

Monday, October 8, 2012

Do You Create Mind Maps by Hand?

I recently communicated with someone who creates mind maps by hand. I know that mind mapping was first done with pen and paper. But talking to someone from "the old school" made me wonder how many people prefer to mind map this way... and why.

If you or anyone you know works this way, I'd be very interested to learn why you/they prefer to use pen and paper instead of a computer.

I can think of one reason: Like "Geek PDAs" (a bunch of index cards bound together), hand drawing a mind map doesn't require a "connection." You can do it anywhere, anytime.

What else?


  1. I would tend to do this by hand because I like the faintly artistic aspect of drawing wavy lines on the page... but I can certainly see the benefit of computer, when I run out of space or want to move things.

    1. My wife and I used mapping recently on a home remoldeling project. It was pretty cool to create a map that had photos of different kinds of hardware on them, plus a link to the website, and notes of conversations/prices etc. It made it easier to make a plan. But I've taught mind mapping at my daughter's junior high and the kids love to draw the maps!

  2. Hi Hobie, Great to link up with you again. I started my journey with hand drawn maps, but quickly gravitated to the computer. For reasons of speed and ability to save and transfer information into other formats.
    As far as mapping ideas into words are concerned I still prefer the computer, but often use speech recognition tools to verbalise my thinking and see it appear in map form
    Lately however, I'm experimenting with doodles for word pictures in maind maps a la Dan Roam. This is tremendously stimulating and challenging, and combined with the words communicates far more effectively
    Best regards Colin

  3. Hi Colin,
    I'd love to hear more about your work with speech recognition tools and mapping. I've always thought that was kind of the missing killer app for mind mapping--to be able to sit around a map as a group and voice your ideas right into the map. The act of typing in front of a group is usually painful to watch. Voice recog would be a great solution. How do you do it? Can you get it to "Add a new branch"?