It just, unfolded
I've spent fifteen years refining a hand-drawn mapping methodology that changes the way people see their work, and themselves.
A practice where thinking meets action.
You know the feeling. You sit down to work and you can't see the whole picture. The urgent thing lands on top of the important thing. The thing you've been putting off hides at the bottom. Something slips through entirely because it lived on a different page, in a different notebook, in a different tab.
Linear lists were built for a linear world. Most of us don't live there, so are you willing to try something new?
"Energy in motion made visible — memories arrested in space."
— Jackson Pollock
I first came across this Jackson Pollock quote at work, when I was researching the guiding principles for a retail design Style Guide for a shopping centre in Queensland.
The centre’s footprint was about a kilometre long, and the question my colleagues and I needed to answer was simple: How do we curate a retail experience that encourages customers to move through the whole centre?
This research exercise also led me to concepts of space syntax developed at University College London by Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson in the 1970s-80s, looking at implied and literal connections, where nodes of open spaces were essential for significant junctions.
The answer to our question emerged through combining the science and the art.
That is, lead tenants to install bold, memorable, design elements which become visual cues from afar. Best positioned in shopfronts within the nodes of the centre, so they act as magnets pulling and propelling customers through the mall, invoking lasting memories and deeper connection to place.
Jackson Pollock was a prolific artist whose creations were beautiful layers of organic movement on a canvas. Some might see it as simple paint splatter but others will see the energy, direction, emotion and intent that lies within each piece.
I loved making art as a teen and went on to study Design, but upon graduating from university in 2007 and starting full-time work in 2008 (read: Global Financial Crisis) art and interior design services had become an unaffordable luxury for most. So, in the years that followed I found a way to thrive in more process-driven roles in the realm of design & construction, and I channelled some of my creative energy into list-making.
But, these weren’t linear lists…
I had been using the common mind map technique since high school; we are all familiar with the tree-like maps with a central idea and branches made popular by Tony Buzan. I find these really helpful for general idea exploration and recording research on a single theme.
However, as I started to shift from note-taking to list-making now in a more dynamic work environment, the lines of the tree branches got in the way, and the structure felt too rigid for the busyness of my workload. No longer just one central theme, I plotted multiple nodes of categories around the page and then tasks would surround them.
Sometimes I’d use arrows, but mostly the connection between nodes would simply be implied based on their proximity to each other on the page. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was applying the space syntax logic in a completely different context, long before I knew there was a name for it.
On a single page, I was able to see my whole workload at a glance. And, if something urgent lobbed in, I could add it to the map without having to rewrite nor reorder the whole thing. I used different pen line weights, and sometimes colour, to denote priority and would still get satisfaction of creating a tick box or physically crossing something off the ‘list’, albeit more of a field of notes now.
Like the Pollock pieces, for some it’s just content scattered on a page, but for me – and hopefully you – it illuminates energy, process and purpose. And while his words might feel abstract at first, I think it’s very possible for the energy of your pursuits to become visible on the page too.
Over the years I have not only created non-linear To Do lists but my process has evolved into a considered way of taking notes at recurring meetings, and planning (then tracking!) projects over sequential milestones.
The Practice
At its core, this is a tool for intuitively grouping information, whether it be tasks, projects, priorities or sequences, onto a single page. It arranges words and symbols around thematic nodes, rather than linear lists, branches or tables.
It's a methodology that gives you permission to start anywhere on the page.
The result is a field of information, where focus and energy can move naturally around the page over time.
As humans we tend to think spatially, that is, we remember not just what we wrote but where it lived on the page, using the same neurological function as remembering geographical landmarks. This is where proximity suggests relationship, density reveals pressure and focus and empty space awaits possibility.
So, as the layers of information build on the map, the energy becomes far more tangible. If you are tracking customer status around sale process nodes, the customer names can move around the page as each process milestone is completed. If you’re tracking progress or updates of a standing meeting agenda item, the updates from previous meetings are now clear and readily available.
These maps become a plan, a record and a guide, which takes equal measure of intellect and intuition.
When I write by hand, something slows down just enough for meaning to catch up. The pace of the pen enables an inner listening, a rhythm that helps thoughts to land. Each mark on the page becomes deliberate, and with repetition, memory begins to stick.
If the chaos of life is heavy rain falling on the car windscreen when driving, these maps are the wisdom to ease off the accelerator, just enough for the windscreen wipers to be more effective.
You see, slowing down isn’t losing momentum, it’s gaining vision. And, from gaining vision, clearer choices emerge.
Emergence? Creating space for life to unfold. Being present enough to see the detail, making connections and noticing the coincidences. During the process of documenting this practice, I have realised it’s also a way of being. I think we are all inherently creative. Yes, not everyone feels artistic, but creative blue-sky thinking is within all of us, if we just allow ourselves the time.
Types of content
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Workload and To-do
Everything on your plate, visible at once, with room to add without rewriting.
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Project tracking
Milestones plotted in sequence, progress visible as it moves.
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Client or Customer process
Names and status tracked through each stage, from first contact to completion.
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Single or Recurring Meeting notes
Agenda items as nodes, layered with updates across sessions so nothing gets lost between weeks.
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Ideas and exploration
Open territory for thinking that isn't ready to be a plan yet.
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Values and North Star
The things that matter when the noise settles, mapped for the long view.
Day-to-day I have my map open on my desk or my wall, so I can refer to them easily. I’ll do a visual scan of my ‘to do’ map, usually in a clockwise direction, as I sit down to start work for the day.
If you're in a busy office, the maps make for a great conversation point with curious minds, but the thing about these maps is that they are best interpreted by its creator. The formation of information becomes deeply personal. A creation that, generally speaking, only we can decipher.
Certainly, you’ll see where most of the energy is being expended, where some of the priorities are highlighted but the key here is that these are not really made for other people. We make them for ourselves.
It's for non-linear thinkers who need space for all their thoughts to exist at once.
This tool is for the goal-makers, and for the people who live by principles but feel constrained by rigid goals. It’s for the busy bees juggling many moving parts, and for the strategists who like to think several steps ahead.
It’s for those who crave structure but resist being boxed-in by it. It’s for the creatives who work in bursts, and the methodical ones who take steps, one by one.
This is a tool that offers a way to create structure with freedom, using order and intuition, where there is always room on the page for change. In doing so, it becomes more about presence and where your energy is required next.
It's for people who sit in the nosebleed section to see the whole field, and have the commentary in one ear.
If you've ever felt like the tools available to you were designed for someone else, this one was designed by instinct, refined over fifteen years, and it might finally feel like yours.