This blog is composed in response to numbers of people who have sent me an email and also discussions on the PersonalBrain Forum. In this article, I outline the way I use PersonalBrain as:
- a means to record progress in a research topic
- build knowledge on a topic
- create a structure for that information
- to build a presentation, a book or an article.
The center of attention is this article is Personal Brain 3.0, software for personal computing devised by The Brain Technologies Corporation. You can download this software from The Brain Corporation and evaluate it for 30 days free. This weblog entry is about using PersonalBrain 3.0 in a particular way.
Step One: A New Brain
First, I like to start with a new brain, even though later on I might join the Brain into my main brain I have labeled as "Knowledge". I start with a new Brain as I do not like there to be any existing structure that may impose a logic or process on me. The Home Thought of this Brain will be the topic of the entire research. In the examples I am going to give you, I use examples from my "Search Engine Book" Brain. Thus, I create a single thought "SearchEngineBook".
Step Two: Thought Collection
I set up a jump thought titled "Brainstorming". I then set this up and then put it in the center of focus and connect to that one thought anything I can think of concerning the subject. These are, in the first instance, all ideas that come from my head. They are placed as Child Thoughts to the Brainstorm Thought. When I have run out of ideas to work on there, I then take the next step. In the example of the "SearchEngineBook" Brainstorm, I built up 80 thoughts under Brainstorm. The Brainstorm Thought and its children are all labelled as a "Brainstorm Thought" and colored pink.
Step Three: Thought Connection
I then use the Search Tool to identify any thoughts with similar words in them. I look at the first Brainstorm Thought and pick a keywords from that thought. I put that in the Search Tool, and see what other thoughts share that or a similar word. One of those thoughts may in fact be a main idea, and the other thoughts may in fact be subordinate ideas to that main idea. If that is the case, I unlink and link to represent that heirarchy. When I have finished with making connections on that thought, I go to the next that now appears directly under Brainstorm Thought. I continue working through in sorting these thoughts out until I have visited all of those directly under the Brainstorm Thought. It is not as big as job as you might think as through the process, Thoughts have a tendency to be taken from linking directly to Brainstorm and getting linked in some form of categorization with the other Thoughts that are there.
Step Four: Internet Research
Now, I set up another jump thought from the main "SearchEngineBook" Thought called "Internet Research". I work from the list of All Thoughts in the Search Tool. I take the first thought, use a keyword or set of words from that thought to place in Google Toolbar and complete a search on that/those words. I visit up to the first ten results and create a Link Thought in my Brain to those sites that are interesting. Each of the Link Thoughts are connected so that they have two parents. Parent One, is the Parent Thought "Internet Research" and Parent Two is the Brainstorm Thought from which I took the main keyword. I work through all the Brainstorm Thoughts and building Internet Research Thoughts which are all colored green. When I have completed all thoughts and have connections to sites on the Internet, I then move to the next step.
Step Five: Topic Organization of Material
Now I place "SearchEngineBook" as the center of attention and being working up topics. I create a Child Thought directly under this main thought. I have a fair idea of the types of topics that may be within the material and so now start working to create Topic Thoughts under which I can categorize all Brainstorm and Internet Research Thoughts. I create topics I think are going to be needed, and then set about to locate Brainstorm and Internet Research Thoughts to be placed under each category. This is done through using the Search Tool, and/or simply working through the Brainstorm thoughts and linking them up under each category. Category Thoughts are colored yellow. I then review each of the Category Thoughts and sometimes find that I cannot place any Brainstorm or Internet Research Thoughts under a particular topic. This means that either I need to find information on that topic, or the topic may be deleted.
Step Six: Building Notes
For each topic, I now build 300 words minimum in describing each Topic Thought and connections with the Child Thoughts directly under that topic (which came from Brainstorming and Internet Research). When I have worked my way through each Topic Thought, I now go on to the next step.
Step Seven: Building Logical Blocks
Depending on whether I am preparing for a presentation, or writing a book, I then create another JumpThought from the Main Thought "SearchEngineBook". This jump thought is called "Chapters" (if a book). Chapters are colored blue. Under each Chapter Thought, I connect one or more Topic Thoughts. I number the Chapter Thoughts so that they form an order of Chapter One to Seven, for example. I also rename the Topic Thoughts to have number -- the first number is the Chapter within which it is categorized, and the second number if the order in the chapter I wish it to be placed. Thus a number will look like -- 3.2 if it is chapter 3 and the second Topic in that Chapter. I now read click through the Topic Thoughts in the order they will come in each Chapter Thought and see whether the ideas contained in each of the notes for each Topic make sense in that order. There is some re-ordering at time.
Step Eight: Writing the Text Chunks
I now visit each of the Brainstorm Thoughts and Internet Research Thoughts connected to each Topic Thought and write a text chunk about each. Sometimes I discard Brainstorm Thoughts or Internet Research Thoughts in this process of writing text chunks. After writing text chunks for each of the Brainstorm and Internet Research thoughts, I now work on the next step.
Step Nine: Building the Book
Now, I collect all the "thought.rtf" files from the Brain Directory of the same name as the Main Thought. These files are numbered in the order they will appear in the book. I also have a roughly written book which needs to have bridging sentences built from one chunk to the next.
Step Ten: Merging Brains
Now I merge the Subject Brain -- in this example -- "SearchEngineBook" into my Knowledge Brain. As soon as it is merged, I then use the Search Tool to find Thoughts with similar words and then start making connections between the "SearchEngineBook" Brain and the "Knowledge Brain". This is where Aha! occurs and when new knowledge often is built. This often then spawns the next research topic. I now have 33,482 thoughts in my Knowledge Brain having built these up over the past five months. This is building at the rate of 223 thoughts a day.
I hope this has been of interest and that you can use some or all of these strategies. Also you can read the ebook on "Text Chunking". You will notice the Download Sign on the second article in this weblog where you can download the book free.
3:45:30 PM 
Tuesday, 4 February 2003