Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DASHBOARD MIND MAPS. But Were Afraid to Ask

Transcription

1 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DASHBOARD MIND MAPS But Were Afraid to Ask

2 Introduction One of the best ways to enjoy the productivity-enhancing benefits of mind mapping software is to employ it to create a dashboard map. In much the same way that the dashboard on your automobile consolidates all of the key data you need to operate it in one convenient location, a dashboard mind map gives you a similar at-a-glance view of the information and data that is most important to you. In the past few years, there has been quite a bit written about using mind maps to create dashboards. But, to a large extent, this information was scattered in quite a few places. It s something like a group of blind people trying to describe an elephant, using only their sense of touch. Each of them describes something different, because they re focusing in on the part of the elephant that is right in front of them. In much the same way, the blogosphere s coverage of mind map dashboards has been limited in focus. What this report does is consolidate the best resources on dashboards into one location, and then extract the best practices, insights and ideas from them into a valuable executive summary that you can use to take action on creating a dashboard that meets your needs. Mind mapping software: The ideal tool for creating dashboards Mind mapping software is particularly well-suited to creating these powerful information management tools for a number of reasons: Mind maps can incorporate links to files, web pages, individual s and other maps, giving you the ability to have access to the bigger picture yet in a single mouse click, access a deeper level of information and data. Branches of your maps can be collapsed or expanded as needed to show as much or as little detail as you need. Like the linking capability of mind maps, a collapsed branch can hide the details of a particular part of your dashboard, yet with a single mouse click you can expand it and view a greater level of detail. Topics and sub-topics can be added, deleted and moved around with complete freedom, to meet your changing information management needs. Map markers can be added to mind maps to show the relative priorities of different tasks in your dashboard, to add emphasis to critical items and to filter the contents of your map based upon them. Dashboard Mind Maps Page 2

3 In short, mind mapping software is the ideal tool for building a personal dashboard. Benefits of dashboards Speed: Dashboards give you a way to take a 50,000-foot view of your work and/or life, so you can see what needs your time and attention. Organization: Dashboards organize all of the key assets you need in one location, making it easy to access them whenever you need them. This is actually huge! Why? Have you ever tried to find that one special document or file on your computer s hard drive? How long did it take you? How frustrated did you get? According to a number of sources, information workers may spend up to 30 percent of their time searching for files and information. A well-designed dashboard eliminates that problem! Focus: Dashboards help you to focus in on the most important parts of your life. They enable you to spend a minimum of time checking on your progress, and identifying those areas that will give us the greatest impact for our time. Flexibility: As new things come up, you can easily add them to your dashboard without destroying its structure. It s also free-form, enabling you to add any kind of item with any kind of information attached to it. That s powerful, because it enables you to create a very personal tool that does a supreme job of meeting your unique needs. For the most part, it does this without forcing you into its way of doing things, which is really quite remarkable, when you stop to think about it. What can you include in a dashboard? The sky s the limit, but here are some common elements you may want to consider as you think about what to include in your personal dashboard: Personal goals Personal and work tasks Track the status of key projects Important meetings, appointments and reminders Your schedule A work log what you did each day Dashboard Mind Maps Page 3

4 A reading list, which can include books and magazines as well as the URLs of articles and blog posts you want to read as time permits Links to key documents and reports An in-box for capturing new items for later processing Account numbers, passwords and logins Reference materials A calendar Spreadsheets with key metrics for your business (sales, production) or personal life (weight loss) Types of dashboards You can create dashboards to manage just about any aspect of your work or personal life. But the three most common types are process, project, and personal dashboards. Process dashboards are created to remind you of a business process that must be followed for your work. A good example is steps that should be followed when adding a new post to your blog. Steps in the process could include promoting it via Twitter and to relevant Linkedin groups, Digg, Delicious, and so forth, checking to see if it should be added to your best of articles page, and so forth. Project dashboards centralize all of the key information you need to begin a project people, resources, timetables, milestones, etc. This is perhaps the most common type of dashboard map. Personal dashboards give you fast access to key personal information, such as usernames and passwords, account numbers, and phone numbers for airlines, credit cards and other important people and organizations. They can also help you to track your progress against goals and to monitor your financial health. Dashboard Mind Maps Page 4

5 Here are some other examples of dashboards produced using mind mapping software: A writer s dashboard: Created by Roger C. Parker of the Published & Profitable Blog, this dashboard is designed to provide writers with two-step access to all of your content and marketing projects. Read Roger s original article here, or his more recent two-part guest post on the Mindjet Blog here and here. Sales manager: This dashboard gives you an ideal at-a-glance summary of the performance of your sales territory, incorporating sales targets by quarter, sales forecasts, and charts summarizing monthly pipeline activity for the current month and number of accounts in each phase of the sales pipeline. Dashboard Mind Maps Page 5

6 Personal financial dashboard: This high-level dashboard and its set of linked child maps helps UK blogger and trainer Andrew Wilcox to access key account and business data that he uses to manage his firm. This blog post also does an excellent job of explaining how he uses it. Social media goals and metrics: This is a dashboard that I created for my former job, in which I was managing a social media campaign for 2 trade shows. I used a mind map dashboard to track key metrics for each of the social media channels I was using, and provided links to relevant resources. This was very effective for me; a real time-saver! Dashboard Mind Maps Page 6

7 Business owner: This well-designed executive dashboard enables a business owner to track tasks, notes, financial and legal issues, people, sales and marketing, operational issues and planning/development priorities. Time management/gtd: This dashboard mind map from the Mappio map gallery site is focused on implementing David Allen s highly regarded Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. One of the things I really like about it is the topic named incubator on the left side of the map. This is an excellent parking place for new ideas that you re not quite sure what to do with yet but which you don t want to lose. Using the GTD weekly review will be a great opportunity to consider what to do with your someday/maybe ideas. Dashboard Mind Maps Page 7

8 Personal knowledge base: I love the methodology that the author lays out in this blog post in the Mindjet Blog for creating a personal knowledge base map. I ve always considered knowledge to be something like a mosaic. As I learn more, I m finding new pieces that fit into my understanding of a given topic, something like tiles in a giant mosaic. This post explains how to capture knowledge in a mind map for future reference. Brilliantly done I highly recommend that you read this article, and think about how you can put this technique to work in your life. Coaching and consulting with your clients: A mind map dashboard is an excellent way to give yourself a bigger picture view of all of the key priorities and topics you must discuss and next action steps on projects with your key clients, as Roger C. Parker explains in this guest post on the Mindjet Blog. At an even higher level than the client coaching map above, Roger uses another dashboard map to provide him with single-click access to all of his clients (below). Dashboard Mind Maps Page 8

9 As you can see from these examples, dashboard maps are incredibly flexible and powerful tools that you can use immediately to bring greater efficiency to your business. In fact, the type of information you can incorporate into a dashboard is entirely based upon your key business needs and your imagination. I hope these examples have inspired you! Tips for creating and managing dashboard mind maps Now it s time to create your own dashboard maps, to help you to get better organized and to focus on the key projects and priorities that will help you to grow your business faster. Here are some tips on creating dashboard mind maps that help you to kick ass: Think broadly when creating your dashboard map. Don t just limit yourself to projects and their important priorities and deadlines. Remember that one of your mind mapping software s capabilities is its ability to link topics to files, messages, web pages and even executable program files. You can use your dashboard to quickly access files, folders, and websites, saving you valuable time each day. You can even use your program s linking capabilities to create an link. When you click it, it will open up an form already containing the address embedded in the link. That means you can create links to the people to whom you frequently send messages. Dashboard Mind Maps Page 9

10 Don t be afraid to use callouts, icons, colors and boundaries to draw attention to critical elements in your dashboard map. Some mind mapping programs enable you to embed spreadsheet cell ranges from Excel spreadsheets into your maps or to create small spreadsheets from within the application. You can use this to keep track of sales figures and other data that is important to your business. When you start a new project or think of something you need to track and you don t know where else to track it add it to your dashboard. Create a section within it (or a sub-map) that you can use as a parking lot for new ideas and projects that you don t know what to do with. Remember that your dashboard map should be designed to be an at-a-glance tool that gives you fast access to your most important information. You should only have to give it a passing glance to see what goals and projects require your attention. This bigger picture view will enable you to spend minimal time assessing your progress and instead focus on identifying areas that need your attention. On a related note: If your dashboard map becomes too complex, don't be afraid to break it into several linked sub-maps. Remember: The details are still only a click away. You should probably schedule a comprehensive "sweep" of your dashboard map, once a week to determine what has become extraneous and can be eliminated from your dashboard, as well as new projects and top priorities that need to be added to it. Most important of all, don t conform to anyone s expectations of what your dashboard map should contain. It s yours, and because of that, it needs to provide you with fingertip access to the information that is most important to you! Questions? Got questions about dashboard mind maps? Don t hesitate to contact me at chuck@innovationtools.com. Want more reports like this? Join the Mind Mapping Insider program Dashboard Mind Maps Page 10