How to Level up Your Writing With the Help of Mind Maps

Create simple and easy mind maps with Effie to write better content

I haven’t always been that organized.

My articles were sloppy, chaotic, and dispersive when I started writing. I had no chance of keeping the reader’s attention, and nobody was enjoying my content — myself included.

But practice makes perfect. And over the years, I made many changes and learned how to step up my game. And one, in particular, helped me improve my content the most — mind maps.

How mind maps helped me improve my content

Whatever your profession, a mind map will always be helpful. If you are a student, you can use them to retain more information. If you work, you can use it to simplify complex data and make it easier to understand for your audience.

But how can a mind map improve your content?

1 — It boosts your creativity.

Making mind maps helps you create links between ideas. And those links can stimulate lateral thinking processes that boost your creativity.

Instead of linear thinking, mind maps can make you jump from one topic to another and connect distant thoughts. So your brain will sparkle with new ideas.

2 — It gives you clarity.

Clarity is one of the main prerequisites of a content creator. If people don’t understand what you are trying to say, they will not continue to listen to you for long.

According to a study by Beena Vijayavalsalan, mind maps help students write more coherent, structured, and high-quality essays. And as it can help them plan their work, it can also help you plan your content.

3 — It helps you learn new concepts.

Researchers categorized learning into three types:

• Non-learning contains things you recollect for a short time and then forget.
• Route learning contains notions you recollect because of repetition. But you have not fully understood them yet.
• And meaningful learning contains information you connect with other topics of your knowledge. So it becomes easier to recall.

Between them, the last type of learning is the most powerful one. And mind maps are the perfect representation of meaningful learning because they make you connect concepts you know with those you haven’t memorized yet.

So if you are a curious content creator that researches its articles before writing, you need to remember everything you learned. And you could do that by categorizing everything in conceptual mind maps.

4 — It improves your productivity.

Productivity is crucial if you want to step into the content creation game. And even if you already have your ways of being productive, mind maps can only enhance that.

Mind mapping improves every aspect of your tasks: you learn faster, brainstorm quicker, and communicate more efficiently. Writing an article with an explanatory map in your hands doesn’t make you go around in circles. And you will work faster while having a better grip on your audience.

How to create simple and fast mind maps (with Effie)

Creating a mind map is simple — you only need the correct tools.

Lately, I discovered Effie, and my way of building them changed completely. Now, I can create a mind map at the beginning of the article to clear out my thoughts and link any engaging research or previously written pieces. And then, I can start writing right under the map.

So here is how I create simple and fast mind maps with Effie.

1 — Build a basic brain-like structure.

First, I try to build a brain-like structure of the article. And if you are not used to transforming linear concepts into maps, Effie can do it for you automatically. You can write a list of ideas, and the software will build the starting map.

2 — Group concepts.

Once I write the basic structure, I group the concepts I want to discuss in the same sections. This way, I can avoid repeating the same idea twice or talking in circles.

Also, grouping concepts in sections makes them easier to understand for the audience. So it enhances clarity.

3 — Build cause-effect links.

Cause-effect links are another clarity enhancer. Therefore, I always pay attention to the type of link between concepts.

Every line should connect a cause-effect relationship. So when writing, it is easier to use the correct expressions to explain it to the readers.

4 — Link to external resources.

Connecting external resources and links is one of the finest advantages of building mind maps with Effie. So try to incorporate everything in your nodes, including research and links to your other content.

The more relations you build, the quicker you will recollect information. So you will write your piece faster and become more productive. On the other side, you will also feed more facts and details to your readers, improving their ability to recollect ideas.

5 — Cut the excesses.

Before writing the first draft, I review my mind map to cut useless information. Usually, it comes in two forms:

• irrelevant ideas that don’t fit the article
• overexplained ideas that weight down the map.

A mind map should only contain necessary and summarized concepts. So cut everything else.

6 — Emphasize critical concepts.

Highlighting important information is another advantage of using digital mind-map generators like Effie. I can underline, bold, or emphasize a concept however I want. And I can even add images if I need to connect infographics or graphs to my article.

Why Effie?

The in-built mind map generator is the feature that keeps Effie ahead of other similar text editors. But it is not the only one.

With Effie, you can also:

• use markdown language to format your text and export it directly to PDF or other compatible formats
• insert images in your maps
• have a decluttered environment where to write your articles
• and synchronize your work across all devices.

Final Thoughts

When I started writing content, I was the worst. I didn’t know the language, ignored everything about SEO, and my articles were messy and cluttered.

But then I started outlining my articles and building small mind maps that helped me improve my content. My content became more precise and organized. And I have better chances of keeping the reader’s attention.

So if you want to create mind maps for your content, use the following suggestions:

• build basic brain-like structures
• group concepts
• build cause-effect links
• link to external resources
• cut excesses
• and emphasize key concepts

And to simplify the task, you can even use digital software like Effie to build your mind maps and write your content in the same container.

Cover photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash