MindMapSwitch

While tweeting about my weekly mind map, Niall Daly asked me on Twitter how I mind map my weekly review. Today I am going to show you!

Mind mapping your weekly review is a great way to reflect on the previous week and prepare yourself for the week ahead. The best part is it only takes a few minutes of your time.

I tend to split my weekly review mind map in half down the middle of the page:

1. The left half is where I reflect on the past week.
2. The right half is where I prepare for the week ahead.

I always start with reflecting on the previous week. It's give me an idea of areas or projects that I need to place more focus on. Before I start mind mapping my reflections, I create two branches on the left of my mind map called 'Hits' and 'Misses'.

Under the hits branch I add branches for roles in my life or projects that I am working on. Under each of these I add branches where I have performed well in. Using a single keyword to denote the area in each roles or project I have done well in, it gives me a good overview of where I have made progress.

Under the misses branch I add branches for roles and projects similar to my hits branch. Under this branch I mind map out aspects of each role or project that I have neglected.

I spend a couple of minutes reviewing my past week and start thinking about roles and projects that I want to focus on for the week ahead. Taking a couple of minutes to just reflect on your past week let's you identify roles or projects that you have neglected. Now we can start preparing for the week ahead!

On the right hand side of your mind map add a separate branch for each of the roles or projects that you are going to focus on for the week ahead. Under each role or project, mind map the next actions you need to complete in order to move that project forward. In no time, you'll have a list of next actions for the next week.

When you're mind mapping your weekly review, remember these tips:

1. Messy is good, the mind map gets thrown away in a few minutes anyway.
2. Stick to single keywords for branches. Using associations we want to generate ideas and actions for our projects and roles.

This is just my preferred way of mind mapping my weekly review. I also use a similar mind map to review activities at work. I like to keep my work and personal projects separate, but there's no reason why you can't use a single mind map for both.

I hope this helps you in your weekly reviews.

Happy mind mapping!