7 Common Mind Mapping Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Creating a mind map isn't as easy as it looks. Here's what not to do—while creating a mind map.

Mind mapping is an extremely useful technique that can boost your productivity and ease up your brainstorming process. However, if you're unable to make the most out of mind mapping—it could be because you're committing one of these mistakes:

1. You’re Getting Lost in the Details

When you start ideating, it is possible that your main idea branches out in several directions. However, the purpose of a mind map is to improve clarity so that the information you share is understandable at one glance.

If you write down all the insights you've, you will end up getting lost in the details. That would lead to two distinct disadvantages. First, you'd not be able to reach a proper conclusion, and second, you'd lose sight of the idea you started out with, thus rendering the entire mind mapping process useless.

Now, how could you avoid doing this? You've to start by charting down ideas or subtopics that are relevant to your main topic or discussion. Avoid including random musings on your mind map.

Solution: It is simple. You've to write down your purpose at the top of your mind map, so that every time you look at the post, you're reminded of your goals.

2. You’re Too Obsessed With the Style

This is one of the most common mistakes people make when they are making a mind map. It is possible to get distracted by the font sizes, display colors, and visual elements and drift apart from your main goal of making a mind map that provides clarity.

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While the design is definitely an important component of your mind map, not focusing adequately on content can lead to the creation of an ineffective mind map.

Solution: To avoid failure, separate content creation from designing. Try to avoid multitasking. After you've assembled all the information and finished up your ideation, you can stylize your mind map.

3. You’re Not Using Design Principles to Organize Information

When you create a lengthy mind map, its readability suffers. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't use mind maps to capture big-picture ideas. You do that by tuning out the information you don't need.

Moreover, if you're not using proper design principles to organize the gigantic chunks of information you've on a mind map, you're making it confusing for yourself and the readers. Such a mind map doesn't help in recalling any information later.

Solution: You can use design principles that help you categorize information. For example, you can show movement from one idea to another using arrows. You can use spatial grouping to situate similar ideas in one place. You can also use color to label different subtopics and show the progression of your thoughts.

4. You're Not Combining Other Diagrams to Make an Impact

A mind map is a simple tool that helps you visualize information in a tree-like format. You can take advantage of other visual tools by combining them with your mind maps to make a greater impact.

Solution: You can use the different types of mind maps to do more than just present information. You can find content gaps, establish logical relationships, and investigate more aspects.

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While you can use a spider map to have a complete overview of related information in a spider-like shape, a flow map can help you chart the progression of ideas in a horizontal or vertical format.

Then, there's a multi-flow map that is incredibly useful for portraying cause and effect relationships and a brace map that is useful for giving readers a closer look at concepts.

5. You’re Using Only Words, and No Images

Beginners tend to think mind maps are “all words” and no images. That's a common misconception. Using just words can make mind mapping a disaster.

Solution: You can take the help of images to break down complicated topics or elaborate on existing topics.

6. You’re Using Too Many Words

The trick to creating a successful mind map is using short words, and relevant insights. More often than not, beginners can end up writing complex and long sentences to depict ideas on their mind map.

That defeats the entire purpose of using a mind map. That's because instead of streamlining information, it shows information that's clustered and disorganized. There's no clarity, which again leads to an ineffective mind map that's no good for recalling important information or simplifying complex ideas. Moreover, it leads to cognitive overload in the brain, which can prevent easy understanding of ideas.

Solution: You need to prioritize information so that you're able to remember what really matters, instead of getting lost in a sea of information that you don't require. You can use short words and explain ideas with an additional 'note' rather than clustering your mind map.

7. Your Mind Map Lacks Elaborative Interrogation

There's another common misconception that re-reading a mind map can help recall information in a minute. However, a mind map doesn't always work as an effective re-reading tool.

That's because we tend to skim through the information we have, rather than engage with it.

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Solution: You can use the strategy of elaborative interrogation to make the most out of your mind map. You can ask questions that are self-reflexive, like “why is this true?” or “why could this be the case?” to help you make connections between the information you already know and the information that's new.

Make the Most of Your Mind Maps by Avoiding These Mistakes

When you're making mind maps, your end goal is to make them useful and help them remain so in the long term. The only way you can do that is by avoiding these mistakes that everyone seems to be making. Don't put blank words or irrelevant ideas on paper.

Use elaborative interrogation to revise, and try not to stuff your mind maps with long words and sentences which have no image references. Moreover, if you avoid making the mistakes listed above, you can strive to create a mind map that remains clear, concise, and easy to understand.

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