Stay Clear and Focused on Your 2012 Resolutions with Visualization

The New Year is shiny and bright. Now is the time when we can look back on past accomplishments and mistakes of the previous year and start anew. Whether you are building on your previous Thoughts and projects or starting a new Brain, visualization software and mind maps enable you to formulate clear and doable plans for the New Year in a way that captures your best thinking.

Getting Outside Your Head

We all need a place for ourselves, a place to work, sleep, eat… but most importantly to think. You can make that place for thinking and translating your goals into action in your Brain. And it’s easier than you think. But first a little on the why…

David Allen, bestselling author and creator of Getting Things Done® talks about how you can develop a positive shift in your energy just by identifying what you need to do… i.e. when you are stressed out think about the relief you feel just by creating a list. In GTD Times he referred to this as “The value of getting things out of your psyche and into a more objective format”. Creating a place for your 2012 resolutions in your Brain not only gives you a digital space to start working on them, collecting information etc., but more importantly takes them out of your mind so you can work on them in a productive fashion. Therefore, the first step in your 2012 Brain is to identify and create Thoughts for all your key goals and resolutions for this year.

Creating Thoughts for your goals also helps solidify the commitment. In fact, I’m not sure if you can even have a resolution if at the very least, you don’t write it down. Though jotting a key goal down on a piece of paper may mentally provide commitment and relief, your digital brain provides a network for you to elaborate on your idea, remind you when to take action, and turn it into reality! Once you have created a Thought for your goal, the next step is to add other Thoughts that support and elaborate on your goal. This is where perseverance and planning come into play.

Perseverance and Planning in Your Brain

The news media reports that yesterday (January 9th), nine days after people make their resolution, is the day when most people give it up. So clearly without the right backup system for your goals things can slip away. In order to stay the course you need to focus and create Thoughts in your digital Brain for concrete action items and tasks that will lead to your ultimate resolution. In my blog entry entitled “7 Steps to Making Your Creative Vision a Reality”, I identify several key steps that can help turn your goal into reality. But the main takeaway of this post is that success begins by breaking down your dream into manageable chunks and making each piece an actionable step. And luckily segmentation of ideas is what information visualization and mind mapping is all about. When you mind map the possibilities, this imagined future becomes more real because you have captured and elaborated on a vision outside of your mind. Think of it as digital self-awareness.

To begin planning in your Brain ask yourself: what are the key components of your goal… then begin to segment your larger goal into smaller actionable steps. Each one of these steps should be a Child Thought under your resolution.

Experimenting with TheBrain’s outline view enables you to see all necessary steps for your goal.

For instance, “Living to be 100” is a very nice goal but unless you define key steps and milestones to get there, it’s just a pipe dream. Under this Thought you might include key research on longevity and health, as well as key action-oriented Thoughts that will help you achieve your goal such as nutrition, exercise and stress management.

References and Inspirations

Even though you think you are committed to your resolution, research suggests otherwise, and over time your motivation may waiver. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to setup reminders and inspirations in your Brain. I suggest creating a Thought called “Why” under your resolution and use PersonalBrain’s Notes tab to capture your key reasons and motivations behind this goal. You can also link to some friendly “Propaganda Thoughts” to reinforce your plan… For instance if you are losing weight, add some research in your Brain on how important weight loss is to health. In this way your digital Brain trains and convinces your wet brain on the benefits of achieving this goal.

References and inspirations are an absolutely critical step in actualizing your creative vision. Of course, unlike conventional mind mapping software, there is no limit to the number of Thoughts or files that you can add to your Brain. This means that you can create an ever-expanding unlimited knowledgebase for your vision. Collecting and organizing key ideas and important examples will enable you to harness abundant information sources and put them to work for you. Once key source material is in your Brain, you can simply type in a name and get to the information you need instantly.

Your reference Thoughts will not only help you define your vision for the project, but also serve as important guidelines and benchmarks to ensure that your requirements are met. For instance, if you are designing a Web site, link and create Thoughts for Web sites that represent your ideal aesthetics and business goals. If you are working on a kitchen renovation, link to photos of all the key design elements.

Reminders and Monitoring Your Progress

Goal maintenance is key to success and your Brain can help you stay on top of things. Setup action oriented Thoughts that demand your attention periodically. For example, if your goal is losing weight, add additional Thoughts on number of steps walked or an exercise log that you update each week. You can use PersonalBrain’s Notes built-in time stamp to record your key metrics. You can also setup Thoughts and reminders in your Brain for periodic reviews so when you get busy with other stuff your goal is never forgotten. I suggest you setup weekly reminders with TheBrain’s built-in calendar. The reminder Thought ideally should lead to some action you need to take, even if it’s just a journal entry in PersonalBrain’s Notes. If your goal is more elusive, like taking your business global, your weekly action item can be more research oriented, like finding three new web articles on your goal. In this way your knowledgebase grows to serve your resolution and you in turn will use this newly acquired knowledge to meet your goals.

We Are What We Think

As you work on your 2012 resolutions your expanded view of your thinking will enable you to go full circle with your digital Brain. That is, you start off using your digital Brain to capture your goal but by directing your own ideas and thinking in TheBrain towards your goal you are actually training your mind to focus and absorb what is most important to you. Thus your digital Brain moves you to a deeper level of commitment and strategic thinking on that “2012 Thought” you created. It is this symbiosis of deliberate and selective brainstorming that takes you to a higher consciousness of an idea. This mindset makes the difference between a resolution and an accomplished result. So to all of you who seek more in life and work, may you forge a better, more intelligent future this year with new directed Thoughts and ideas in your digital Brain. After all, we are what we think we can be. So be the most you can be… in your Brain.

Happy New Year and Happy Digital Thinking!

Use PersonalBrain to make your summer shine, by capturing and growing your creative ideas and projects.

 
What Is Creativity?

The connections in our mind converge and new ideas are generated. But there is a certain mystery and awe in our creative facilities. This intangible process makes our creative process and output somewhat unpredictable and serendipitous.

How do you maximize such an ephemeral and yet essential process? I don’t claim to know all the answers, but there are some easy things anyone can do and PersonalBrain can help you with all of them.

Clearing the Deck for New Ideas for Creative Connections
I’ve noted that August can be a great month for creativity due to less intense deadlines. However, if you are in the construction industry or have kids at home from school you might actually have less time. But regardless of your workload or season, if you’re pre-occupied with mundane tasks and commitments, they will take up precious space in your mind. Creative opportunities will be missed. As Dee Hock said, “Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.”

This idea of clearing your head for more productivity is an essential theme in David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. A key aspect of GTD is having a trusted place to put things away along with a system of organization and prioritization so ultimately you can focus on what really matters to you. Not only can PersonalBrain capture your creative vision but you can use your digital Brain to store information, tasks, allowing you to sift through the data clutter that might be holding your creativity back. 

For more information on how to use PersonalBrain to “Get Things Done” see my blog post.
For more information on dealing with information overload see my article on “Digital Sanity.”

Thinking Outside the Box with Lateral Connections
Creativity in many cases is simply putting together existing ideas in a new way. As Albert Einstein put it, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

From Einstein to Edward de Bono to Tony Buzan, many an insight on creativity relates to how making connections between two seemingly disparate concepts can be the key to that “Eureka” moment. Your mind and imagination are the ultimate source for these nuggets of gold.

PersonalBrain enables you to capture your thoughts anytime, when they come to mind so you can leverage them when the time is right.

There’s really no better place to get your creative juices flowing on a project, hobby or interest than in your digital Brain. PersonalBrain makes linking together information fun. You can connect any idea to anything else so your creative ideas aren’t stuffed into folders. This lateral thinking enabled by non-linear connections is the hallmark of creativity and is easily achieved in PersonalBrain.

Fill your PersonalBrain with the concepts that are important to your business or life. Whether it’s key points in your supply chain, new ideas for your manufacturing process, or key principals that separate you from the competition, each of these Thoughts forms a foundation for a network of lateral connections that can lead to your next breakthrough.

For example, if you are a software engineer being able to link development ideas to applications can trigger new features for customers. An architect might link building specifications to new materials to come up with the best design. What PersonalBrain provides is a new perspective beyond mundane folders to organize information. This gives you more possibilities to see connections in a new light.

Inspirational Warehousing and Idea Incubation
Now that you’ve started to build a structure that encompasses your business goals or passions, you should capture and link up all the ideas you have, no matter how fanciful they may seem at first blush. Much our modern world is built on ideas that must have seemed crazy even to their creators. In the case of your Brain, these ideas don’t need to get in the way and if they never lead anywhere, there’s nothing lost. Your PersonalBrain can hold hundreds of thousands of “Thoughts”.  On the other hand, keeping them connected to the topics they are about allows them to incubate and keeps them accessible when a catalyst for making them into reality happens or something comes to mind later.

A snapshot of Jerry Mickalski’s 160,000+ Thought Brain on creativity as published on WebBrain.com

Harlan Hugh the inventor of TheBrain, puts all his ideas in his PersonalBrain, regardless of how trivial. These ideas incubate, grow and build connections over time. Some might be used in the future and others are just there to trigger more ideas. This expansive knowledgebase has resulted in multitude of technical innovations of TheBrain software. Sandy Ping, CEO of VentureForward, and one of the inventors of billion dollar commercial successes such as Cascade Action Paks and Swiffer WetJet uses his PersonalBrain to make connections between market research, products, patents and new ideas to foster his own innovative thinking.

Organizing ideas is central to evolving your creative process. With PersonalBrain you can organize by connection rather than separation which preserves and captures lateral thinking that is often necessary to innovate and create.

(To learn more about PersonalBrain’s Big Thinkers go to: http://www.thebrain.com/community/big-thinkers1/)

Expanding Your Mind and Talent
By consciously adapting your workflows with the intent to be creative, you will find that you are. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy when you have the means to execute it. The simple act of capturing you ideas will spawn others and PersonalBrain’s ability to remind you of those ideas when you are thinking about related concepts will enhance your own innate creativity.  You can not only capture your ideas but the overall business and creative processes. This is especially relevant for project managers. Becoming conscious of your processes and methodologies will enable you to gain a level of control on your thinking and projects.  We just did a webinar last week entitled “The Ultimate Performance Network” demonstrating how to explicitly mind map business processes.  Understanding your workflows and project cycles helps you evolve and build on current thinking so you can improve and streamline things.

And for people who have no defined processes whatsoever, PersonalBrain can be even more useful. I know creatives in Hollywood who dread Microsoft Project but can organize a project like nothing in their PersonalBrain!  With PersonalBrain anyone can take a basic idea or vague objective and start visualizing specifics: hammering out next steps, contingency plans, key documents all visualized together. For more information on how to realize the results of creativity see my blog post on “7 Steps To Make Your Creative Vision a Reality”

So clear out a corner of your mind by putting it all into your digital Brain. Two Brains are always better than one. With PersonalBrain you will never run out of space, so add your most outlandish ideas, inspirations and connections. Let the idea germination begin!

“Become more conscious of the creative power within your reach”

Brainstorming was popularized in 1939 by Alex Osborn. He was a partner in an ad agency looking to expand the boundaries of projects and create a better context for idea generation. Osborn developed several rules for a good brainstorming session: encourage large quantities of ideas, include the outlandish unusual ideas, minimize judgment, and build on each idea.

In 1939 brainstorming methodology was solid but technology was still disconnected. Alex Osborn could have his secretary type up the groups’ ideas (as most real managers in 1939 didn’t type) and hand them out on a piece of paper to everyone.

Indeed, we’ve come a long way in terms of knowledge dissemination since 1939 but we’ve also come a long way from our whiteboards and napkins too.

Though not explicitly referred in Osborn’s key rules for brainstorming, implicit even in 1939 was that highly visual capture of thinking can lend itself to even better ideas. Sight and knowledge have a tight relationship. When people brainstorm they put up a bunch of words on a whiteboard not only so they can capture ideas but because “seeing is believing”. It’s part of our reflection process.

Visualization software and mind maps can take your brainstorming session to the next level.  We covered some interesting examples of this in last week’s Webinar “From Brainstorming to Results. See the Possibilities”. Here’s how to take your ideas from the whiteboard to execution and augment your next brainstorming session.

Get It Out of Your Head 
Get your ideas out of your head and into a tangible form. This will enable you to see and reflect on these ideas.  Starting with a new Brain can help you focus on the problem or concept at hand. Your first Thought should be your goal or problem. Then create Thoughts below for all possibilities. In the spirit of Alex Osborn, the more Thoughts you have for this purpose, the better. You can also drag and drop links to key references and inspirations in your Brain to help trigger new ideas. Continue to build on Thoughts already created. There’s no limit to the number of Thoughts or where your ideas can go with PersonalBrain. 

For more information on this process see: “Visualizing Decisions and No Limits Brainstorming”.

Collective Brainstorming With Your Team

In addition to individual brainstorming and strategizing, creating a Brain in real-time as a group can lead to very powerful results. To brainstorm as a group you can use a single Brain projected, where one person is the moderator and captures the groups’ ideas. You can also synchronize your idea generation with TeamBrain services across individual PersonalBrains. 

Creating a TeamBrain can be a catalyst for new ideas, as well as reinvigorate staff suffering from burnout and performance plateaus. When you are brainstorming as a group, remember to follow our friend Alex Osborn’s rules.  Withhold judgment during your session so each team member feels free to let their creative contributions flow. Make sure everyone in the group understands the ground rules so that less gregarious members have a chance to contribute. You might even go as far as to draw out quieter or more junior team members. By leveling the playing field managers can gain valuable insights from employees that might otherwise feel inhibited to contribute.

Transition from Brainstorming to Action
Once you have mapped out a wide range of possibilities it’s time to reflect and commit. Osborn recommends setting up your brainstorming conference in two parts: the first for idea generation, the second session to decide on the best ideas.

“Optimum opportunity for creative thinking and for judicial thinking is to divide a conference into two sessions” (Osborn)

This is your assessment phase.  You need to determine which idea is feasible and then commit to it. In order to determine feasibility you might need to do further research. Under each Thought add child Thoughts on key next steps, supporting files and web research.

During this phase I like to use Thought Types and Tags to visually weigh and prioritize each Thought/idea. Thought Types should be used to assign a primary attribute to a Thought where tags can be used to add additional criteria or attributes to a Thought.

In the above screenshot once all ideas for the company’s “Market Expansion” were captured, Thought Types are used to signify a primary attribute of an idea. In this case, something that is a “Greenlighted project” or a “Hot topic” has generated much debate is identified with a Thought Type.

Often the ideas generated aren’t necessarily a clear “yeah or nay” so you can create tags that will highlight the feasibility of each idea. In the example above there are Thought Tags for “Cost” and “Timeframe” because these are key factors for executing these ideas.

By categorizing and further classifying ideas, unconscious reasons why something is a good or bad idea become more concrete, and an objective criterion for making decisions can be readily identified and implemented.

For more information on “Getting Things Done” and prioritization see my previous blog post.

Provide Access to Your Thinking
After your brainstorming session or once you have chosen your direction, share your Brain with your Team. You will need to decide if you prefer to control the content and publish in read-only mode or enable people to contribute to grow and build on the Brain’s existing structure. You can publish your Brain on your company web site or provide collaborative access through WebBrain.

A Knowledgebase That Goes from Seeing to Doing
Now that you have chosen a course of action, your thinking process is captured and you can always go back and reflect on it as a group or individual. Moreover, your Brain now becomes an ongoing repository and knowledgebase for your project. You can: drag and drop all relevant documents, visualize project phases, setup up reminders, link people to their responsibilities, continue to share and grow more ideas.

This process provides seamless management from initial idea creation to project completion. By starting with your brainstorming Thoughts then using and growing that same Brain for execution, you gain an ongoing conceptual framework from start to finish. This continuity of process makes transitioning from thinking to doing easy. By visualizing key objectives and milestones your team has a clear path of action and can always see the big picture. So instead of leaving your best ideas in your head or on the conference room whiteboard, capture your next brainstorming session in TheBrain. Then you’ll be able to watch things evolve from a few interesting ideas to an execution-oriented knowledgebase that leads to your project’s success.

Additional Resources

1. Download Goal Directed Thinking BrainZip Template
2. Watch Webinar: “From Brainstorming to Results. See the Possibilities”

Related Posts

1. Visualizing Decisions and No Limits Brainstorming
2. Seven Steps to Making Your Creative Vision a Reality

Semantic Networks Capture Mental Models

It was an honor to be on the Atlantic Guest Blogging Team. Here is my final post on Digital Introspection. In this article I talk about self-examination and the importance of creating digital mental models.

Read Article 

Digital flow or noise, if not handled properly, will destroy your focus. In this post I explore how to make the Internet’s deluge of information work for you rather than the other way around.

Read Article 

I’m thrilled to be guest blogging on the Atlantic this week!

In my first post I explore the history of how we store and manage our information — and why we can’t continue thinking in terms of files in the 21st century…

Learn More 

         

Creating the right context for ideas and collaboration has led to unsurpassed breakthroughs. Whether we’re exchanging ideas in a coffee shop or online at our office, the heart of an idea’s growth and formation is environmental connections.

The History of Innovation Is Based on Connections
James Burke through his ground breaking books and miniseries “Connections” popularized the idea that events and ideas across the world influence and produce more innovation than we are ever really conscious of. In his extensive body of work and even his PersonalBrain, he shows us how many seemingly unrelated events, people and ideas fit together and intersect to impact social and technological change.

He explores how scientific progress, technological evolution and human thought are interrelated. The entire history of civilization is based on this interlacing – a “Knowledge Web” of interactions and relationships.

More recently, Steven Johnson in “Where Good Ideas Come From” theorizes that innovation accelerates under open environments and “Liquid Networks” .

When these environments are fluid enough to let ideas permeate and intermingle on a regular basis you get a hyper growth curve of advancement like such that occurs with the diversity and specialization of life in a coral reef, in a city or on the Web.

Innovate by Focusing Your Network
So if we agree that connections lead to innovation then we need to understand what connections are best for us. Today we have more channels of communication and information sharing than ever: We can see what colleagues are tweeting, schedule meetings, check RSS feeds, digest streaming media, go to the corporate intranet, email… 

But the critical question is: How do you stay connected without over whelming yourself with all these “connections”?  It would be a mistake to think of “plugged in” as the single attribute of a creative network, as so many of us do. That premise leads us to the kind of day where we end up tripping over water fountains because we MUST text while we are walking.  

We need to push our Brain and projects towards more creative, organic exchanges without overloading our circuitry.  So what I want to talk about here is not a hive of information buzzing around us or even a “GlobalBrain” (as cool as this might be) but rather a TeamBrain: – a focused and connected information environment with a specific purpose, an environment that enhances our natural ability to make associations while leveraging the ideas and thinking of our select peers. With focused collaboration you can start a small to medium sized network of creative idea exchange and gain exponential results.

Set Up a Focused TeamBrain
If you are reading this post most of you will probably already have a PersonalBrain, maybe even BrainEKP in your organization. So the first step in setting up your TeamBrain is to setup your WebBrain account. Then contact TheBrain to enable TeamBrain services for your team. It’s a free beta service for the next 30 days.

A key aspect of collaboration (especially in this day and age of Facebook status updates and tweeting our dinners) is the level of distinction one should create between their personal and public information. For this reason I suggest creating a new Brain dedicated to collaboration with your team and key projects instead of sharing your 10,000 Thought Brain on everything in your life. (Though that could be a great TeamBrain for you and your spouse). For example, you might want to copy your marketing research into a new Brain and start with that.

Keep in mind that focused does not need to be boring. In fact, for the purpose of getting started I suggest you share either a new Brain or create a section in your existing TeamBrain that enables people to experiment and brainstorm. If your TeamBrain is on company sales, it might turn out that it’s your product design and development area that your group adds the most Thoughts. Sometime it’s these types of surprises and free flowing exchanges that lead to innovation, so make your idea exchange fun and don’t narrow the scope of your TeamBrain too tightly. A single project Brain, depending on the complexity of the project, may be too restricted. It’s the serendipity of the linkages that makes the gestalt network greater than the sum of its parts. And remember, unlike conventional mind maps or linear folder structures, there’s no limit to the number of Thoughts or connections that can be made in your TeamBrain.

Click the refresh arrows to see all the latest changes. Name of user and time will appear next to the modified Thought.

It’s a live organic knowledgebase, always there, assessable from anywhere. TeamBrain lets you work offline on your desktop. All you have to do is hit the sync button to synchronize your changes with the group. The network grows more powerful as everyone continues to use it. Changes by users are tracked in the reports area. So you can see who has contributed to what.

Laying a TeamBrain Foundation
Like any good city or urban dwelling, infrastructure is key.  Create a basic structure for your Brain where your Thoughts lay a solid foundation upon which new connections can grow. Start by mind mapping all your key projects, departments and people networks. This foundation and visual structure will distinguish your TeamBrain from the noise of all the other applications and feeds that overwhelm people and contribute to information deluge. Connecting people to department or expertise is important. This is especially helpful when you are collaborating with a geographically dispersed team.  For more information on mapping out people networks see “Everyone Is Connected. It’s Time to See the Links”.

The structure of your Brain will provide an overarching context for your information. When your sales team clicks on a brochure they not only get that document but they can see related whitepapers, connected products and vertical markets. The structure can also be changed. Linking new Thoughts and unlinking old ideas can happen instantly.

Now here’s where the exponential growth comes in. It’s like an idea soup. Your sales guy updates your TeamBrain with his customer feedback report which triggers an idea you have for improving the user experience on your Web site. Meanwhile your Web developer in Milwaukee has been playing with some new style sheets and code.  He now sees your new idea in TeamBrain and connects his project to yours. Net result: your half-baked idea is now augmented and completed by somebody else’s work.  And thus an otherwise sidelined idea becomes a real project that actually comes to fruition because your ideas have connected.

With TeamBrain execution is augmented and streamlined. Moving forward everyone continues to work together sharing thinking, making connections, and referencing past ideas. Furthermore, as a byproduct of your projects you are also capturing and creating your collective memory.  References and past project context are also key for your team to build upon previous thinking as you can draw upon your working memory for new projects and ideas.

As history points out, innovation and progress happen when ideas collide and connections are made. By building the right context for collaboration you’re fertilizing and cultivating your own idea network – a place where ideas germinate and breakthroughs happen naturally.

TeamBrain Video Tip
Learn how to grow your ideas and streamline projects with your peers. Watch Now

To join the TeamBrain Beta program:
email tbarr@thebrain.com  or call 310-751-5000

Last month we did a Webinar called “First Things First” that explored how PersonalBrain can be used for prioritization and focus of projects. Here are a few key principles that we discussed.

You Need to Capture and Clarify to Execute
The more stuff you can get out of your head and into a tangible visible form, the easier it is to organize these tasks and act on them. This also frees your mind from the mental clutter and stress of all your commitments. This is a key premise of David Allen’s GTD methodology and a key method of personal organization for busy executives.  PersonalBrain is ideal for capturing key goals and just stuff that is taking up mental space in your wet Brain.

Whether you are using David Allen’s “Horizons of Focus” or mind mapping key responsibilities in your life, crafting and visualizing the big picture will help you stay on track. So often we are busy but our heads are at the “runway level” – so focused on the daily grind we don’t see the broader implications of our plans. For instance, companies work very hard to promote and sell their products but they may fail to research and develop the right products for the future. Conversely, if we can’t even keep our heads above water because we are so mired in the task at hand it will be very difficult to make future plans.  Thus creating Thoughts for managing daily activities and long-term goals are both critical for your PersonalBrain.

David Allen talks about 6 levels of work which may also be thought of in terms of altitude.

PersonalBrain can visualize all horizons of focus.  The GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology asserts that if your mind is pre-occupied with a number of open loops and daily tasks, you cannot effectively focus on higher level life goals. That being said, because of the visual nature of PersonalBrain, you may decide to create a Brain or a specific area in your Brain exclusively for one or more of these horizons of focus.

From current to-dos, up to long-term goals this continuum of insight on projects must all be captured in your Brain.

Be Aware of Your Commitments
One way to really identify what is important and stay on track is to represent all your key commitments as Thoughts in your PersonalBrain. It’s quite telling to see how many you have and the connections they lead to. I suggest creating a Thought called commitments. (If you are using the GTD approach these would fall under the 20,000 foot altitude.) This section in your Brain will visualize all the key areas of your life. These might include family, community involvement, this quarter’s sales numbers, new design projects, trips with friends, etcetera.

Once you have all your commitments captured you will need to take a step back and prioritize or even delete a few!  You can use Thought types and tags in PersonalBrain to visually prioritize your responsibilities. Use bright colors to represent and visualize the more important projects or commitments.

Seeing all this in your digital Brain enables you to be more conscious of what you need to focus on. From here you can either set some new goals for the year or use PersonalBrain to execute on your existing commitments through goal directed visualization.

Use Goal Directed Visualization
As the New Year is upon us, I suggest you start by creating Thoughts for all your key New Year’s resolutions or goals for 2011. These can be under your “Horizons of Focus” or in a new 2011 area in your PersonalBrain.

Now you can focus your projects and intentions with an end in sight. The idea is to direct your attention and energy from a set of obstacles to a set of choices: the more specific and definable the choices, the better the chance for success.

For example, under each goal or resolution you need to break it down and segment your desired achievement into manageable tasks. For instance, “Living to be 100” is a very concrete goal but unless you define key steps and milestones to get there, it’s just a pipe dream. Under this Thought you might include key research on longevity and health as well as key action-oriented Thoughts that will help you achieve your goal such as nutrition, exercise and stress management.

For more information on goal directed mapping see 7 Steps to Make Your Creative Vision a Reality

Add supporting child Thoughts that break down how to achieve your goal. Aggregate and integrate the necessary supporting information. These might include web sites, project plans, and budgets so all relevant material is instantly accessible under your goal. Use PersonalBran’s drag and drop to consolidate all relevant resources. You can also set reminder Thoughts with PersonalBrain’s calendar so you can come back and check on things.

Create Visual Workflows
Each phase of reaching your goal will involve a number of tasks. All your tasks and to-dos can be tracked and organized in PersonalBrain. Don’t hesitate to add functional Thoughts to your Brain, Thoughts such as:  To Do Today and Weekly Review.  Under these Thoughts you can create Thoughts for all your to-dos. When an item is completed it can be linked to another area for future reference or deleted. Some users like to create lists in the PersonalBrain notes area. PersonalBrain 6 now includes checkboxes which makes trackable lists, easy.

I also have a Thought in my Brain called “Waiting for.” This is particularly useful to track things that you are waiting for an action on, such as: your CEO’s approval, client input, graphic assets etcetera. You can even drag and drop email messages under this Thought from Outlook, Apple Mail or your web mail. 

For more detailed overview of using PersonalBrain and GTD read “Getting Things Done with PersonalBrain”.

Focus by Putting Stuff Away
During our day we are often pleasantly surprised but nonetheless interrupted by new articles, new purchase ideas and other happenings.  PersonalBrain gives you focus by providing that place where you can put things away with the confidence of being able to get to them at a moment’s notice when the time is right. This helps you control your time and priorities.

Try to categorize all these distractions and create Thoughts for them in PersonalBrain. This way when you stumble across a new book you want to buy online, you can put it under that Thought and come back and reference it when you’re buying books. By controlling the flow of information through PersonalBrain you allow your mind to focus on the task at hand and keep your priorities at the forefront without getting distracted.

So yes, creating Thoughts for all your distractions will help you stay focused. Some Thoughts that I have for this purpose include:  I Need to Read, I Need to Buy, Cool Trends, and This Weekend …. It’s about creating a place for you to capture and return to action items. This area can also be great for self-analysis. You can even have a Thought called “Today’s Distractions” and start to collect and understand what types of issues, ideas or circumstances force you to change gears and lose focus.

Achieve Multifaceted Focus
By capturing key aspects of your life you can optimize your time and take your projects to new heights. PersonalBrain can help you gain a clear vision of what you can do or even what needs to be put aside. Referencing and achieving our past projects, integrating and visualizing present plans and then mapping out and creating Thoughts for key goals for the future will provide you with a complete view for making better choices.  You will able to step back from everything and focus on your life’s purpose, or dive deep into daily details operating easily at any altitude or perspective in your Brain.

Topic focused Brains are ideal for sharing and publishing. They are a great way to enter into the publishing arena on WebBrain.com and are a ton of fun to create.  Here’s how to create a compelling Brain in 6 simple steps.

1. Select the Right Topic: Breadth or Depth?
If you want to attract attention on your blog or webbrain.com choosing a topic that’s engaging is a must. If you are pressed for time and want to publish, keep your topic focused. For instance, instead of mind mapping out the entire history of the United States you could choose a more specific topic  like “the Effect of the Industrial Revolution” or American Entrepreneurs.  Narrowing down your topic will help you avoid any gaping holes in your content and ensure that your Brain covers all key ideas on your subject.

 

Conversely, if you start on a very narrow topic and find you are running out of ideas quickly you may need to broaden your theme. For instance, a Brain on yoga might need to be broadened out to one on healthy living.  If this happens, remember there is really no beginning or end to a Brain. Simply add a new Parent Thought above your main topic and branch out other themes from there.

Publishing more of a general overview or visual outline of key ideas from a meeting, conference or subject is also a quick publishing project. Creating a Brain on a broad topic that highlights all the key areas of its subject can be a very effective communication of your point of view.

Agendas and overviews are easy to create and a popular published Brain for teams

The general rule here is to be consistent. If you have one area in your Brain that has 20 child Thoughts and goes 5 levels deep and another area that’s sparely populated will leave visitors to wonder what happened. Define your topic and parameters in advance and be realistic about what you can map out.

Pick a topic that you love or want to learn more about. Then your experience of creating the Brain becomes very rewarding. For more ideas on topic selection browse some of the most popular Brains on http://www.webbrain.com

There are many approaches to creating a Brain. You can create one Brain for all projects in your life or get focused on a single topic. (For more information on which approach to Brain development is right for you see my blog entry on: “One Brain or Many”)

 
2. Pay Attention to Fundamental Thought Architecture
Start with the name of your topic then create child Thoughts for key areas. Phase one of topic expansion is idea capture and category creation. Create Thoughts under your topic in a free flowing manner. At this point don’t worry about Thoughts that may not belong just capture all your ideas. You can always delete a Thought or move things around later. To create multiple Thoughts at once: separate them with a semicolon in the create child box.

Add in multiple Thoughts at once.

Then under each of these header Thoughts start to build a supporting Thought structure. Though you can create your Thoughts from any direction I recommend creating subcategories AKA “child Thoughts” down from your main Branch, moving from general to more specific Thoughts.

For more information on Thought relationships see Parent, Child, or Jump…Which Relationship Should I Choose?

Once you have your basic Thought structure down you will probably find that an idea or two fits under a couple different categories. This is where the fun comes in. Just type in the first couple letters and select it from the existing Thoughts list to make a connection. These connections will serve as paths of discovery for people browsing your Brain.  

Connect Your Thoughts to anything else. No Limits

3. Attach Content and Create Web Guides
To build and grow areas of my Brain, I like to use PersonalBrain’s Search Web Feature (in the Options menu or F5). This takes your active Thought and initiates a Web search. Now you can drag and drop the best web sites below your Thought for even more resources on your topic. You can drag and drop any URL or file into your PersonalBrain.

One of my favorite sites to map out and add into my published Brain is the Wikipedia. One entry on a topic always has a dozen links to something else but they are all embedded in the text and it is difficult to see the connections. This is perfect for your online Brain. You can attach various Wikipedia pages to your Thoughts and their connected concepts.

You can also copy images onto your Thoughts as icons. Copy any web image and then right click on your Thought and select “Paste Thought Icon”.

You can also drag and drop files. When you publish your Brain your viewers will be able to download that file or open it in their web browser. If you are dragging and dropping files from your desktop into your PersonalBrain be sure to move those files internally into your Brain. Right click on the file in the Thought menu and select “Move File into Brain”. Otherwise you might end up with a shortcut to something that is pointing to a folder on your desktop instead of being online. (If you are adding a lot of files to be viewed online I recommend you change the preferences in PersonalBrain from drag and drop to Move rather than Link.)

If you don’t have any content attached to your Thought you can add notes. Your notes on your Thoughts will appear below the visual interface in the content frame. So spend some time developing a nice style and make sure your formatting of notes is constituent for a more professional finish in your published Brain. This is a great place to include a brief introduction on what your Brain is about. Right under your first Thought.

When published, the content frame below your Thoughts
will display your notes or any attached files.

4. Edit and Fine Tune
Now that you have a basic structure for your Brain with most of your content, you will want to do a basic review of your Thought structure. Pay attention to the number of Thoughts you have right below your root Thought. If there are there too many you might want to subcategorize further. Additionally, are the Thoughts engaging? Review your top level Thought names. Keep them short and to the point so they don’t get truncated if made bigger. Shorter Thought names also make it easier to browse through large Brains. To rename a Thought right click and select Rename.

To learn more about fine tuning and auditing your Brain read 6 Ways You Can Improve Your Brain.

Most likely, in this phase you’ll have some Thought relationships you want to change. You can change relationships by moving Thoughts around your Active Thought or linking and unlinking. You can check out our quick online tutorial movies on Editing Thought Relationships to learn more.

5. Optimize for Your Target  Audience
Once you’re satisfied with your structure and content, add some finishing touches. Set your home Thought. In most cases it will be the first Thought you started with, but sometimes, if you are publishing a large Brain, you may want visitors to start on a different Thought. In the heart of your Brain, for instance.

You should also create pins. Pins are like bookmarks to your Thoughts. They appear at the top of your Brain and serve as hot links into key areas of your content. The nice thing about pins is each Thought that is pinned can be in a completely different area of your Brain. This will encourage visitors to activate key Thoughts you want them to see and go to areas that might otherwise be overlooked.

Finally add a background to your Brain that conveys the theme of your content and makes your Brain standout. For instance in my Writer’s Brain I selected a mysterious stair case to convey conflict and intrigue for storytelling.

Wallpaper and Thought icons are uploaded when published.
The Pins you set appear at the top of your Brain.

Be careful not to select something too busy or high contrast so that your Thoughts are still very readable.

6. Publishing and Sharing Your Brain
Now you are ready to publish. Publishing is done through WebBrain.com. Simply create an account on WebBrain.com then enter your account information in the synchronize options in PersonalBrain 6.

Watch our Quick Publishing Tour for more details on how to publish online or sync your Brain across computers.

Note: when you first publish your Brain the default setting will be private. You can then go in and modify your settings for public listing or unlisted web access to share your Brain online.
 
To share specific Thoughts with colleagues and friends, click on the share button in the corner of your published Brain. You can tweet or copy and paste the URL of specific Thoughts in an email. Now you can share your perspective and idea with the world in a whole new way. People can see your ideas and how everything is connected.  Your online Brain will make it easy to share vast amounts of information and provide an engaging medium that guides people through your content for enhanced understanding on any subject.

These days very few of us leave our projects at the office. Taking work home or working remotely, while giving you the convenience of writing a proposal in your pajamas, is not without its challenges.

When we work remotely our attention can become very fleeting: the call of domestic chores, the cat swiping at the cursor… We only need to gaze out at the yard and our mind wanders from completing the monthly sales report to weekend yard work.

Creating an effective information environment that extends your projects and thinking beyond your physical office is absolutely paramount for home office productivity. Use PersonalBrain to bridge the gaps so you can focus on your tasks wherever you are, and gain a visual network of resources that keeps you at the top of your game.

Create a Focused Context for Action
In the age of distractions context is king for deep, focused, productive work. When you are surrounded by a lot of distractions, whether at home or the office, just activating an area in your Brain will help you concentrate and stay on task. Your Brain gives you an immediate visual briefing regardless of where you are working from.

Get into the RIGHT mental zone… by activating your “Project Thought” from PersonalBrain with all relevant information.

With PersonalBrain you can map out your business and mental landscape so when you need to access a document or work on a project the structure of your information conveys a context for your actions.  You can start organizing these areas of your Brain by mapping out all your company departments, projects and teams. This gives you a more intelligent place to put things and think about them.  Drag and drop all relevant information sources, key people, related ideas and future implications. Online resources, supporting files and key documents can all be launched from your Brain.

In addition to key projects, intangible to-dos and vaguely defined responsibilities can impede productivity and add an invisible level of stress to your day.  Create Thoughts for key areas of your responsibilities. Be sure to link your responsibilities to the relevant departments and company initiatives they fall under.

Task Management Tools Keep Your Head in the Game
For most knowledge workers self-management is critical.  Our projects have gotten bigger, and we don’t have a boss hovering over our shoulders. Self-discipline is key, especially when we work remotely.  Your digital Brain will help prevent you from falling behind and provide an increased level of awareness on your tasks.

Create Thought Types and tag Thoughts to further organize your projects.  I like to use different colored Thought Types to convey priority level and project work tiers.

Thought Types for “Green Lighted Projects” and your “Action Items” convey a visual priority when juggling multiple projects.

Use PersonalBrain to avoid falling behind and forgetting. Set reminder Thoughts for key projects and ideas so you can come back to them well in advance before they are due.

 
PersonalBrain has a built-in calendar so you can manage your schedule. Microsoft Outlook integration lets you drag and drop calendar items, emails, and more. On Mac OS X, Apple iCal integration lets you link to events in iCal.

PersonalBrain 6 now has Google Calendar synchronization so any meeting set up on Google will automatically appear in your Brain and vice-versa. You can even use the Google Calendar to sync your Brain’s calendar with Outlook and iCal.

Jump Right in Where You Left Off, No Matter Where You Are
The key advantage of having this information context is the ability to be productive anywhere. With PersonalBrain 6 your projects and tasks don’t have to be stuck on your office computer, you can work locally from any machine or online. Synchronize between home and office computers, even if you are using a PC at work and a Mac at home. PersonalBrain gives you secure synchronization across multiple platforms.

To synchronize your PersonalBrain across multiple machines setup a WebBrain account at http://webbrain.com  then click synchronize from the File menu to synchronize your Brain across the Web.

For more information on how to synchronize your Brain you can watch our WebBrain tutorial.

PersonalBrain synchronization makes ending your day at the office even easier. When you need to leave, you can take your Brain with you and resume your tasks productivity anytime.