The first time I heard about mind mapping was in David Allen’s seminal book, Getting Things Done.
I instantly got the point and began to use mind mapping for virtually every process and workflow from creating content and book summaries, to project planning, to giving presentations. I became a certified mind mapper and a MindMeister certified pro.
But what’s mind mapping, anyway?
Mind mapping was invented by Tony Buzan in the 70s. Since then, it became popular and has been introduced into public education.
Mind mapping promotes non-linear thinking. And it’s a good thing because your mind works in a non-linear way, too.
Why use mind mapping for your content creation efforts
Mind mapping is a creative process. You draw on a central idea that you want to discover. Next, you create branches from your main idea to expand your thoughts and knowledge on the topic. Then you create sub-branches, and so on.
You can then organize your ideas (branches) as you want to and create all kinds of relationships between them.
And that makes mind mapping a powerful tool for creating content outlines.
Although you can use AI tools to create content and outlines for you, Google and your audience won’t necessarily love it. The human effort continues to remain a central element of content creation.
According to the American Psychological Association, the benefits of outlining and the outlining process itself has been a controversial topic in cognitive science. Some argue that simultaneous writing and editing are better than prior outlining, some say that it depends on your personality, while others say it’s a good thing.
An authoritative mind mapping survey revealed the top three major benefits of mind mapping:
- Improved understanding of complex issues
- Increased knowledge capture & organization
- Clarity of thinking
All three have a direct relation to writing.
Mind mapping is the best tool to create and organize your ideas. Plus, mind mapping makes it easy for you to discover relationships between ideas and turn them into emerging points. Finally, mind mapping takes a lot of fun, which is why you want to use it to supercharge your writing.
Let’s figure out how.
The best mind mapping tools for creating content outlines
A good tool improves the way you work. A great tool improves the way you think. - Jeff Duntemann
There’re now a ton of mind mapping tools available on the internet. Some are online tools, some are desktop applications or a combination of the two.
If you’re curious, I picked up the 21 best mind mapping apps for you with features and pricing, along with their pros and cons.
Some apps offer an outline mode and easy exporting functions to supercharge your content creation process. You’ll find them in the article above, too.
I began my mind mapping journey with XMind and Coggle, then I switched to iThoughts and MindMeister for a long time. Recently I used Miro until I discovered a brand-new app, called iOctopus, which I instantly fell in love with.
What I like about iOctopus is that it’s so simple, yet beautiful and versatile. What’s more, I always look up who’s behind the app, and I liked the small and dedicated team and their message.
That’s why I created the outline of this story in iOctopus.
How to create an outline with mind mapping
Here’s how it looks like the mind map of this Hackernoon story.
First, I created the central idea, then I added the main branches as the subheadings of this story. Then I worked my way up to the main points I want to discuss under each subheading.
I could have added images, icons, links, and relationships to each branch, but I like to keep my mind maps simple.
The next thing is to put aside my mind map and let the thoughts sink in for a day. The next day, I may update my mind map (or not), and I begin writing the content in Notion.
How to create the content in Notion
First, I embed the mind map in Notion. It’s easy: you just share your mind map and copy the link into a Notion page as an embed. Notion will then automatically embed your outline as a mind map.
You can play with it if you want to. You can adjust the size and drag your mind map on the screen.
I’ll share my process on how I create my content in Notion in another story. For now, I want to address the tools I use further down the line.
When I finish my writing in Notion, I use:
- My Notion pre-publishing checklist to make my final draft.
- RankIQ to run an SEO report on the post.
- MS Word to run a spell check on the draft. (Hey, I’m a native Hungarian guy, so I need to make sure my English is free of mistakes.)
- Grammarly to run a grammar check on the post.
- Unsplash to find a cover photo.
- (I used to work with Canva to make mock-ups, but I realized it takes up too much time, so I stopped doing it.)
When I’m done with my pre-publishing process, I continue with my post-publishing checklist in Notion.
If you want to learn more about what productivity tools I use and recommend, check this article.
Wrap Up
As you may notice on my mind map, I deviated from my outline to some extent. When you begin to write your content and consult your outline, you’ll come across new ideas. It’s a natural process.
Without my mind map, however, I could have jumped from one random idea to the next without a clear context and story. And it could have taken more time and effort for me to beat procrastination and start writing with a blank page.
So, next time when you’re writing a blog post, don’t start with a blank canvas—create a mind map first.
Cover photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown on Unsplash