A number of internet business folks have been mentioning mind mapping lately.  Some talk about it as being some sort of secret tool that will solve all of your problems.  In truth, it won’t.  But it is a neat tool, but that’s about all it is.

Think about how you create a PowerPoint presentation.

You know how it’s done.  You’ve got a topic, and a bunch of bullets.  Then, you might have some sub-bullets.

Sorry folks, that’s pretty much the same way mind mapping works!

Mind mapping simply changes how you’re visualizing those outlines.  Instead of a list, you’re creating a visual diagram of your notes.  Instead of a topic at the top, you’ll have a circle, or some sort of figure for a starting point in the middle of a page.  Instead of all of the bullets, you’ll have lines (or some graphic, like an arrow) pointing to each item in the list, and more pointing to the sub items.

Quite frankly, it’s more like a flow chart for a process, rather than having it in a written format.

But, I’m not actually bashing mind mapping .  To be honest, I use them for several of my own projects.

I believe giving myself the ability to visualize my notes in a more graphical way can help me be more organized.

Here are a few things I’ve used mind mapping with:

• Websites
• Business Procedures
• Instructions
• Presentation notes

I’ve even mapped out an entire online business.  The only problem I’ve had has been keeping it update constantly.  For example, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop adding more ways to get web traffic to a website.  I come across at least one new way every day!

That reminds me, I’ve been debating whether I should create a product for using mind maps. 

I’m interested in getting your input.  If I were to create a product which showed how I use and create mind maps, would you purchase it?  Comments are open.

- Aaron Brandon

Everyone has habits they must cease and desist. Television watching is a big one. She takes your time from you with ease. You just sit there on the couch… maybe you try to make an agreement with your TV, to only watch her for five minutes, or watch only one sports game. Soon enough, you can’t turn her away. She has lured you in. You’re hooked!

You know you shouldn’t be watching. You’ve got blog entries to write, a new product to create and promote. A non-automated business to run. Your excuses are so lame: “I’ll only watch this show”, or “This show will give me an idea for a new product”, or “It’s important to know the news”. You must cease and desist from this. I did. In fact, I don’t even have a television in my home.

At first, there may be a withdrawal period. You may have absolutely no idea what to do with yourself. You can sit down on the couch, but it’s different now. There’s no television to keep you occupied. This is good, but you don’t know it yet. Maybe you can have someone sit across from the couch and you can talk to them. Hopefully it won’t be about something on television you watched. Maybe it will be a brainstorming session about the next blog entry you’ll write, or product you’ll create.

If you’re reading this, you’re not watching television. That’s good. But don’t go back to it when you’re done reading this. Do something productive. Something you’ve been putting off for a while. Something that you know you should be doing daily.

- Aaron Brandon

I’m always excited when find a way to cut time for a procedure I do in my business.

Here is an example of a procedure I do for creating a new video:

• Record video
• Export video as flash file (for web)
• Export Video as .avi file (for web/CD)
• Open FTP software
• Log on to server
• Upload Videos

About six major steps. But what if there were a way to merge the last three so that I wouldn’t have to open up another application to upload my videos? Would if be worth it? In my business, any time and hassles saved is an improvement, and continuous improvement in any business is important. So how would I do this? Well, TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio 5 has a new FTP feature built in. You can take a look at this article on their blog which contains some screenshots: http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/2007/10/camtasia_studio_v5_sneak_peek_6.html

How are you improving your procedures in your own business?

 - Aaron Brandon

You’re easily distracted. Remember that the three causes for failure are:

1. Not taking action.

2. Jumping all over the place getting distracted by shiny objects.

3. Not following a proven plan.

That’s more of a note to myself, but I decided you might be able to use that advice for yourself.

Are you creating a product?

Answer: No. In this case, follow a proven plan. Begin with marketing research. Not having an idea for a product is not an excuse. Go to about.com and you’ll find some great markets with a number of ideas there. Do not think about competition. What if you had a friend who happened to have a product in every single market in the world? Would you feel bad if you were promoting products in the same market? I hope not. In fact, it will be to your advantage in many ways. In fact, your next step is to make sure there are other people promoting products in your market.

That’s your first step. Most people won’t get that far. They’ll simply give up because they “Don’t have any ideas”. The next step is following through with your idea… Creating the product.

Answer: Yes. This is good, you’re on track. Make sure you aren’t distracted from completing the product. I know from experience that it’s extremely easy to get distracted from what you’re working on. It may be because you “think” you’ve got a better idea for another product. Please, don’t do that. Stick yourself in a quiet room with nobody else but you and your computer. No phones, no instant messengers, no television. You’re going to finish this course until it’s done…do allow yourself to stretch and use the bathroom from time to time, I’m not telling you to lock yourself in a dungeon. Just make sure you’re moving along with the procedures.

If you can’t do that in your own place, consider using a hotel or motel. I’ve written a previous post about that here: Distractions

For some time now, we’ve all heard that having a television or radio on while working is a distraction. That’s still true. But, there are other forms of distractions which we often aren’t completely aware of. In April, I wrote an article entitled Home Vs Business which went over how to separate your home computer workspace from your business, even if you have a one computer. However, I realized I left out some important advice.

Besides the common workspace distractions like noise and visual distractions, other distractions like having a clutter of paper on the desk in front can be distracting. That too is a rather obvious distraction. But I want to go over a few “virtual distractions” with you.

The first distraction is similar to the desk example. Having a cluttered Windows desktop can be distracting. When I cleaned up my desktop by putting unused desktop icons out of site, into the recycle bin, or correctly filed into other folders, I noticed a significant increase in productivity. When you have a number of desktop icons on your desktop, you can easily catch your eye on the wrong icons. Now, I’m not against having some icons on the desktop. A good suggestion for your desktop is to have these icons: My Computer, My Documents, Internet Explorer, and a folder which contains a current project in which you’re working on. When you’re finished with that project, move it someplace else like My documents. And never ever create a folder on your desktop named “desktop” or “stuff” or even “unused”. Just trust me on that one’s a big no-no.

Alright, let’s move on to some more potential distractions. The next one is internet browser favorites or bookmarks. You might think bookmarks are supposed to save you time when looking for a specific saved website. Well, here’s a problem I once faced. If you have a large amount of bookmarks all within one folder, a large amount of useful time is being wasted when trying to find a specific bookmark. Also, while you’re looking for a website, your eyes are scanning over several other favorite websites which you’ve saved over time. I sometimes found myself at another website which was on my favorites instead of the one I was originally looking for. I don’t know how much time I wasted from that single distraction, but it could have easily been at least five minutes.

So how can you fix that problem? It’s rather simple. Spend just a few minutes sorting your favorites into separate folders. I recommend having a “business” folder for websites which are related to any type of work that you do either on the internet, or with your job. Keep this folder at the top of your bookmark list so you won’t have to scan over other possibly distracting bookmarks.

Once you’ve fixed those two distractions, here’s another tip for you. Some people like to have these personalized search pages. I’m sure you’ve seen them. All the major search engines have one. My Yahoo is an example. Within the last few months, I’ve gotten rid of these things. Now I’m highly against them because they’re a distraction to me. I had a Personalized Google page. Unfortunately, I noticed that whenever I went to make a search at Google, I sometimes decided to check the weather (which isn’t too bad) but sometimes I ended up looking at news headline and totally forgot what I was going to search for in the first place. Don’t you just hate when you can’t remember what you were about to do?

Take a few minutes of your time and clean it up. There are usually (more often than not) more bookmarks that you can simply delete. What websites haven’t you been to in a long time? Do you REALLY need that site bookmarked? Good luck!