I've been intrigued by (and using on and off) idea mapping techniques since I picked up a book called Idea Mapping by Jamie Nast a couple of years ago in yet another attempt to corral all the stuff jostling around in my head at any given moment. I've often found that my best (only?) ideas come from non-linear thinking, and this technique is perfect for stimulating non-linear thought (while fitting in well to my penchant for doodling). In any case, when a post from Web Worker Daily popped up in my Google Reader Monday morning offering a free one-year subscription for the first 200 takers to MindJet.com's MindManager, I jumped on it. Turned out, however, that I was even more non-linear that I'd planned – the post in the RSS feed had been an accident, not slated for Monday at all, and never ended up on the Web Worker Daily site. MindJet wasn't ready to convert my free trial to a one-year subscription – though the PR manager, Phil Novak, was nice enough to write back last evening and explain what happened. He said they'd convert it to the one-year account today. Which is very cool — since I'd already started working with the free trial, sketching out some specs for a new vertical I'm working on. The software was intuitive, easy to use and had a big wow factor in terms of the slick UI. And best of all, it provides a finished product much more legible than my chicken scratch diagrams on the back of napkins… If there are any left, the post and link to the free one-year subscriptions should be active at Web Worker Daily by Tuesday morning.
Tags: mind map, project management, thought
