Draw Me a Pretty Picture
It's really fascinating how visuals have helped inBubbleGuy better understand complex systems and plans and ideas. In middle school, it was a classmate grabbing a stick and designing the football play in the dirt. In high school, it took buying guitar books that had images of the frets and tabs to know what chord to play. And when he blindly moved to a new city with extremely confusing Mapquest directions, it was a very kind gentleman who drew up a detailed map on the back of an apartment lease that got iBGuy to the U-haul location. It's really no secret that images help us learn, but most of us don't realize that ideas and problems and issues we experience every single day can also be represented in image form. You may have heard about Idea Mapping, but if not, Jamie Nast has a fantastic new book of the same name, Idea Mapping, that tells us how we can better organize and handle our days by utilizing colorful representations of our issues, problems, and ideas.
Seriously, if you are like inBubbleGuy, you have groups of information and lists and thoughts in your brain that tend to get jumbled, causing either confusion or interfering with what he needs to get done. He tries to tackle a problem by thinking about it a lot (perhaps obsessively), or writing it down, but sometimes it just isn't enough. But what if he could map his ideas and problems using visual representation instead of trying to understand some long and complicated multi-linear document or thought? Like, the stick and dirt drawing of the football play, don't you think iBGuy could understand his issues and unscramble ideas more clearly if he had that map? He, in fact, could.
I know some of you may be skeptical, but think about this. Is it better to utilize both halves of your brain when dealing with an issue, or just one half? The answer should be obvious, but let me explain anyways: when you represent a fact or idea or issue in visual form, you are utilizing both halves of your brain, which leads to more efficient learning, more creative problem solving, and a more systematic thought process.
And now the good stuff, the guts of the book. Idea Mapping (the book) doesn't just explain the theory of idea mapping, it explains how you can apply it to your professional life. You want increased productivity? Saved time? How about developing new ideas and solutions? The fact is that because you and your team will be thinking more efficiently and creatively, your jobs will become much easier and more productive.
Oh, but it gets even better, and I want to kick myself in the shin right now because I think I just officially made this copy sound like an infomercial. Really though, the book tells you exactly how to create an idea map. There are real world examples from business people across the globe. Nast starts off by explaining how to do it, then shows a basic example, and finally gets into more complex versions of the idea map. But all the while, she tells you what common mistakes people make - what roadblocks you might encounter.
Overall, Idea Mapping could greatly benefit your professional, and if you so choose, your personal lives. Check it out. Give it a try. You might just be completely amazed at the transformational ability of this process and this book.
15 Available Copies
Sorry! This offer has expired. Check out today's offer instead.
