You may have thought about how the weather affects your mood, but did you know it can also affect your productivity? A study by the Harvard Business School found that a decrease in sunny weather is directly related to an increase in worker efficiency. During bad weather, in particular, people tend to focus more on their work, rather than getting distracted by thoughts of the fun activities they could be doing outside in the sun.
While we can’t control the weather, we can give you the tool you need to get the most out of this peak in productivity and really thrive in these cooler months. So dust off your woolly hats, grab your pumpkin spice lattes and get your head in the game – here’s how iMindMap can help make this autumn your most successful yet.
It’s never too early to start planning ahead – mapping out your goals for the next year is a great way to stay motivated and keep you focused on achieving your objectives. With the crisp temperatures bringing a new-found energy to your work, Mind Maps are a fantastic way to expand your creative ideas. With Mind Map View, add endless concepts to your canvas using radiating branches and a unique combination of images, colours and keywords to ignite your brain’s imagination. Your Mind Map will naturally expand as you add more ideas, so you have the flexibility to explore new opportunities and try something different with your work this season. With no restrictions, you’ll have the freedom to think outside the box, and even remove the box entirely.
Top tip: Try to just add one keyword per branch. This will help you spark off a greater number of associations, compared to using multiple words or phrases.
Without putting your Christmas tree up and opening a box of mince pies just yet, the countdown to the end of the year will begin to fly by before you know it. Plan out your existing projects to keep yourself from feeling overwhelmed using Radial Map View. Break down your work into manageable chunks by adding colour-coded nodes around your central goal. These will help you logically identify each section of your project within the clear 360-degree structure. Need to home in on one particular area? Simply double-click on a parent node to show only that and its child nodes, helping you cut through the noise and focus on specific sections.
Top tip: Insert useful attachments, web links and more to smaller nodes to give your Radial Map extra power. Having all the resources you need in one compact view will keep you focused and more productive.
Autumn is one of the busiest times of year for many people; with looming end-of-year deadlines, it can be easy to feel the pressure. Keep track of your projects from start to finish with Time Map View. Display all the important elements of your project into a visually rich timeline, then transform these into actionable tasks. Keep yourself motivated with shorter bursts by breaking down your longer-term goals into smaller sub-projects; you can then group sections of projects together as milestones, giving you a full overview of your progress. By adding start and due dates to each of your tasks, you can clearly see where you need to dedicate your time and ensure your work is completed in a logical order.
Top tip: Add coloured flags to each task to highlight the importance of each one – this will give you extra clarity on when certain things need to be completed.
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