Lately while reviewing my paper mind maps from the last year, I've noticed one thing in common with them all.

The branches were the same throughout every mind map.

Single blocks of color that all took on the same shape. Very boring I think you'll agree.

In an effort to change this, I sat down with pen and paper and outlined the typical style of a branch that I used a few times. For each branch, I then thought about real world objects with the same shape and amended the branch to look like that object.

See for yourself:

Right, it's not Picasso, but this exercise should help you see your branches in a different way. They don't always need to be single blocks of color with the same shape.

Try this exercise a few times and see what your branches can represent in your mind maps. As this is an exercise, draw your branches separate from each other so that you have more space to play about with each branch. For each of my branches I also added a couple of sub-branches to indicate what the main branch could be used for in a mind map.

Mind maps represent ideas and thoughts from the real world, so why not use those in your mind map in your branches.

Try it out for yourself and see what ways you can have better branches for your mind maps.

Happy mind mapping!