Better than Mind Maps?

A reader, J.S. Smith, has drawn my attention to an intriguing variation on the mind-mapping theme - the Universal Organiser (UNO).

If, like me, you find mind maps difficult to follow because they confuse the levels of hierarchy, you might find this an improvement for certain types of work.

Comments

[learning as I go]

Hi Mark
How small this world is! We used to construct these to create our physics projects and then we'd implement them in reverse.(to create task level implementation and what data to focus on) If something didn't go as planned, we'd use vellum to create another as an overlay to try again (and tag it for future reference). I'd use these to write up my report and to compare with others on the team.

Of course, it didn't have any name except a generic "lab template" with the hypothosis as the title! LOL!

vickie

[Mark Forster]

Nothing new under the sun, as the Good Book says.

[learning as I go]

Amen

[Luciano Passuello]

This looks like an interesting middle-ground between mind mapping (which might be too free-form for some applications) and regular notes (which are usually too restrictive). Will keep it in the toolbox.

Interesting concept -- thanks for sharing!

[Lucy]

I like that, thanks - I might have a try with it for gathering ideas for a business I'm planning.

People might also be interested in a different application of a similar template. I went to a seminar a few weeks ago about starting up in business and they used a similar design for an overview of a 5 year business plan. The rings were years with now at the centre and then each segment was something measurable, e.g. number of employees, turnover, profit, overseas customers, ..., and then the target for each was written in the ring for each year. It was simple but a really good way of showing a lot of information visually. I thought it would be particularly good for sharing the bones of the company plan with employees.

Sorry if that was a bit off-topic!

I'm just getting back to DIT after falling off the wagon a while ago - I first implemented it when the book came out. I had forgotten how good "Will Do" lists are. No more dilemmas about what to do next - I tell myself that I have to do it all so it doesn't really matter what order and then I quite often find myself doing the less appealing things first to get them out of the way. Then that feels good :-)

Thanks for all your work, Mark.

Lucy

[Steve Wynn]

I never got on with Mind Maps, they don't operate like I think. I do like Bubble Maps, and a product I found which is a sort of half way house between a bubble map and mind map is GoalEnforcer

http://www.goalenforcer.com/

The latest Hyperfocus version also now has an Outline view. I find it great for mapping out projects etc.

All the best

Steve