Mind Media Review

In addition to being winners, I have tried to choose programs from a variety of different sub-categories of the genre that I call "mindware." They are all worth a download.

1. The people who publish GoalPro 6.0 calls it "The most effective success- management application available" and the funny thing is -- they may be right! I've been working on a special feature article covering my personal search trying to find the perfect program or combination of programs to accomplish the increasingly difficult task of managing my personal information. And GoalPro software in tandem with Microsoft Outlook is the combo that I use.

But you don't have to use GoalPro on a PC. The people at GoalPro have kept up with the state-of-the-art and are offering GoalPro with most of its features intact as an on-line application. So Macintosh and Linux users as well as anyone who has access to the web can begin using GoalPro right now.

What does the program do? Well it's hard to describe all of what it does briefly and so next month this publication will have a feature length review of GoalPro. In summary, it guides you through the process of listing and clarifying your most important life objectives. You a set of concrete goals to reach each of these objectives and also create short term tasks for reaching the objectives and goals.

The program not only helps you create your "success tree" of objectives, goals and tasks, it sets up a regular daily and separate weekend routine where you visit these lists and determine how you are doing. This is called Success Coach and it's pretty darn useful. There's even a past-due management system where people who set too many tasks or procrastinate -- -people such as myself -- can evaluate and reschedule missed deadlines. Download a free thirty-day trial -- you might want to keep using it.

2. A mind map is a visual representation of the relationship between related ideas. The typical map starts with a central idea, word or concept. Then, around the central word you draw five to ten main ideas that relate to that word. You then take each of those child words and again draw the five to ten main ideas that relate to each of those words until you have an excellent visual model of the idea you are trying to understand or express.

Mindjet MindManager Pro v6 is perhaps the best tool for creating mind-maps that has yet been devised, Whether you're trying to solve a problem, prioritize your daily activities, organize multiple projects or make a simple to-do list, MindManager will help.

Here's some of the wide range of uses for the program: you can prepare speeches and presentations quickly and easily, plan and track complex tasks and projects, share project information with others, via MindManager's unique Internet conferencing, create web sites and/or site maps using the web site export features, track progress on projects visually, to quickly see how far along you are, organize multiple projects at once, take notes efficiently and easily reorganize them and more.

Download a free full-featured demo -- or a smaller version which downloads quicker and try it for 21 days.

There are a wealth of resources on-line to help you learn the skill of mapping your mind. So if you want the big picture, he's a place to start drawing it.

3. Josh Reynolds's Brain.com (Note: no longer functional) focuses on mental performance enhancement with its premier thinkFast software. Now thinkFast is an on-line application and brain.com has become an on-line brain-enhancement community.

In 1995, the Global Idea Bank listed my idea of the "mini- mind gym". The principle is that by using your brain, you can increase your mental fitness. Mind Media's IQ Builder and thinkFast software featured on brain.com work along these principles. They both give you a variety of mental tests which focus on a spectrum of mental abilities. By increasing the difficulty over trials, you "build mental muscle."

Now thinkFast has become an on-line application and added features which take the idea of mental fitness workouts further.

ThinkFast is the perfect mind-mini gym and allows you to measure and save your improvements on-line. It "works you out" on a wide variety of mental skills. The program even includes your own Personal Tutor who coaches you to greater mental heights.

4. Stressmaster by Acel Self-Growth Software Note: (link no longer works) is about more than just stress. Modules contained within this ambitious Windows program include: Define Goals, Design Life, Overcome Additions, Change My State of Mind, Calm Anger, Cope with Daily Stress and several more.

Some of the modules take you through interactive exercises that help you deal with various problem areas. Each of the modules written output is recorded in a master Self Discovery Journal. This is one of the best of the growing number of programs aimed toward self-therapy, StressMaster is available for a 30-day free trial.

5. ThinkWorld's (link no longer works) >Ablemind Streaming Idea Generator is the latest in the genre of brainstorming software and works in conjunction with the company's Brainstorming 101 seminar. You can download a demo version of the program, which contains a subset of the program's 87 million idea cards.

The idea cards, which the program generates upon demand, consist of three words - a verb adjective and a noun. For example here are a few of the cards I drew: bevel postmodern shirts, lighten leather cans, vibrate instant televisions,

These phrases might seem a bit meaningless but they are there to make you think. The company gives a few examples. Pump basketball shoes, they say, would have made people laugh twenty years ago. Now, after tens of millions of basketball shoes sold, people would think the idea pure genius. A few more examples among the millions possible from Able's software: project celluloid images, navigate electronic documents.

Well the arguments pretty convincing that this software can make me money. I'm going to file my patent for a vibrating instant television tomorrow.