Mind Mapping

Challenge:  I am a rising sophomore in high school in India. Currently, I am working on a project to reduce  stress and anxiety among teenage students. This project consists of technological intervention  and social awareness. The social awareness is a key aspect as through explicit surveys  conducted pan-India, I have found out that over a third of the population disagrees that such a  thing as a mental illness occurs. It is potentially considered a taboo issue. Right now, I and my  group of 4 more peers, work with a group of students educating them and allowing them to  educate others about this serious issue. Further, We are building a device for proper tracking  and curbing of day-to-day anxiety. Further, we also have a forum for others to anonymously talk  about their problems and address them with the masses. The main goal is to make society  accept that mental illnesses are experienced by many and it is normal. Then to effectively  reduce this and until then help others the best way we can.     Selection:  Considering how widespread this issue is & how many different strands are there in the project  it is easy to confuse many small details which could later prove to be important. Hence, to  organize our thoughts and keep a smooth flowing of our project we have adopted the  Mind-Mapping Module allowing us to be concise and to the point.    Application:  With the constant mapping of all possible ideas, what has been done, and what needs to be  done we have been able to expand this movement of sorts. We have been partly successful in  addressing this issue from all possible perceivable angles.   We have had a smoother and more effective discussion. We have been able to attend more  training sessions and research has had more concentrated in an in-depth way to move forward.  There has been a more clear direction forward and more conscious steps have been taken to  move forward. There is less wasting of time and more productivity has been observed in the  group. A wider yet more concentrated approach is possible. There are clearer roles and much  more activity as everyone has understood what they need to do.  By mapping it out, students have been able to gain an even deeper understanding of the topic  making room for more enthusiasm and innovative ideas.    Insight:  By applying the mind mapping tool, we have been able to reject unproductive ideas, analyze the  consequences of each possible step, and keep track of all strands of the project in an easy and  concise way. There has been a rather different than expected outcome though. It was identified  that many possessed a shallow understanding of the project which was cleared and more  enthusiasm was noticed. There was a sharp increase in the amount of productivity and all  pending tasks were starting to get completed in time. Moving forward the visual representation

will most likely be incorporated in many possible projects to ensure that work is done with  enthusiasm.    Approach:  In the coming times, this would probably be one of the first steps which would be adopted. This  method would also be used to keep track of many other things including but not limited to future  ideas, current projects, possible steps, current impact, and overall goal. This could also be used  to judge the person’s understanding of the topic to focus on the weak points and allowing proper  comprehension of all the steps.

