So do you need to be creative? I guess by that you mean you need to have an idea or maybe a bunch of ideas to solve a particular problem. Well, it’s lucky you have the world’s most powerful creative mechanism for generating ideas: your brain. What’s between your ears is the potential to generate some of the most brilliant and innovative ideas ever known. The problem is that no one has ever shown us how to use our brains to generate ideas on demand (even though it does so naturally all the time) and what I want to explain in this article is how mind mapping software fits into the mix.

First, a quick lesson on how the brain organizes ideas: it does this through an association process, and there are two mechanisms: chain association and hook association. A chain association is one in which a single idea triggers another idea which then triggers another idea which then stimulates yet another idea and so on, a chain that can theoretically go on forever. For example, if you think of fish, you may think of the sea, which may trigger the idea of ​​beach, which may trigger the idea of ​​sand. That’s an example of a chain of associations.

Hook binding is different in that a seed word is still used, but each generated word is mapped to that seed word. This is different from chain associations because the first and third words may have no obvious connection to each other except for the word in between. So, for example, starting with the word soccer, a series of hooks related to that word might include players, ball, referee, goal, fans, world cup, stadium, etc. Each word created links to the starting point.

So why is this important and how does it relate to mind mapping software?

Now that you understand how the brain organizes its ideas, it shouldn’t be too difficult to see that the structure of a mind map is a graphical organization of a set of ideas related through a combination of hooks (each main branch of a mind map is a hook example in relation to the main topic) and chains (a main branch that has a subbranch that also has its own subbranch is a chain). This perfect mapping of ideas on paper as a reflection of how they are organized in the brain is one of the main reasons why Mind Mapping is such a powerful process and how it can help stimulate the generation of idea tones.

When you use mind mapping software, you’re not only taking advantage of your brain’s natural thought organization and idea-generating processing, but you’re also using an automated tool that will help you generate and capture ideas in a way that’s stimulating. and will enhance your creativity.

This is how you use mind mapping software to stimulate your creativity.

1. First, you should start with a focused definition of the problem or situation for which you are looking to brainstorm.
2. Then, open the software and select its speed mind map mode.
3. Start generating ideas by typing them on your keyboard: type idea, press enter key, type idea, press enter key. Each time you do this, a new branch will be formed.
4. Do this for 10 minutes (set a timer if necessary).
5. At the end of the 10-minute period, take a short break, and then go back to the Mind Map and start organizing the ideas by gathering related ideas into the same main branch.
6. As you do this, new ideas will come to mind triggered by a chain flow or series of hooks – add them to the mind map as they arise.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 for as long as you need to generate enough ideas to work with.

By following the process using the mind mapping software that I have described above, you will be able to generate and capture hundreds of ideas very quickly. A key point to keep in mind while doing this is to NOT EDIT ideas as they come in; doing so will stifle creativity; you can edit them later. The key to creativity is the quantity and not the quality of the ideas you generate at this stage.