Since I was diagnosed with ADHD about 27 years ago there has been a lot of movement in terms of our society’s ideas about mental health. Almost all of it has been in a positive direction. I feel that we still have a long way to go but that we are identifying and treating more people who need help now than every before.  My personal experience is that talking to people about my ADHD over the years had evolved in this way: Circa 1988: Only one other kid I knew had ADHD and not for being called down to the nurse every day for my meds, I probably wouldn’t have told anyone.  Circa 1995: I was just another kid with ADHD and I was taken with a grain of salt. But, I had more or less come to terms with it and was open about my issues and struggles. Circa 1998: Still considered a “childhood disorder” and there were little to no “services” or understanding at UMass. Circa 2003: I felt like this was around the time that ADHD was really becoming recognized in main stream society. If you mentioned it, everyone knew what it was, even if they didn’t understand it or “believe in it.” Circa 2009: By now I felt that the stigma related to ADHD was largely removed… at least where I live. But with this acceptance came dismissal of severity and importance. I’ve gone from “What’s that?” to “I think everyone has some of that,” in a matter of a few years.  So, where are we now? I don’t know. With more people getting the help they need than ever before. Good thing! But, there is an increasingly vehement faction of society that rallies against increased diagnosis and treatment as a bad thing. This creates another whole issue, and…

Sometimes it is difficult to identify ADHD even for people who have it or have some experience with it because it doesn’t always look the same and act the same. It has been my experience that on any give subject related to ADHD a large percentage of ADHDers, say 80% will react in one way. But, the other 20% will react differently… in a way that is completely opposite. For example, how does the “average” ADHD kid react to a long car ride? I can tell you that being in the back seat of my parents Volvo 25 years ago with “nothing” to do that was stimulating for the two hour drive from Boston to Hartford was my idea of hell. If not for ska/punk and pod casts it still would be my idea of hell. I think most ADHDers respond in a similar way. Of course we have many more ways to amuse ourselves in the car than we did a quarter century ago. And, the average neurotypical kid expects to be entertained full time also. But, I digress. So, let’s say 70% (random guess) of ADHD kids find long car rides to be torture. What about the other 30%? Usually, they are perfectly content to stare out their window, twirl their hair, and enjoy their rich “inner life.” Or they are the lucky few who love to read or draw and can stimulate themselves that way. So, the mother with the rich inner life of who is inattentive, may not connect with her daughter’s struggle in this situation if the daughter is more physically hyperactive and my have “more” ADHD. Some of us are Tasmanian Devils. Others are space cadets. Doesn’t mean they aren’t both ADHD. Standard disclaimer: I don’t edit much if at all. This is a deal I have…

I got the top fortune the month I started my own business as a professional organizer. It has been tacked to my bulletin board ever since.  I got the second one about a month ago, just as my business reached my initial goal. I actually have one more client than I was aiming for and am one more client away from having a waiting list. All of that is built on what I teach my clients every day: doing the small manageable tasks over time to build something bigger and better. The weird thing is that I don’t even like fortune cookies and rarely open them. Yet I got these two about 4 years apart. Spooky. -M PS. Sorry for the long absence. Life has been busy. I hope to be back to producing more regularly now.

I did not invent this. Just came accross this visual of a concept I teach all the time. Thought it may be helpful to see it this way.

1. MindMeister: This is my winner. It just looks so clean. It was easy to use. I like that you can set it to flow in any direction, not just down like in Mindomo. The size, shape, layout of the different levels really works for me. Yet it is plenty customizable. Floating topics are no problem. As you can see, it is the only app where I actually finished planning the Thanksgiving dinner. That tells me that it was the easiest and most functional. Unfortunately, you get very few free maps… and then lots of emails about upgrading. But, I think I’m sold enough to buy the pro version…maybe. I’ll get back to you when I see what it costs. Here’s a shot of my menu planning. By the way, I’m reconsidering 2nd and 3rd places. I’m using Mindmup more than Mindomo. That tells me that I like it more. Both have advantages. Try all three!

2. Mindomo: This is the runner up. I actually like it quite a bit. It is clean, easy to use, pretty flexible and it guides you how to use it effectively and unobtrusively. Plus you can access most of the functions by right clicking. I love that. Floating topics are easy, and detaching topics is easy to. Here’s a capture of a map that I used to figure out how I wanted to evaluate the maps. Also, what I like about this particular app.

Since I wrote that blog entry I gave MindMup another try to organize a my son’s science project. I actually like it a lot more now. It’s growing on me. Overall, I would recommend it. See the posting of what a mind map looks like a few postings ago for that specific map.

MindMup: This one is okay. The ease of entry is good. The look is clean and organized. Unfortunately with that cleanliness come very little customization. Moving around ideas is not as easy as I would like and there is no option to create a floating topic as far as I can tell. Could be worse though. Here’s a capture of a map of mine that’s half done. I got annoyed at the lack of flexibility and gave up. (Dinner still got planned and cooked though.)

mindmaps: Straightforward name, not so straightforward app. I can’t get over the default colors, shapes, sized etc. It is also very visually cluttered and would take forever to change everything to make it look cleaner. Also don’t love the buttons. Not exactly intuitive.  Here’s a capture of one I started. This is as far as I got.

Here are my thoughts on the basic versions, one per post with pictures. 5. Connected Mind: This is such a hot mess, I’m not even sure what to say. It’s so insanely cluttered and crazy I couldn’t even make a test map.  Here’s a capture of their example.

Believe it or not, this is where I started writing about Mind Mapping. This was going to be a single post about a few programs that I tried out. Turned into a series. I did use a mind map in planning parts of this! I hope it worked! The reason I started here was because I am in the market for a new and improved Mind Mapping program. I have used the very expensive Mindjet MindManager for several years. Beyond the expense, it has flaws. And, now it is not letting me access saved maps. So, I’m forced to move on. I originally chose it because it seemed to be one of only a few programs that ran on a mac. But it is full of stuff I don’t need and never printed right. No matter how big a map, I couldn’t figure any way to print it in more than one page. It get’s really, really tiny! In the past I have also tried FreeMind. (I think that’s what it’s called.) It is free, but was so basic as to not be so useful. This time around, I figured there should be more options. As it turns out there are. I decided to start by taking a look at programs which were available as extensions for the Chrome browser, which I use as my default on my mac and love. But I don’t see why they wouldn’t work on on any system as long as you install Chrome (free!) There appear to be 5 options. I tried all of them and evaluated them based on what I think makes them worth it or not. Because the bottom line is that it has to be easier and/or more functional than a pen and paper Mind Map would be. If it is frustrating or…

At some point I realized that I needed to combine these two disparate ideas in to one process. Since then, I have started with a Mind Map. I think of it as “throwing up my ideas” without rhyme, reason, structure, or too much thought. I use a big piece of paper (if I’m not using the computer at this point) and make the bubbles without any connections or lines at first. This is beautiful for many reasons. I can get my ideas out super quickly without worrying I’ll forget the next one while I’m overthinking the last one. I don’t need to decide in the moment if an idea makes the cut or not. And, there’s no considerations for ordering them. Once all the ideas are out, I start drawing arrows, crossing out the ideas that (though good) aren’t necessary to prove my thesis, and numbering the topics. The numbering is the key step that no one taught me when they introduced the “spidergram.” This is where the working memory deficit is most compensated for. And, I can attest to how important it is. To this day, I can’t look at that Mind Map and put all the topics in order the first time. (In hand written form) I always end up missing something in the sequence and having to go back to add in… which is easy when you are numbering bubbles, and very hard when you’ve already written 3 pages and realize you’ve missed an important point.  But, back to the numbered Mind Map… At this point it is cluttered and crazy, but there is an order to it. The bright red numbers next to each bubble tell me what’s first, next, etc. But, it’s not so pretty to look at and still pretty bare bones. So, that’s…