Yes, I have to admit it, most of my mind maps are not used for creative thinking. I only want to create overview and clarity for myself using mind maps. My most important tools in creating clarity are goal setting and planning. In this article I want to show you why mind mapping is important when you are setting your own goals. The first reason why mind maps are so important and make your goal setting more effective is because you visualize what you are working on. You have one powerful overview that shows you all your goals and shows you the outcome you working on. Especially this single overview is important because it gives you the ability to show everything in one big picture to yourself.
When you are working in a team everybody knows what the outcome is. Everybody needs to know what they are contributing to. The best way to do this is to use a mindmap by taking an oversized piece of paper and create a mindmap using this paper. Everybody can see the entire picture and their role. This creates clarity.
When you want to use a mindmap in your goal setting it is important, probably vital, that you do what I am about to tell you right now. When most people use a mindmap for goal setting, they only write down what their goals are. Don’t get me wrong, this is important. But, you should create an appealing overview as well. This means including images in many colors. Especially the colors are important.
You add dates to the goals and you create colors that match these dates. For instance, goals that need to be reached in one to three months are orange. Goals that need to be completed within one month are colored red. All your goals with deadlines longer than three months can be colored green.
When you make sure that every goal is located exactly at the right location in your mindmap. You create a roadmap towards the completion of all your goals. Now here is something very important. Make sure that all the goals you have are accompanied by tasks. A goal without a task is only a dream. You don’t write your tasks on a new sheet of paper! You add tasks to your goals map. The reason for this is to keep everything simple, everything in one place and everything easy to overview.
Start to create your first goals map today. It will give you more overview, and it will help you to create a much more focused way of living.