If you’re looking to create (or revise) your New Year resolutions, you might want to peek at mind-mapping software to organize a master plan or outline to house the steps you’ll take to follow through with each resolution. If you have an idea of what resolutions you want to keep in the upcoming year, a good idea might be to set up a system to facilitate getting those goals completed.

Even if you’re jotting down ideas on a napkin or piece of paper, you should know that mind-mapping software can ensure that you won’t get that napkin lost, you can keep an image of the whole outline as your desktop wallpaper, you can move items around cleanly, etc.

There are many mind-mapping solutions online, such as the ones we profiled here. We’ll be using Bubbl.us, a web-based mind-mapper, to create our outline or plan since it’s very easy to use and has got the basic tools we need.

Break Goals Down Into Tasks

Let’s say your goal is to become a more seasoned cook because you can save money and/or simply because your cooking skills truly stink. You can break your goal down to several tasks that might come hand in hand with cooking more, such as:

• remembering to go grocery shopping every so often.
• eating out less often.
• keeping a weekly menu, etc.

We’ll create different bubbles in an outline on Bubbl.us. You can click on Start Brainstorming button on the site to use the demo (or you can sign up if you want to keep a version of this map online for later retrieval).

You’ll want to type your individual subtasks under each goal by pressing Enter for a new sub-item, and Tab for an item of the same level (sibling bubble).

List Resolutions With Monthly/Weekly Goals

Now in order to keep up with the subtasks, you’ll want to set them up in time frames accordingly. Do you want to make sure you keep up with them on a weekly basis or monthly basis? Depending on your answer, you’ll want to schedule items for each day, week, month, or another interval (e.g. every 3 months).

To adjust your mind map, move the sub-items around, under the main goals, and create child bubbles for time-related entries.

Visualize & Transfer To Task Manager/Calendar

Since now you can view your outline in its full glory with all of the sub-items, you can save your sheet as a picture by clicking on Menu on the bottom right corner.

You’ll then get the options of saving your sheet as a PNG or JPG image, which comes out nicer-looking than the way it looks on the website.

If you use a web-based or desktop task manager or calendar, you can also input your items according to the time frames you designated for each subtask.

Depending on your task manager or calendar software (most apply), you might be able to save yourself from inputting repeated items by using the “repeat every:” feature.

Overall, this is a very simplified way to organize your New Year resolutions and plan ahead. I know I have several things I’d like to accomplish next year, but haven’t yet implemented a system to make sure I can follow up with my wishes so I’ll do this for sure.

Do you have any other ideas for mind-mapping software? How do you keep up with your New Year resolutions (if you have any)?