MindMapSwitch

Mind Maps and Projects – Part 3: Task Management

In the final part of our series, we will look at how mind mapping can be used within projects for task management.

Projects always have tasks associated with them that need to be completed in order to complete or finish the project.  For your project, you could use a mind map to collate all the tasks that need to be carried out.  There are a number of different ways to do this but I usually find that the following method works well in many projects.

I usually start with a list of tasks on a seperate piece of paper.  Don’t worry if you can’t think too far ahead, future unknown tasks can be added later.  I then group these tasks under milestones.  Each milestone is a goal within the project that the team want to achieve.

Start your mind map with an image or keyword for your project.

Next add your milestones as branches and then under each milestone add each task as a sub branch.  If your project is a big project and the task list runs into hundreds of items or each milestone contains more than 10 actions then use a seperate mind map for each milestone.

For each milestone, list all the tasks that need to be completed to reach this milestone.  For each team member list their tasks.  As each task is done, team members can cross out their task on the mind map.

A great benefit from this form of managing a project is that the mind map can be printed and put on a wall in front of the team.  Everyone in the team can then see it and it is publicly available.  Team members can also then see at a glance how far the project or milestone has come and what remains to be done.

Well that’s it for the Mind Maps and Projects series.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it and maybe even applied one or two of these methods in your own project.

Related Articles:

1. Mind Maps and Projects – Part 2: The Project Charter
2. Mind Maps and Projects – Part 1: Brainstorming
3. Mind Map Recipe: Next Actions by Project
4. Mind Maps As Examination Aids

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