"Thinking" Tools

In a sense, tools for both stress management (biofeedback, meditation, etc.) are 'thinking tools' - but the thinking tools in this section are more about facilitating thinking and creativity in specific ways.

One of those ways is through the use of mindmaps.

Mindmapping is a great way to generate creative ideas, take notes, think through difficult problems, or organize your thoughts so that you can begin to visualize connections you may have missed before.

There are a variety of software tools for mindmapping, and you can always do it with pencil and paper (it's best if you have a variety of colored pencils or pens).

The software mindmapping tools listed here are all ones that I've used myself and have recommended to others. iMindMap is a commercial application, while the others offer both free and paid versions - (except Freemind, which is the only one that is available only in its free, open-source version).

There are also plenty of books that deal with mindmapping, thinking styles, and creativity. There's a section on "Thinking Books" in the Books, etc. area of the site.

MyThoughts for Mac

At first I wasn't sure about MyThoughts for Mac, from Mode de Vie Software - it seemed a bit simple (particulary after using iMindMap). However, I've come to really like it. It's had a couple of updates since I first started using it, and it's simplicity is actually really refreshing (and it turns out being simple doesn't mean it's not feature-rich enough). Of course, it's Mac only. For $49 it's got a pretty good feature set, and as a native Mac OS X application, it performs nicely.

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MindMeister

MindMeister is an online mindmapping system. The basic account is free, and you can even collaborate with other Mindmeister users on your mindmaps.

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XMind

I've only recently downloaded XMind, but so far it looks like another good mindmapping option. You can find out more about it, and download it yourself, from the XMind website.

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iMindMap

Tony Buzan, the guy who is often credited with inventing mindmapping, has developed an application for creating mindmaps. The software is easy to use, has plenty of features, including a 'library' of images you can include in your mindmaps, and the ability to export to a variety of different formats.

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Freemind

Freemind is a free, open-source application available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

You can find Freemind here.

While Mindmeister is an online system and allows for easy collaboration, Freemind is a desktop application and does not offer collaboration features. However, Freemind is very capable, and does have the ability to export mindmaps to a variety of formats including word processor outlines and several web page formats.