The holiday season is the time of year when most people begin thinking about giving thanks to those who have helped them throughout the year. Whether it is a favorite deliveryman who always delivers packages early, or a manicurist who helps achieve the perfectly groomed hand, there are those whose services should be appreciated. However, the question often arises of how to manage and determine the appropriate monetary gift for each person whose assistance one has benefited from. A Mind Mapping software tool is a simple and effective answer to this question, because it allows users to “map out” a variety of information in an intuitive manner. With Mind Maps, tippers can organize everything from whom to tip, to how much, in one, neat, spatially formatted diagram. The Mind Map’s use of images and colors further allows the user to do so in a highly conceptual way, ensuring that no one is left off the holiday tipping list. Mind Mapping is therefore, an easy and creative solution to managing holiday tips for those to whom one wants to show gratitude.
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. 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 “child branches” or “twigs”. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the information and ideas shown in a spatial, rather than linear, format. Moreover, along with the ideas shown on the map are 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 way that is much more consistent with its natural functioning.
Organizing Holiday Tips Using a Mind Map
A busy individual, with Christmas rapidly approaching, finds that he still needs to give out holiday tips to those whose service he has benefited from this year. Not sure where to start, he decides to organize himself using a Mind Map. The man begins his Mind Map by, first, placing an image representing his holiday tipping in the map’s center. He now lists the names of all the individuals to whom he wants to give tips on “branches” attached to the central image. Having a set amount of money he wants to give out, he decides to divide the sum according to the amount of service each individual provided. Thus, on “child branches”, the man lists what service each individual provided and how often they provided it. He then approximates the number of hours each person’s service amounted to, and lists the number on “branches”. Lastly, the man determines the percentage of the total hours of service he received from each person, listing this percentage on more “twigs”. When he has finished his tipping diagram, it looks similar to the attached Mind Map.
Determining the Amount to Tip Each Individual
Now that the man has organized the services each individual he will tip has provided, he can easily determine the tip amount for each person. He simply gives each person a percentage of the total amount he intends to tip corresponding to the percentage of total service the individual provided. While the man could have figured out tip amounts using a standard linear list, the Mind Map made the process more conceptual and efficient. It was much easier for the man to follow his thinking regarding each person’s hours of service and tip amount using the colorful and spatial map diagram. In addition, the Mind Map format allowed him to organize the information in one document, rather than on several pages, as a list would have. The man, therefore, finds that he is able to think through and decide, rather effortlessly, the holiday tip amounts for everyone on his list. He can now cross the task of monetarily showing appreciation to those whose help he received off his holiday list.