Organizing Your Ideas with Xmind & Evernote

Organizing Your Ideas with XMind & Evernote

8 comments

Upload from January 10, 2012

Today we’re going to look at two fantastic programs that will help you organize your ideas and your notes. That may sound boring, but it’s actually not at all! In fact, this stuff is exciting. Let me explain.

See, you have great ideas. Guaranteed. But you might not be in the habit of writing your thoughts down. You think you’ll remember it, but you don’t. That’s too much work for the brain. And then that little gem of an idea gets lost, forgetten about, and never put into action.

When you get in the habit of writing down your ideas, you are way more likely to use them. Expand on them. Get inspiration for your next shoot, project, business, whatever! It’s downright energizing. Quite simply, recording and organizing your ideas is critical for you to take that next big step (whatever it may be). And these tools will help you do just that.

Meet XMind (a mind mapping / brainstorming program) and Evernote (an extremely versatile note taking program). They’re fairly different, but work fantastically together. Think of them as the peanut butter and jam of brainstorming.

Why You Should Use These Programs To Organize Your Thoughts

Turn Your Great Ideas Into Results!

You have awesome ideas. But if you’re not writing them down then you’re probably not acting on them either. A lot of ideas are complex and require many steps to effectively execute. By writing those ideas down you’ll take a huge weight off your mind, and you won’t have to worry that you’ll forget something. Instead you can focus all that extra mind power on thinking more deeply on specific ideas, or more broadly on large picture stuff, and then producing results!

They’re Free!

Both programs offer very useable free versions. You might never need to upgrade either one! We use the free version of XMind but we went with the upgrade for Evernote ($45/year) because of the additional space it offers, along with offline notebooks for the iPad and iPhone.

Go Paperless

Your Moleskine looks great, but when you need to get down to work it might not be the most efficient tool. By going paperless you’ll free up the typical clutter that comes with paper. It will also be easier for you to organize your ideas, make adjustments, search through notes and find what you’re looking for faster.

They’re easy to use

Anyone can use these programs—no training necessary! You’ll be getting down to business minutes after downloading them. Also, because of how simple both programs are, you’re more likely to use them when you need to.

Mind expanding

XMind is especially useful for helping you explore ideas. Once you’ve written something down you’re free to let your mind wander wherever it wishes, and the program can keep up with you. Maybe it will be a complimentary idea, or maybe something completely different. It can be quite the cathartic experience, and take you in directions you never expected!

Cloud Storage

Both programs can be set up with “cloud” storage. Evernote automatically syncs online and we save XMind files to a free Dropbox account. The huge benefit of this is that notes can be accessed from multiple computers effortlessly. Lauren and I have one Evernote account that we access from 4 computers, 2 iPhones and 1 iPad and it all works seamlessly. This again ensures that we actually use the program!

Mac & PC compatible

It doesn’t matter what operating system you use there’s a version of XMind and Evernote you can use.

For Brainstorming

XMind is incredibly powerful brainstorming software. It’s a program we only recently discoverd, but it has quickly become an indispensible tool. As mentioned above the program is free and available for both Mac and PC. See the video below for a quick demo.

For Notetaking

Evernote is the utimate online journal / notebook. You can use it to write out notes, lists, drafts. You can also save images, pdfs, and websites into notebooks. It’s seriously a killer app that nobody should be without. Again free, and available for both Mac and PC. (I epscially like that there’s an iPhone and an iPad app!). See the video below for a quick demo.

The beautiful thing about these programs is that anyone can find use for them. They’re extremely powerful tools that will quickly improve how effectively you organize your ideas and your notes.

How have you used XMind or Evernote to help better organize your life or business? Share your experience in the comments!

What to Read Next:

About the Author: Hi there, I’m Rob! I’m a pro photographer and head ninja here at Photography Concentrate. I love all things photography: shooting, teaching and always learning more! If I’m not reading up on the latest photography news, or studying a technique, I’m probably reading a book or planning our next adventure!

Discussion
8 comments so far

Evan January 10, 2012 (8:06 a.m.)

I’ve used edrawmax to do mindmaps in the past at work. Only the trial version, so it’s watermarked on printing. Looks like the XMind pro version is required for PDF printing, but at a better price. I like the Gantt chart and task tracking integration of XMind. I’ll give it a shot!

Steph January 10, 2012 (10 a.m.)

Thanks for the post you two…I’ll have to check these out. Have you ever heard of Prezi?! Check it out, I used it during my University years for presentations and has always wowed people. It also works well for brainstorming and collaboration. (http://prezi.com)

Seshu January 10, 2012 (1:52 p.m.)

Like you, I have subscribed to the annual plan for Evernote. I was just using it more and more. Tagging the notes is crucial. I also bought Evernote Essentials (http://seshu.me/wTbpbe), an e-book that explains the intricacies of Evernote (and there is lots more to know than meets the eye). I have found it quite useful for setting up Evernote.

Robin Thenu January 10, 2012 (2:03 p.m.)

I’ve been looking for some other mind mapping apps for the iphone. I’ve found 2 that I like – and both have free versions. “Simple Mind +”, “Headspace Lite”. Headspace Lite is more visual with 3D effects.

~ Happy Mindmapping

Robin Thenu January 10, 2012 (2:10 p.m.)

~ Happy Mindmapping

Liam Hughes January 10, 2012 (4:01 p.m.)

Interesting post, I’ll have to give Evernote a try!

If you’re interested in sharing your xmind maps with lots of other people, you might like to add it to the mind map library at www.Biggerplate.com, which is a great way to raise awareness of your own site too! (It’s all free!)

As for mapping on mobile devices, there is an app called iThoughts which is widely regarded as the best app for iPhones and iPads. It is a paid app, but the best one out there by a long way. It integrates with Xmind too, so you can easily swap between mobile and desktop!

Kyle January 11, 2012 (7:22 p.m.)

Great post, these are both fantastic tools & they complement each other very well.

Santiago Plaza January 25, 2012 (8:30 a.m.)

Great post.
I’m using evernote every day. Nice tool. I’m actually using only the free version.

I’ll try Xmind. It seems to be another interseting program.

Many thanks for the input!

Photography Concentrate

Organizing Your Ideas with XMind & Evernote