Free your mind

An unexpected benefit of my new position in Seattle was finding a piece of software that has quickly become indispensible for me.

It is called Freemind.
You can find it here : http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

It is called mindmapping software and it allows the user to create an outline of sorts in a graphical way. If I were reading this I would be skeptical. Can it really be all that?

If you have an idea, a project, a book, a plan, or a schedule and you would like to organize your thoughts it is well worth a try.

It is better than excel for keeping to-do lists.
It is better than word for outlining papers and taking notes.
It is better than flashcards for studying.
It is better than any other software I have found or used for no-frills organization.

Oh yeah, and it’s freeware.

All that and you can export the “map” into text/html/javascript-clickable-outline/pdf/jpg so that once you have everything arranged as you like it ANYONE can reference it.
The learning curve is pretty small, I spent about an hour reading and using it and I was already productive. The next two hours put me into what I feel is “expert” mode and I am going crazy with it. I am searching for things to ‘map’.