When you're starting a brand new project,
one of the best things you can do is brainstorm,
whether that's just by yourself or maybe with other members of your team.
And one of the best tools to use is a mind mapping tool.
Now, there's an awful lot of mind mapping apps and software available to you.
In today's video, I'm gonna share with you three simple tools that you can start using immediately.
Coggle
Hello everyone,
Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
And let's get this list started off with a tool called Coggle.
Coggle, that's C-O-G-G-L-E.
Now, one of the things that you're gonna notice immediately is that Coggle is pretty bare-bones.
But sometimes that's a great advantage when you're brainstorming and thinking up new ideas.
I mean, really, a mind mapping tool should really represent like a whiteboard or a blank piece of paper.
So, Coggle is very minimal in that respect.
The other thing that I really enjoy about Coggle which you don't always get with a number of mind mapping tools is that it's actually quite nice to look at.
I actually haven't even chosen these colors that you see here.
This is something that Coggle has chosen as I've started to branch out my ideas.
And aesthetically, I think that looks really, really great, which can be important if you're gonna be working with this tool on a regular basis.
If I add something else here, it's added a nice, attractive sort of a reddish-pink hue here as well.
But another feature that I like about Coggle is that not only can you collaborate with others,
you can share this so that other people can join and start to brainstorm as well,
but you can have a full conversation.
So it does have a discussion window here.
Here you can see I'm already asking some questions.
You know, what do other people think about the t-shirt ideas, and so forth.
This, I think, is a great feature for any mind mapping tool.
Mind Meister
Now, moving on,
the second tool I wanna share with you is called MindMeister.
Now, MindMeister is also, you know, relatively simple to drag and drop and add things around.
If I wanna add some more ideas here to "Book,"
all I need to do is hit tab on my keyboard.
And maybe I'm going to consider writing a self-help book.
Maybe I'm going to consider writing a cookbook.
Who knows, and if I wanna highlight some of these things,
MindMeister gives me a lot of options here as well.
If I want to add little icons,
if I want to change the color,
or the appearance,
or the size of some of my branches,
very easy to do.
In fact, one thing that I found very, very simple with MindMeister is that if I've grouped something in a different branch,
but then I want to either merge it or bring it somewhere else,
so here, for example, I've got "Poster,"
I've got something labeled "Bumper."
Well, I think I meant that for the "Stickers" branch over here.
All I have to do is click on "Bumper,"
and I'm going to touch it to "Stickers,"
and now it's brought "Bumper,"
along with the things that have proceeded it here with "Small" and "Large" over on this side of the mind map.
So, you know, very intuitive,
very easy to use,
things that are very, very important when you're selecting a mind mapping tool for yourself.
Drawio
Now, the third and final one on our list today is called draw.io.
And one of the things about draw.io is you don't even need an account to start using it. All you need is to go to the website, and you can immediately start creating a flowchart.
And you can save it either to your cloud storage, or you can save it to the computer that you're currently working on.
Now, I know draw.io may look a little more intimidating compared to the previous two tools that I just showed you, but don't let this screen look too intimidating. It's actually a lot easier than you think.
You know, here, if I want to add something new to this branch, all I need to do is click on that arrow, and now I can start adding a new idea over here.
Very much the same or similar functionality that we saw in the previous two tools.
Now, The nice thing about draw.io is that it's really optimized if you're wanting to create a flowchart, for example.
So, we've got some of the more common shapes here that you may be familiar with if you're in need of using flowcharts.
It does have a few more advanced features.
And another nice thing is that draw.io is really optimized if you decide to print out your mind map.
Or at the very least you may want to save it as a PDF.
So, that can be very helpful if you choose a particular paper size here, and if you want to share your mind map in that fashion.
So there you have it, three recommendations for some very simple yet powerful mind mapping tools.
Now, I'd love to hear from you next. What are some mind mapping tools that you have used or that you would recommend to others?
Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments down below.
Thank you so much for watching today's video, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
