January 28, 2010
How to Create a Budget Using Mind Mapping Software
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Mind Mapping software can be instrumental in organizing a variety of information. A particularly practical way to make use of Mind Mapping software is in constructing a budget. Most people find budgets an essential component of a successful financial plan, and software tools for creating budgets are quite popular. Most traditional budget-creation software presents financial information using primarily numbers and spreadsheets. Mind Mapping software, by contrast, allows for the organizing of financial information using visual graphics and pictures in a spatially “mapped” out format. Mind Maps, therefore, have the advantage of allowing one to create a budget in a creative and more intuitive manner.
What is Mind Mapping Software?
Mind Mapping software is any software that is used to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information.1 With Mind Maps, the key concept or main idea of the information being presented is represented by a central image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central image, with subsequent themes of less importance attached by “twigs”. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the information and ideas shown in a spatial, rather than linear, format. Moreover, as well as the ideas shown on the map as images, visual graphics, and colors that the constructor of the “map” associates with each of the themes and ideas. Mapping out information in this manner is widely believed to allow the brain to process the information in manner more consistent with its natural functioning.
Using a Mind Map to Organize a Budget
In general, the main purpose of a budget is to allocate a certain amount of money to various expenses, so that the money is not overly spent in one area, while leaving the other areas in a deficit. Thus, when constructing a budget, the most important components are the expected income and expected expenses/financial outlays to which the money will be allocated during the given time period. Consider the attached Mind Map diagram of a sample monthly budget. The overall expected income for the time period is represented in the center of the map. Attached to this central topic are “branches” showing the various expenses the income will cover, as well as the amount of each expense. Any subcategories of the expenses are attached to the expense “branches” via “twigs”. Throughout the Mind Map, graphics, colors and images associated with each expense are used. The result is your monthly budget, that is “mapped out” in a spatial, visually stimulating and easily organized manner.
Mind Mapping Software vs. Traditional Budget-Creation Software
As mentioned earlier, traditional budgeting software often organizes financial information in a very boring, numerically driven format. While all of the information needed to clearly view the information is present, the information is usually visually tedious, making it more difficult to process. Mind Mapping software, by contrast, allows one to organize important financial information in a visually easy and interesting format, driven by colors and images, rather than data. This intuitive form of data organization can be quickly processed; a person can pick out the key components of his or her budget, as well as find specific expense items, with a just quick skim of the map.
- Farrand, Paul; Hussain, Fearzana and Hennessy, Enid (May 2002). “The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique”. Medical Education 36 (5): 426–431.
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