
What Mind Mapping Is
A mind map is a simple galaxy-shaped diagram used to display words, ideas, tasks, or other items in branches radiating around a central thought or phrase. You start with a main thought, then hit a shortcut key to create a subtopic branching off from the original. Hit the shortcut key again and add information about that subtopic. You can add unlimited branches and sub-branches to fully develop the main idea, then go back and organize your work via drag-and-drop.
It’s like an outline, only visual.
You can think of mind mapping as a brainstorming tool that visually connects ideas together, showing you how different concepts relate to each other. Ever see a crime movie where the detective is pouring over a chart with pictures, news clippings, notes, etc connected by strings? That’s mind mapping, and it really works to help you solve problems.
But let’s use that illustration as a jumping off point for what we can do with mind mapping. Here’s a short list of what I’m currently using mind maps to accomplish:
- Taking notes during a presentation or online course
- Breaking down tasks into GTD-style next actions
- To-do list and task management
- Writing blog posts
- Project management
And I’m just scratching the surface with this list! Any project that requires me to plan and execute anything will eventually reside within a mind map.
There are several desktop mind mapping applications, including MindJet, FreeMind, and NovaMind, each of which are each fine programs, but two problems make them undesirable:
- Each of the programs is desktop-based rather than online, meaning they are totally useless to you if you are away from your computer. (does that ever happen?)
- They focus so much on whiz-bang tricks you can do to pretty-up your mind map that it is easy to waste time playing instead of just doing what you need to do—outline, plan, organize, and write.
Now, what would HomeOfficeWebTools.com be without an online solution? Contradictory at best, and quite possibly hypocritical!
The best online mind mapping app I’ve found is called Mindmeister. It offers a streamlined feature set geared more towards getting ideas on “paper” as it were, than in beautifying what’s already there.
In fact, I exclusively use Mindmeister for writing content and then sometimes import into NovaMind for polishing. The interface is minimalist (in the good, non-Microsoft Word way), and the keyboard shortcuts work pretty well. Useful Features:
- Remote Brainstorming: Share any mind map with colleagues and collaborate in real-time online.
- Status icons are visual badges you can apply to individual branches for quick reference.
- Export your content in a variety of ways, the most useful of which is PDF. (This feature is only available to paid subscribers, and was the main reason I chose to pay rather than leach.)
- Offline Mode, using Google Gears technology, means I don’t need an Internet connection to continue to do my work. Because of this, I can build my business systems and checklists around mind maps and access them at any time from my desktop.
- “Get Related Info” in the information tab allows me to highlight a word in the map, click on one of three buttons for del.ico.us, wikipedia, or Google, and gives me all sorts of related content to help article research and brainstorming ideas. Awesome!
Introducing the Project Dashboard
Here is where Mindmeister earns its chops—the killer highlights that a home business owner can leverage for organizational bliss! Use these features together to create a self-contained management document that I call the Project Dashboard:
- File Management: You can upload relevant project materials, like MS Word files, PDFs, images of all sorts, Excel spreadsheets, etc, so everything is accessible within a single click
- Clickable Links: You can add live email addresses, URLs, and links to other Mindmeister maps, tying in all resources for your project
- Lightweight Task Management: Assign priority, track task completion, due dates, and delegation from within that document.
- Shared Mind Maps: The final cog is that you can share and edit your maps with anyone across the globe, even if they’re not a Mindmeister user.
Put this all together, and you have a single, entirely self-contained document that tracks your projects, encourages non-linear thinking and brainstorming, and centralizes all the resources for your business or for individual projects. Guess what I’m using to manage virtual assistants and outsourced projects?
You guessed it! The Project Dashboard.
Mind mapping really has changed the way I manage my businesses and my projects, and I know you can benefit by using this valuable tool.
There are indeed some quirks to the system, and we will talk about those at a later date. For now, check out the resources below to further your knowledge about mind mapping, and sign up for an account with Mindmeister.
Once you get the hang of it, you may find the free version anemic—the six-map limit and the inability to export into other formats is limiting. I’m using the Premium package, which costs $49 or so for the year, or roughly $4.00 per month, and I’m getting much more than my money’s worth.
What uses of mind maps have I missed? Have you already done what I’ve suggested here and mind mapped your business?
Let me know in the comments below this post.
(In the interest of transparency, the link to Mindmeister is referral link, so signing up that way will help this blog…and possibly your karma. Enjoy!)
- Check out Sterling and Jay’s video Getting Things Done With Mind Maps from Internet Business Mastery.
- Learn more about mind mapping software at the Mindmapping Software Blog.
