It’s All About You,
Really.

Accidental Autobiography:  Your Digital Mind

Navigating through someone’s PersonalBrain gives you a very intimate look at who they are. You can learn a lot about that person not only by the Thoughts they’ve chosen to add, but also the way things are connected.

Creating a Brain that moves beyond the sum of its parts usually happens by accident as your Thoughts and ideas grow. But actually taking on the task of self-reflection and exploration using PersonalBrain can be just as fun and rewarding. With this in mind, let’s explore some ideas for purposefully mind mapping yourself.

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Use PersonalBrain for Outstanding Presentations

We had a great webinar today with a ton of questions.  Thanks to all attendees for their participation. We focused on how you can use PersonalBrain as a presentation and persuasion tool for more effective communication before, during and after your meetings. If you missed the webinar, feel free to watch the on-line recording.

Template Brains from Webinar

• Here is the BrainZip I used for my presentation. A PersonalBrain on “Presenting with PersonalBrain…”
• Here is the sample Brain of an executive annual meeting presentation done with PersonalBrain.

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Adding People and Mind Mapping Social Networks in Your Brain

If you don’t have your family or colleagues in your Brain you are missing out. Adding people in your Brain whether it’s their name connected to a project or their contact info will help you get the big picture on your relationships. Creating a people centric Brain will improve the quality of your interactions so you can remember key details that might otherwise be forgotten.
Visualizing Teams and Organizational Expertise

Getting a handle on complex projects can be challenging. Part of the equation in any large project is people. Connecting people to projects will help you understand who is responsible for what and yield more productive meetings.

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How to Ensure your Best Thinking is Leading the Way.

Today we are all under pressure to do more with less, and to do it quickly. This is why getting the big picture on projects and not losing sight of new ideas is challenging. Visualizing key decision points, company objectives and business processes can ensure that higher level goals are reached and that you are taking the best approaches now and for the future.

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Clear Your Mind. Get It Out of Your Head and into Your PersonalBrain.

“First of all, if it’s on your mind, your mind isn’t clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection bucket, that you know you’ll come regularly back and sort through.”

David Allen, Getting Things Done

A central premise of David Allen’s Book and cultural movement, Getting Things Done, is that you can experience a tremendous sense of relief and control by moving your tasks and ideas outside of your mind and recording them externally in a place you can trust and where you will review them regularly. This frees your mind from remembering and allows you to focus on completing your tasks. Capturing and improving your thinking of course is what PersonalBrain is all about.

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PersonalBrain 5.0 was unveiled today at Macworld 2009 to hundreds of very excited Mac users who dropped by TheBrain booth #3419, North Hall.

PersonalBrain gives you a conceptual space that puts your ideas and thinking at the forefront, creating a dynamic network of visually connected Thoughts that represent your mind.

New PersonalBrain 5.0 Feature Highlights Include

• Powerful “outline” view enables a broader view while retaining the flexibility of a networked structure
• Visual tagging gives another way to find information and enhances the ability to use PersonalBrain for Getting Things Done.
• Presentation mode enables full screen visualization
• Save customized layouts created in the “expanded” view
• Import of outlines and mind maps created in many other programs lets users upgrade their existing data into a scalable associative network

Augmented Mac OS X Functionality

• Spotlight integration enables searching of information in the context of how it’s all connected
• Address Book, iCal, and Apple Mail integration enables users to tie all the information on their Mac together seamlessly
• QuickLook integration enables users to instantly preview attachments
• Specially created Mac OS X look and feel fits in seamlessly
• Enhancements throughout PersonalBrain make everything from scrolling through information with the mouse wheel to creating reports faster and easier.

If you need to analyze, brainstorm and synthesize a wide variety of information, PersonalBrain will be an invaluable tool. It lets you express key relationships across all information sources, so underlying thinking and key ideas are instantly visible. PersonalBrain 5.0’s new importing features make it even easier to get started. Powerful new visualization and tagging features provide an increased level of semantic meaning to Thoughts.

PersonalBrain 4 users can upgrade to 5.0 for $74.95. The upgrade is free for users who purchased PersonalBrain 4 after June 1, 2008

Download PersonalBrain 5 at http://www.thebrain.com/download

We’ve apparently made a new friend over at ShermanLive.com. 

ShermanLive.com is hosted by charismatic Sherman Hu.  He’s an active blogger, videographer and techie extraordinaire that has a great interest in social media and emerging technologies.  PersonalBrain has obviously struck a chord and Sherman now has several videos showing his online community TheBrain’s endless possibilities.

My favorite video is his Mindmapping Software for Rolodexing.  Watch how quickly Sherman adds his friend’s contact info into his Plex!

Now it’s time to go spruce up my own "Brain Rolodex!"

Thanks,
Matt

Are you Complex Adaptive System?  Grant McCracken is.  I was lucky enough to stumble across his Blog this afternoon and saw that Grant has chosen PersonalBrain 4 for its ability to manage the noise, messiness and disorder in his complex world.  Good choice Grant

Read Gran’t Blog at The Intersection of Anthropology and Economics.

-Matt