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.
This Practice can support all kinds 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.