This is the technique I’ve talked about in the past where you start to map or outline early, and come back to it every day or two with your subconscious mind doing the heavy lifting. Whether you are using mind maps or outlines, Cooking Ideas still works.

You can just tell when the speaker has a beginning, middle, and an end, and those fit best as outlines. Another place I often use outlines is when attending what feels, to me at least, like a structured lecture. I’ll do the same thing outlining contracts or planning structured long-form blog posts. On the flip side, when I create a chronology for a client matter, a project that is, by nature, linear, I start with an outline. In that case, I start up a new mind map and add to it slowly. Other good examples of mind map tasks, for me, are where I’m learning something new or when I have to get my head wrapped around my own thoughts on a topic. Using the mind map also helped me determine to group courses by platform rather than topic. By using a mind map, I saw there were multiple organizational paths for that course. I didn’t have a clear path when I started that project, and I needed to just get ideas on the screen so I could start organizing.

Specifically, where outlines are best for taking generally organized information and making it more organized, mind maps are all about taming chaos.įor instance, when I was making the initial attempt at organizing the Photos Field Guide, I used a MindNode-based mind map. For me, the distinction is all about chaos and order. Both tools are good at taking a bunch of inputs and letting you organize them later.

I can see why those lines could be confused. I sometimes get asked about where I use outlining tools versus mind mapping tools.

Omnioutliner pro styles