Freemind Organizational Tool

Something that many people have problems with is organizing thoughts and ideas. For me, as a student digital media designer, this happens ALL the time. I have found a very interesting program that allows me to break through the clutter in my bran without robbing me of my freedom to work creatively. This program is called Freemind.

           Freemind allows you to plot out ideas using a parent/child structure. Freemind is a wonderful way to organize brainstorming, notes, Project Management because it works less like a list or a spreadsheet tool and more like a free-association tool or mind mapper. You can link to files on your computer, as well as websites on the Internet.

           This program exports to HTML so you can make your work in Freemind part of your website for quick access your important information from anywhere you have connectivity. This web export also allows you to share your work with anyone.

           It does take a bit to get used to but in the end I can see where it has advantages to organization. This is also the way it works for most all programs, figuring out the interface, and how different control options are arranged. Freemind does have a sizeable community around it, and there are help files to explain it further in detail, so there are resources out there to help you while getting used to it. Some of the things I'm having issues with I am sure is mostly because I am using a touchpad for the most part. I have used a mouse with Freemind for a bit, and these issues were totally eradicated.

           The advantages that I have found with Freemind is the ability to take a thought, and write it down and be able to expand on that thought in many different directions in one place in a "web" kind of sense, instead of in point form on a text editor. It takes those thoughts and branches them out for easy quick reference. For example, I have a Freemind web set up for all of the HTML tags that are used on a regular basis and they are easily accessible on one page for quick reference. As well have a description of that tag, and its different options all spread out. This has definitely helped with coding and debugging. This makes looking for that one tag that I need for whatever purpose but forgot about easy. I can see the usages for webbing out thoughts for essays and other documents that I could come across in school, as well as laying out thoughts for future projects. As well you can "flag" certain thoughts that might be more important than others by placing little icons on that "node" (as they are called). With these you can also insert bulled point lists into your "nodes" allowing furtherer thought organization. Or you can split any "node" up into more afterwords.

I am definitely going to be focusing some of my "free time" into learning how to use this program on a more regular basis, and keep it in mind when planning out projects.