Mind mapping – boost your way to stress-free productivity

Mind mapping is proven to be quite useful for students, workers, and business owners, but it can facilitate every other activity in our lives just as well.

Regularly adults have to complete tasks of different nature, take important decisions, structure their thoughts, organize their plans and schedule ahead.

Youngsters, on the other hand, also face similar challenges. At school or university, they are required to absorb a lot of information, be creative, complete projects, and so on.

What is their common solution in case of burnout, you might be asking? I’m here to answer.

In this article, I will discuss what mind mapping is, how it functions, and what the benefits are.

Mind mapping – your ideas, presented through diagrams

To put it simply, mind mapping is a well-ordered diagram, a visual representation of all the sections and subsections of your ideas.

It could be about personal matters like where to spend the summer holiday or about work-related matters for example determining your needs when choosing the right tool for your business coaching practice.

This way of structuring your thoughts in large, medium, and small bubbles could be applied to everything, and it helps to order the chaos in your head.

It could also stimulate your creativity, you might get new ideas once you’ve put everything on the scheme, or you might notice that something is lacking. 

The possibilities are endless.

Your brain capacity won’t be clogged by all the information that you already possess. 

Instead, a visual representation of it will be in front of you, and you won’t be having a headache by trying to remember all the details.

Your mental “hard drive” will be freed up, ready for new materials to be included, and you won’t be worrying that something might get repeated, lost, or forgotten.

How does it work?

Mind mapping originated from the practice of brainstorming, visual thinking, problem-solving and depicts ideas starting from a macro and continuing to a micro-level.

It is usually related to one particular topic that branches out to many other subtopics in a hierarchical order. 

The concepts of the mind map are all related to each other and the diagram simply shows what exactly is the relation and how important they are.

You can use it as a form of taking notes, journaling, or creatively systemizing your thoughts for professional, personal, or educational purposes.

The steps of creating a mind map are quite easy.

You can also find various online platforms or applications that offer mind-mapping services in order to make it look more professional.

But if you are using it for less formal purposes, I’d advise you to stick to the old-fashioned way and use a piece of paper and some coloring pencils.

It’s more fun, more personal, and gives an outlet to your creativity.

Now, let me go back to the steps of creating a mind map.

Start by identifying your focus concept, then brainstorm about it. Whatever comes first in mind, write it down.

Finally, analyze what you’ve got. See what is redundant and what you should elaborate on more and then put everything in order.

It is a process with an open ending. You can always come back to it and refine it.

How is it related to stress and productivity?

Stress, in very, very small amounts, could be actually beneficial because some people are more productive when they work under pressure.

However, we live in challenging times and our mental health is constantly put under attack for various reasons. Sometimes the pressure that we experience is unbearable.

Some people are stressing out about their work, projects, and job security. Others are dealing with similar types of anxiety.

It is a constant battle.

And every person in our society is a soldier.

That’s why it is crucial to be informed on all the practices that might reduce our stress levels and restore our working capacity. We should learn to use everything that brings us peace to our advantage. 

Nonetheless, let’s not forget that such stress-relieving activities are strongly individual, and while one method might help me deal with my worries, for you it might be another.

If you try mind mapping you might actually realize that it helps you cope with your work projects or with your annoying daily tasks.

Your mind will start to wonder, you will discover new outcomes, and you will find out that your previous troubles weren’t that scary after all.

That’s how you’ll boost your productivity. You won’t be occupied by constantly worrying, and you will have more time to focus.

Stress also makes us feel overwhelmed and out of control, because of the constant pressure on top of us. 

Overthinking and panicking are the states of the mind responsible for our lack of inspiration and motivation that make us unproductive. They might even destroy some of our initial ideas.

Mind mapping helps us make a collection of our thoughts, allowing us to return to them with a fresh perspective whenever we want to.

Final words

As a person who is constantly worrying about (sometimes insignificant) matters, I have to say that stress management practices should be discussed more often.

Sometimes the simplest activity, such as putting all of our thoughts on paper, might be the best solution for clearing out our anxieties.

If you feel that you are not as productive as you should be and you are looking for a way out, mind mapping could be one of the activities that could get you out of the woods.

And if your productivity crisis comes from the fact that you are working from home (due to the pandemic or not), follow these steps and avoid stressing over your inefficiency.

You’ve just learned some tricks to ignore all the distractions that could mess up your schedule.