Mind maps were invented in the 1970s by Tony Buzan, who went on to build a business around the technique ().

Buzan realized that trying to organize thinking in a linear fashion (such as a list of notes) is not as effective as a free-form web of associations and that text is not as effective as a picture in aiding recall of an idea (the old "a picture is worth a thousand words" idea).

With mind mapping, you begin with your central idea, say, building a better mousetrap. Starting in the middle of a blank sheet of paper you draw a bubble with "Better Mousetrap" in it. Then you draw more bubbles linked by lines to that central bubble, each bubble a connected idea such as "Technology," "Manufacturing," "Marketing," "Sales" and "Support."

Then you focus on each of the secondary bubbles and surround them with tertiary ideas and so on. Sometimes you'll find two or more ideas (or nodes) on different branches that are somehow related so you can connect them with a line. These diagrams can, when you feel you've exhausted all of the chains of ideas and cross-links, be used as the basis for things like document outlines and lists.

Mind mapping is a great technique for exploring things like product and system architectures, planning projects, and capturing and developing ideas. Check out .