Ellington

As a creative person, I know what it's like to thrive on flying by the seat of my pants and completing tasks without a structured plan to carry it out. I always felt spontaneous and unhindered with this approach, but this chaotic way of taking care of business has bitten me in the butt frequently.

For the typical left-brained person, making a list is the usual way to plan a project. List? Ick, you say? Well, who says right-brained folks have to use plain old numbers or bullets to make a list? There's a hip and more exciting way to make a list: a mind map. Before you say that a mind map sounds like a boring science project, hear me out. A mind map is like a circular flow chart with the goal in the center and the steps to reach that goal branching out from the goal. For each step, you can add branches to it to break the task down even further. As the late artist Bob Ross may have said, it's like a happy little tree.

So, how do you make a mind map? Well, here's a mind map that explains how to make one. Clever, huh?

For more information about mind mapping, and creative approaches to time management and organizing, read Lee Silber's book "Time Management for the Creative Person" (Three Rivers Press, 1998, $16).