Where mind maps lag, Trello wins

Where mind maps lag, Trello wins

My love affair with mind maps started about 5 years ago.

One day I saw a colleague of mine using it and gave a try with XMind. I fell in love with this way of organizing ideas, thoughts and all the relevant stuff. In due course, I started using some web based software like Mindmeister and Mindomo. I was happy.

And then, I saw Trello. It was probably about 6 months back. Playing with it for about an hour, I realized the following shortcomings with mind maps

1. Lists are the best to get an overview of items
2. It is easy to move around, sort and prioritize items with lists
3. The 3 level categorization — Cards, Lists and Boards — is a fantastic way to visually organize everything. I find this structured way missing in mind maps (though can be achieved)
4. Mind maps can get messy over time, especially with an overstuffed mind like mine. Lists are definitely winners in this aspect
5. Trello’s UI is super cool

I spent about a weekend to move my stuff from mind maps to Trello. May be they will stay there for a while. Though I will go back to mind maps for tasks like decision making, I prefer to stick with Trello to organize my mind.