Reduce stress; visualize problems with simple mind map

I have a hard time dealing with stress, and I think it might relate to not really being a word person. I’m sure there are other factors — I work late hours and my roommate isn’t always awake when I get home, often leaving me with nobody to talk things out with.

Andrea Zagata
The State News

Last night, as I was struggling to reach the land of happy dreaming, I found myself instead thinking of all the things that were stressing me out. I just couldn’t get them out of my head. Finally, I did what any good designer would do: I got out a pencil and some paper.

The mind map is a graphic I first discovered while on study abroad in Spain. Karl Gude, our professor, had us make a different graphic in our sketchbook every day. He also introduced us to mind mapping.

The concept is simple. You make a little map of all the things stressing you out, and link related information in bubbles around it. You can get detailed, and make the size of the bubbles relate to the size of the thought. You can color code. It’s your mind, and you can make it look however you please.

I’m not entirely sure why it works so well, but it never fails to help me relax. I think it’s the comfort of seeing everything on paper and how it all relates. I’m not a word person — visualizing my stress makes it easier to handle.

Now that all my stress is down on paper, it doesn’t seem so bad. The State News (in blue) is the biggest stress-factor in my life right now, and I’m not surprised. It’s not that I don’t like this job, it just takes a lot of effort and planning. I always want the paper to be the best it possibly can be, so I worry about the work we do here often. It’s stress, but it’s the good, productive kind of stress.

All of the things I’m worrying about are manageable. They take up one measly, 8.5 × 11 sheet of paper. Nothing I can’t handle.

I used colored pencil on the example map for this blog, but you don’t have to be fancy. Just let it out. Start scribbling. When your brain is racing and you just can’t seem to find any calm, try making a mind map. Things will make more sense once they’re tangible, I promise.