Posts Tagged ‘guide’

Mind Mapping: an Example How-to Guide

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Mind mapping is a breakthrough concept wherein you will use the properties of association to come up with a drawing, map, or illustration of the ideas lodged in your brain about a particular topic.

Sounds confusing? Actually, mind mapping is a lot easier than what you think. This is because this technique or concept follows the natural workings of the brain ? which associates one word with another word to have a clear picture of the overall idea.

For example, if you say technology, there are several things that will instantly come to your mind. This central theme can branch out to the Internet, gadgets, mobile devices, telecommunications ? the list is practically endless. Thus, mind mapping will give you more leeway when it comes to freedom of expression in the sense that one keyword is not just limited to one sub-topic, but it can branch out to several sub-topics. This will help you easily remember and understand the main concept which is represented by one word.

To have a deeper understanding of the process of mind mapping, take a look at the following example and how-to guide:

On a piece of paper, write down the central idea or the main theme of the topic that you want to tackle. Enclose it in a box or circle.

From this main word, what other words can you associate with it? Take the aforementioned example which is technology. How many branches of technology are there? From the circle of box that you have drawn in the middle of the paper, draw branches or curved arrows surrounding the main theme and connect them all together.

If you can think of other sub-topics under the branches of technology, place another batch of boxes or circles to represent these sub-topics.

Let all your ideas branch out until you are satisfied with the results and you have exhausted all the possibilities.

The resulting illustration will be the result of your mind mapping. Now, isn’t this easier than making copious and detailed notes about the branches of technology and all the other sub-topics under it.

You will surely remember this map by heart because you are the one who made it ? which is a plus factor, aside from the fact that visual maps are easier to remember than attempting to memorize pages of lists.

There are also mind mapping software available for you, since a lot of people find the process so useful and time-saving. No matter which method of mind mapping you choose, be it using a mind mapping software or through the traditional pen and paper ? the important thing is that you can enjoy the benefits of living up to your brain’s potential by making use of this ingenious mind mapping technique.

Put your mind on overdrive:  ?The Power of Mind Mapping?

http://mindmapping.pan100.net/?e=kevin121554@yahoo.com

Kevin Hensey speaks at business clubs and prisons on personal growth. He has written articles regarding personal development.

His website is:

www-powerbooks.com

Project management software guide

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Gone are the days when project management used to be a task confined to doing up and down in front of the project manager, noting down the assigned work of the day on papers, writing daily report at the end of the day, submitting those etc. This is the era of web based project management or handling a project with the aid of Internet.

Web based project management works by centralizing complete project information onto a single server that tracks all the work being done. As a result every member of the team can access to the requisite info anytime.

Web based project management has several benefits over the conventional style of managing a project. The foremost and most outstanding feature is saving of time. Web based project management drastically reduces the amount of time consumed in handling a project manually. For now the work for the day can be seen as well as sent online. The project manager can go through it and even send the modifications through the same mode. Other merits of web based project management include convenience in doing the work, automatic mailers and notifications and so forth.

In order to further assist web technique of management many companies have come up with project management software. Project management software can help you to manage your project efficiently if the project requires contributions of multiple individuals or teams using a multi tiered development plan over a fixed area of time. The software is a great organizing tool. It organizes not just the parts of project as landmark targets but also organizes the output of the team member in a comprehensive manner. The software can be of tremendous use in almost every aspect of project handling. For instance advising adequate strategies and techniques, flowcharting tools to support workflow and design management that involves systematizing and developing the abstract ideas into a completely finished product, project handling tools offered by MS Outlook, mapping software solutions to structure and even restructure your progress levels and arrange the information structure of your company’s management teams.

If we try to take a look at kind and type of project management software, we find that several such software have marked their presence in the corporate world. Thus selecting one such software can be brain-taxing task. However prior to purchasing project management software there are certain crucial things that an individual should know. First, the prices of the software vary with the levels of sophistication and vice-a-versa. Usually project management software ranges from $50 to $20,000. Secondly you must know that the software will not accomplish tasks such as defining scope of the project, interaction with the project sponsor etc. but it will just help you in doing these jobs more efficiently and effectively.

If your project is small then grab software for handling small projects. This software will plan and schedule with only durations and not work estimates and resource capacity. At this level the software might just cause you an expense of $25.

While if your project is large then you need to have software that stimulate the project and reschedule and optimize it every time a change is made. This software provides us the capability to budget and schedule not only internal employees but also external consultants and vendors along with budgeting for equipment and travel expenditure. The cost of this software will be around $300- $500.

Mansi gupta recommends that you visit http://www.projectmanagementsource.com/software/index.html for more information on Project management software.