Every productivity expert will give you their opinion about how to get more things done in the same amount of time.

They’ll show you how to make to do lists, categorize them with 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C and try to get you to eliminate tasks off your list.

These methods can be helpful for some, but if it’s not working for you take a look at mind maps.

Mind maps are simply visual representations of ideas. You’ve probably used them before to organize your thoughts on a business project, or back in school when you were thinking about writing a research paper.

There are plenty of mind mapping software programs out there, from free to expensive. All have their own merits, but my favorite one to use is Freemind.

This won the medal for me because it’s simple, uses a hierarchical structure, exports maps as images, PDFs, and text outlines.

Let me give you an example of my (pretty typical) to-do list from this weekend.

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