I do a lot of my thinking and work using Mindmaps.
Drop an idea on the screen, move it around, connect it to other ideas, and eventually build a map of how all the ideas fit together. For someone like me with a conceptual organisational mind, it's much more useful that just using Word, Visio or Excel.
I tend to use MindManager, a licenced application that is installed locally. A full licence is a hefty £199, although there is a Lite Version for home use at £49. If you want to send your maps to others you can export to PDF, and there is also a free MindManager viewer which others can install if they don't have the full software.
Recently however there are a couple of web-based alternatives to choose from.
Mindmeister and Mind42 are 2 web-based mind mapping tools which you can use for free. The big advantage of these is that you can collaborate with others and build maps together and store the map on the web.
Personally I found the user interface of MindMeister to be better. Neither are as smooth to use as MindManger, but of course - they are free!
Another free option is FreeMind, a free application (installed locally) written in Java. I haven't tried this as I already have MindManager, but it looks worth a look.
Get mapping! It's a great way to structure your thoughts and organise ideas.
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