My mind is like a Louisiana swamp—full of bad ideas with several really good ones buried among the alligator droppings, cypress roots and rusting carcasses of F-150s. So, I need something to help organize my thoughts as I work through ideas, plan for the future and keep my team running without getting in the way.

I recently discovered XMind, a free mind mapping software that lets me type my thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness flow of ideas, punch the “tab” and “enter” keys and construct organic flowcharts of interrelated ideas. This could just as easily be done on a whiteboard, but I’m pretty sloppy, so typing works better.

Check it out. It will help you think better and work smarter.

I’m headed for vacation this weekend with the family after two of the most fast-paced months of work I can remember in a long time. Exhilarating. Exhausting. But ultimately a lot of fun. The latest energy vortex has been our December mission conference, Story’08, and the tools (both virtual and print) that we’re creating to get the word out about this event. Everyone on our team left their fingerprints on this piece: