In my ongoing effort(s) to get better with application planning and management, I decided to check out some Mind Mapping software. I've got a buddy of mine who is, to say the least, an entrepreneur. He's been using and singing the praises of Mind Mapping programs for a few years now.

I don't recall how I got there but I was Googling around last week and came across a program called Curio. It's a Mind Mapping software program for Mac. It's actually a bit more than Mind Mapping software. It incorporates brain storming and project management features.

Thus far, I've been focused on the brain storming and mind mapping aspects. I've created a small, personal project to try it out on. My project is to create a jQuery- and ColdFusion-powered utility that allows a site or blog visitor to post a tweet with a note and the URL of a web page a user is reading, similar to how many blogs enable users to post a bit about the entry/site to Digg or Del.icio.us, etc.

Using Curio, I was able to spend a couple hours yesterday organizing my ideas. It was awesome. I quickly created a series of maps for my classes, methods, properties, application flow and more. When I started into the coding, I was able to easily and conveniently refer to my Curio diagrams to make sure I wasn't missing any methods, properties, etc.

If you find that you typically spend a lot of time jotting down notes on various pieces of paper during the planning phase, I'd recommend taking a look at Curio (or other similar programs). It's quite a good way to get organized and ready to code.

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