Mindly Plus

I love this app to the core. It takes all my ideas and organizes them into little bubbles of pure imagination I enjoy reading through. Nitpicking I could only think of the notes section, and how customization is handled. For me personally the customization of bubbles seems a bit odd, but I can grow use to it; however, as such it does always feel a bit off. How notes are handled feels slightly off as a writer as well. Everything is quite clumped together, and unorganized, contrasting to the organizational tools of the rest of the app.

So useful for breaking down big goals into actionable steps, or breaking down big ideas into smaller pieces to make them easier to think about. Allows me to follow one train of thought to its fullest extent, and then zoom back out and start down another one without getting distracted. I used the free version so much, I ran into its limits, and decided it was worth it to get the plus version—a luxury I rarely spring for! Syncing from my old phone to my new phone was easy with iCloud, too, so that was great!

It does limit what you can do, yet if it’s what you want to do, it’s not only quite charming and fun but very practical. I particularly like putting the wheel into the corner and spinning it (much like you do with color pallates in some of the better art apps). I treat this app like more of a toy than the more extensive outliner apps and would consider standard mind mappers a more extensive option, but this app is fully capable and runs well. It’s quick to understand, and brings with it a certain charm I’ve not found in any other app. You can genuinely brainstorm in it. While you can add a note to each bubble, I like using it more like a minimalist index card brainstormer, then moving to another app for more extensive depth. I love the way you just pick up the bubbles and drop them down an inoccuous hole when you want to throw them away.

Good for organizing story ideas and thoughts, and honestly a lot of fun to use. Things can get a little cluttered once I have a lot of elements so it would be cool to have some more organic layouts that shift as sections grow. But overall, well worth the money, especially if you also struggle with keeping your mental ducks in a row. A little goofy, but I’d love for there to be more icons/emojis to pick from.

Mindly Plus was my choice of mind mapping software after searching for a means to display visually a challenge to display how time is more than just a clock. Mindly Plus made the task fun and colorful, presenting larger concepts and systems in a new and unique manner. I could draft from my iPhone and continue after transferring to my iPad. I look forward to customizable color palettes, more instantaneous cloud usage, and hyperlinks-tags that allow for alternate organizations of ideas otherwise unconnected by parent-child relationships in their original lineages.