I stopped using paper for my brainstorms and switched to this digital tool instead

There are plenty of fantastic note-taking apps you can use on your smartphone. Obsidian, OneNote, Samsung Notes, and Notion are all great in their own right.

But sometimes, when you are brainstorming, you don’t always need to prepare a whole notebook. Instead, it helps to spend time sketching out preliminary ideas visually, rather than relying on a bunch of text or scribbles.

Personally, my brain works like a web. I like to start with one idea and connect every question to a particular topic.

It helps me figure out what I know, what I don’t know, and what needs clarification.

So I began looking for productivity apps and tools that replicate how my brain likes to work for brainstorming — I finally came across one that I liked.

The one I tried is Xmind. You can download Xmind on your computer and as a standalone app on any Android device.

If you want more space to work with, you might prefer to reserve it for your tablet rather than your pocket-sized smartphone.

Xmind has a free option, but it is limited

Though I never felt the need to pay for it

When I am brainstorming, I don’t need all the bells and whistles to support my ideas.

While I appreciate Xmind’s vibrant templates, I’m not overly picky as long as it is easy to navigate and read.

The free plan lets you select only basic templates, and mapping still has a limit.

Exporting Xmind maps will still leave watermarks on the free plan. But that wasn’t a big deal since I didn’t really care about adding images to other documents from my brainstorming sessions. I just opened the program or app to view it.

Though if I felt like I needed to show my ideas, Xmind has collaboration tools to let you share and edit maps via links. It just restricts live-editing features and access to the cached version history in the free plan (three-day cache only).

But it wasn’t a big deal since I like keeping my brainstorming and preliminary planning private, so collaborating wasn’t a top priority for me.

Also, guest collaborators don’t need to create an account to access and edit your links. For me, that’s a plus, since I find it awkward to ask my colleagues to create an account just to view my ideas.

While I am satisfied with the free plan, I really wish I could use the AI features. As more time goes on, I’ve started integrating AI more into my workflow.

I’m well aware that AI can’t always answer all my questions — I also still have severe paranoia that it will start hallucinating, which makes me distrust its responses.

But for me, AI is useful at making me think of other questions. It helps me find the purpose. Like, what are the questions other people ask or want to know, and why does addressing that topic matter?

Xmind has AI integration, but you need a premium plan to use it. The platform lets you try it out if you’re a new user. You gain free AI credits after you’ve signed up.

But like most freemium services, you can’t upgrade without paying. You can start over from scratch with another account, but I dislike doing that. I much prefer to keep my work samples on one account.

Also, Xmind is multi-platform. It has a dedicated smartphone app and a desktop version. You can access the app on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and a browser.

If I wanted the option, it syncs across different platforms. That’s helpful for me since I like brainstorming on my Windows desktop and Chromebook, and sometimes on my iPad.

My favorite free Xmind features

It does what it needs to do without being complicated

I always start with a template. Since I am using the free plan, choosing simple templates is a no-brainer. As I used it more, I found myself defaulting between mind mapping and fishbone diagrams for my starters.

Technically, you can also open the app on a PC without signing in, but that disables cross-platform sharing.

Also, you can’t do anything in the mobile app until you sign in to an account, and it will require granting the app access to your device’s folders to work.

This is because free accounts are for local use and aren’t stored in the cloud. It wasn’t until December 2022 that the platform offered cloud syncing for Xmind Works users.

As I kept using it, I found myself using the desktop app a lot more often.

With the desktop app, I liked the keyboard shortcuts: press Tab to add subsections to your main map, then press Enter to split the topic (the app calls it a sibling topic).

After you’ve created a preliminary mind map, you just tap the Space bar key to start typing in that box.

The panel on the right side contains all your customization options. You can set the fonts, the colors, borders, and text size.

It’s nothing too crazy, but I’m a bit of a minimalist as is, so it has enough for me to work with.

The pitch mode tab in the right panel offers options to turn your map into a slideshow or presentation. I never touched this because it is a freemium option, and there are only so many pitches you can do (five) for free.

The map tab controls your overlay. This is something I ended up using. You can switch to the same map type and tweak the presentation, or convert your map to another style.

I loved this feature, since sometimes changing the way the idea is presented adds structure to how my brain works (I describe my way of thinking as similar to a very disorganized web).

Now the fun part, adding markers. Markers are where you can add emoticons, illustrations, and stickers to any of your sections.

The illustrations and stickers section is filled with premium options, so I barely used it. But the markers (emoticons) were widely available.

But these features are very basic, which is one of the reasons Xmind works so well for me, even on the free plan.

Keep your brain under control

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re locked into a topic. But it doesn’t have to be this way all the time.

Just remember that everyone’s brain is wired differently. So we require specific formatting or tailored practices to develop our ideas and thinking.

And if you’re feeling really stuck, you can tap into your favorite AI companions for additional guidance.