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How to Mind Map your To-Do List

Mind Mapping your to-do list is the most common use of Mind Mapping, so we have created a video to teach you exactly how to use NovaMind to create and manage your to-do list:

NovaMind makes it easy to organize the things you need to do, and you can categorize by whatever makes sense for that particular list.

Sometimes you will want to create a to-do list that is time based, like this one which is used to organize your week. Other times, you will want to organize according to your objectives or goals.

You can use the adornments to visually categorize the tasks on your Mind Map, and you can use the colors and shapes of the branches to form visual associations too.

If there are logical associations between the tasks, you may like to indicate them using link lines.

And of course if you are using NovaMind Pro or Platinum, you are likely to want to put checkboxes on the branches. The checkboxes are three state checkboxes where the is an on, or checked state, an intermediate state which indicates that the task is partly done, and an unchecked state which indicates the task hasn’t been started.

There are two ways that the checkboxes can operate. They can be set to operate independently, or so that the state of the checkbox on a parent branch is determined by the state of the checkboxes on it’s children. This is set up using the “Automatic checkboxes” option in NovaMind. If you turn it off you can check or uncheck or partially check any branch independently of all the other branches.

With the “automatic checkboxes” option on, when the children are all unchecked, the parent is unchecked. As soon as one of the children is partially or completely checked, the parent is partially checked, because the task has been started. And when all the children are checked, the parent is checked too. If you have completed all the tasks under a parent task, you can actually click on the checkbox for the parent task and it will check all the children branches too. This is really useful if it’s been a while since you updated, and you have completed all the children tasks.

These inheritance settings also work down multiple levels of children and grandchildren branches.

One of the uses of this automatic checkbox states is that if you hide the children branches, you can still see the overall status of that task, and if you need to look at the detail, you can just expand it.

If you have more extensive task management needs like seeing the percentage complete, setting priorities, assigning resources, start and finish dates etc, then you can do that in NovaMind Platinum.

All these features mak Mind Mapping in NovaMind a very powerful way of creating and managing your to-do lists.

 
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2 Responses to “How to Mind Map your To-Do List”

  1. MacMegasite » Blog Archive » How to Mind Map your to-do list Says:

    [...] The video is available at http://www.novamind.com/blog/index.php/how-to-mind-map-your-to-do-list/ [...]

  2. How to use Mind Mapping for Project Planning | NovaMind News Says:

    [...] earlier video on to do lists introduced you to the basic concepts of organizing your requirements using mind mapping. Now we [...]

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"One of the most brilliant pieces of work I have ever seen"

Today I purchased NovaMind and it marks the beginning of a new life for me.

Your software has changed my life in ways I can't even begin to describe. In fact, I'm going to write about this in a book I am currently working on which has to do with understanding and overcoming attentional problems. I also will recommend this to the many psychologists and psychiatrists that I work with who treat children and adults with these life debilitating attentional disorders. I did discover mind mapping about 9 months ago after I was diagnosed with ADD. However I just was not able to bond with the program I was using at the time. I tried a couple of others but they didn't do much for me either. In December I finally made the switch to the Mac platform and that was certainly a liberating experience.

For some reason, several days ago I decided to search again for Mac OS mind mapping programs and that's when I discovered NovaMind. I downloaded the trial and I knew right away that this was "the one".

It is my opinion that your software design and concept ranks among the most brilliant pieces of work I have ever seen. The one suggestion I would offer is to have more tutorials like the one video you have about tasks and resources. For me, video instruction makes a big difference in my ability to quickly learn things. I would like to "master" your program quickly because it is so important for my work and life...

Anyway...thanks for creating this product.

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