How David Develops with Mind Maps – Automating and Planning

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is David and I am working as a freelance React Native developer and bootcamp instructor specializing in cross-platform application development. I work remotely and I love building things for happy users.
My other mission is helping people to earn time by sharing all my automation and life hacks!

How has MindNode been a part of your workflow?

I am using MindNode for a lot of things, but basically it's for dumping my brain.

1. Bookmarking tool

As a developer — and especially in the JavaScript world — it's really complicated to stay up-to-date with all the different technologies. When I am reading a great article, instead of just bookmarking it, I make a manual curation for my own work. I found this technique really effective for the memory, because when I am working with clients or during a bootcamp I remember the location of the bookmark on my giant mind map.

2. User Flows

As a React developer I am always thinking in terms of a tree of component (It's more or less the same as a giant HTML page with plenty of nodes). When I jump on a new project, I used to draw the application component tree on a whiteboard. Now I am using MindNode, it helps me to visualise the interactions and state.
As an automation Nerd I am using a lot of tools like Zapier to connect API's together. It's really powerful for creating automated flows like the classic onboarding. It's ok when you have simple interactions, but when it become more complex I always create a mind map to reflect all the different scenarios.

3. Road trip planner

Going to vacations can be a stressful experience. As humans being we like to complete tasks. That's a great opportunity to use the feature "add task to node" and export them to notes to complete my packing list from my phone!

What features in particular have been important for you?

When you are working 8 hours on a tool, every seconds matters. I am a power user of Alfred, a productivity app which boosts your efficiency with hotkeys.

One of my main problem is time. If I want to edit a mind map here is the classic workflow:

• Hit command + space
• Open the finder app
• Go to iCloud Drive / MindNode
• Select my file
• Open it!

It's very slow, I don't have time for this. This is why I am using Alfred to automate the workflow.

If I want to update one file I just:

• Hit command + space
• Hit m + {name_of_the_file}
• Open it!

According to me, the most important feature with MindNode is sharing files in different formats (.pdf,.png or .markdown) I am using it all the time!

When I need to write a blogpost I can quickly export my MindNode document (with option +  command + e) to a markdown file and illustrate my thoughts with a nice image.

Feel free to contact me on Twitter if you want some automation advice with MindNode 😉