Using Visual Mind Mapping to Manage the Process of Re-Gifting

Let’s face it. Re-gifting is something that we all know happens from time to time. Whether it is due to running low on funds or an unwanted gift from a well-intentioned person, the process of giving a received gift to someone else is not uncommon. However, as any experienced re-gifter knows, nothing is worse than re-gifting an item to the person from whom you originally received it. This embarrassment can easily be avoided with a little planning and organization, and a Visual Mind Map can help with this planning. With Visual Mind Maps, re-gifters can organize a chart showing from whom a gift was received and to whom the re-gifter plans to give the gift in one, spatially formatted, and intuitive diagram. In addition, re-gifters can add colors and graphics to their mind map to make the chart easier to conceptualize and work with. Thus, those wanting to “recycle” gifts can do so easily and without fear of the gifts getting into the wrong hands.

What are Visual Mind Maps and How Are They Created?

A Visual Mind Map is “a means of organizing information that allows individuals to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information”. With a Visual Mind Map, the creator makes use of colors and symbols to construct the map and represent his or her ideas in a non-linear format. When creating a Visual Mind Map, the individual usually begins by showing the key concept or main idea of the information as a graphic image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central image. Subsequent themes of less importance are then attached to these branches using “child branches”, and so on. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information presented that includes the images, visual graphics, and colors the individual associates with each of the themes and ideas.

Organizing a Re-Gifting Chart Using a Visual Mind Map

Connie enjoys re-gifting presents to those she feels will get better use out of gifts she has received from others. Her yearly practice of recycling gifts, however, ran into an embarrassing snag last year when she accidentally gave a friend the same present the friend had given her the year before. Hoping to avoid the same gaffe this year, Connie decides to create a chart organizing her re-gifting plans using a Visual Mind Map. She begins her map by placing a representative visual in the map’s center. She then lists the names of everyone to whom she intends to re-gift presents on “branches” that she attaches to the central image. On “child branches”, she then lists the gifts she received from each person next to their name. She next attaches “twigs” to each “child branch”, on which she lists the gift she intents to give the person. She also adds any images or graphics she wants to the map to make it more conceptual. When Connie has finished organizing her re-gifting chart, it resembles the chart in the attached Visual Mind Map.

Re-Gifting Presents Using the Visual Mind Map

Now that Connie has completed her chart, she finds she has an easy way to ensure that she does not recycle gifts to the wrong person. As she decides whom she will give each gift to, she simply ensures she does not choose a gift that is listed next to the person’s name as a previous gift. She no longer has to worry about trying to remember who gave what last year as she assigns each gift; each gift, along with the giver, is clearly listed on her Visual Mind Map. The result is, thus, a smooth and enjoyable Christmas, one where no one recognizes that the gift they are receiving is a gift that Connie herself had received the year before.

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