Although my wish is to leave corporate life, I have learned a great deal from the processes that I have encountered during my years in the cubicle. One of my favourite things to do is to convert my ideas into visual records of what needs to be done.
Mind maps are my road maps for action. Let’s look at what i have put down in writing for the next couple of weeks. 
Creating a visual reference is becoming more and more widely recognised as an integral tool in your business tool box. Ramping up to be a major best seller is Back of the Napkin Problem Solving
Back to mind mapping though. The above is a very very simple version. The large tasks have not been chunked down to the individual parts of the work that will need to be addressed. The chunking down part is VERY important. A great game to get into the habit of chunking is to work with a friend (though can be solo) and pick a random word and your partner tell you UP or DOWN and you think of the next word in the sequence of the bigger/smaller subset that your subject belongs to.
Chunking Exercise
Let’s start with the word Jupiter and chunk up
Jupiter -> Solar System -> Milky Way -> Universe
Chunk Down
Jupiter -> rings -> gas -> atoms
So working on an example from the above mind map let’s try chunking down Blogging
Niche Blog -> Topics -> Key Words -> …
Chunking Up
Niche Blog -> Communication Strategy -> Public Persona ->…
The point of chunking is that you do not lose sight of, or miss planning for the bigger picture or the minutiae. It would be a bugger if I posted 50 blog entries and did not include any of the key words or phrases I want to target. It would also be a shame if I went off the track altogether and tarnished my public persona by being someone I am not.
The goal is to remain as close as possible to the road map and measure progress and results as I go forward. So I better get cracking on getting the Vision and Mission statement up!
Planned and executed my exit from the corporate world. Walked away with a 6 figure payment to boot.