Mind Map Mastery-1648463187009

Mind Map Mastery

Metadata

Highlights

attention. I have found that Mind Mapping is a great force to ward off the distraction of Attention Deficit Disorder. In short, it helps me stay on track. — location: 18

if you practise perfectly, your practice makes you perfect. However, if you practise badly, practice makes you perfectly bad. — location: 41

the left side of the brain is verbal and analytical, while the right side is visual and perceptual. — location: 211

Shade in the branch. Its thickness symbolizes the weight of this association in the hierarchy of your Mind Map. — location: 239

As Mind Mapping involves the workings of both sides of the brain, it is multifunctional and can be applied to all cognitive functions, including memory, creativity, learning and all forms of thinking. This is one reason why it has been described as “the Swiss army knife for the brain”. It is useful, practical – and fun! — location: 263

Like the mass of florets in a dandelion head, your thinking radiates outward, creating associations from associations. — location: 303

Linear thinking, such as adding new items to a list in a linear sequence, actually limits your thinking. As you get further down a list, for example, your creativity begins to dwindle and you stop thinking imaginatively or inventively. Consequently, linearity will very likely undermine your ability to access or retain all the information that is available to you. — location: 322

The Mind Map marks the next step in the progression from linear (“onedimensional”) thinking, through to lateral (“two-dimensional”) thought, to multi-dimensional thinking or Radiant Thought. — location: 328

When, as a student, I introduced two different colours into my note-taking, I improved my memory of those notes by more than 100 percent. Why was this? — location: 335

Colour relates to the right-hand side of the brain, whereas words are associated with the rational left-hand hemisphere. So a combination of colour and words engages the workings of both sides of the brain. — location: 336

Colours stimulate memory and creativity, freeing us from the trap of monochrome monotony. — location: 339

Numerous studies show how a considered use of colour can: •  Capture attention •  Greatly improve comprehension •  Ignite motivation •  Encourage vibrant communication •  Increase the mental processing and storing of images — location: 340

If you use specific colours to depict different areas and themes within a Mind Map, you will create a visual shorthand that will enable you to memorize the information in that Mind Map much more easily, and significantly improve your recall. — location: 347

In Mind Maps, colour and symbols can similarly be used to activate the von Restorff effect, or “isolation effect” as it is also known, by making different branches stand out from their surroundings in some way. — location: 353

visual information is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. — location: 359

images stimulate the imagination, are rich in associations and transcend the limits of verbal communication. (Just think of the effectiveness of all the road signs around the world.) Like colour, they encourage harmony between the left- and right-hand sides of the brain, balancing our linguistic skills with visual skills. — location: 360

To give the images in your Mind Maps even more impact, keep them crisp, colourful and clear. This will make them attractive, engaging and memorable. — location: 365

A genuine Mind Map uses single words on its branches. — location: 366

single words pack more of a punch than a phrase, as each individual word will trigger its own unique set of associations and thereby generate new ideas. — location: 367

a phrase is a fixed entity, stuck in its compound meaning rather than open to free association, and its impact is therefore diluted. — location: 368

One word per branch of your Mind Map will make your brain really engage with the subject and go to the heart of the matter. It will give your brain a hook on which to hang a memory. — location: 371

A Mind Map will: •  Offer you clarity and an overview of a subject •  Give you the information you need to help you plan ahead •  Provide a full review of a situation •  Act as a massive storehouse for information •  Activate your imagination, encouraging you to find creative solutions •  Be a pleasure to look at in its own right — location: 455

Thinking: Use Mind Mapping to ignite your brain, come up with fresh ideas and associations, and create a colourful record of your thinking processes. — location: 465

Learning: Mind Maps make great study aids, useful for note-taking during classes and lectures, as well as for exam revision. A Mind Map cuts through the dead wood to highlight the key branches of any topic. — location: 467

Concentrating: Mind Mapping means focusing closely on the task in hand, engaging your brain in a way that will inevitably lead to better results. — location: 469

Organizing: Use Mind Maps for parties, weddings, trips, family gatherings and even your future life. — location: 471

Planning: Prioritize your time and commitments by using Mind Mapping to plan your diary and schedule. — location: 474

Communicating: Cut through the waffle and communicate with precision – a Mind Map will highlight the essential points that you need to get across. — location: 475

Speaking: Dispense with pages of notes by making information available at a glance, keeping your presentations and speeches clear, relaxed and dynamic. — location: 477

Leading: Create excellent business tools, whether setting an agenda, taking the minutes or chairing a meeting. The Mind Map gives you a control desk for making sense of your internal and external universes. — location: 479

Training: Chuck out the wordy manuals and use Mind Maps to plan training programmes in a quick and accessible format. — location: 481

Negotiating: See all your options, available strategies and potential outcomes laid out clearly on one page. The Mind Map will help you to negotiate a win–win result. — location: 482

By stimulating Radiant Thinking, a Mind Map exaggerates the brain’s natural functions, making the brain stronger, more creative and more effective. — location: 486

Mind Mapping is most effective when undertaken in bursts of about 20 minutes. — location: 544

An effective question or topic will: •  Trigger the powers of association and imagination •  Be open, allowing consideration and assessment rather than closed yes/no responses •  Inspire critical and analytic thinking •  Create clarity •  Challenge assumptions •  Stimulate breakthrough thinking •  Achieve a balance between the content (who? what? when? and the process (how? why?) •  Inspire a positive reaction — location: 1439

Mind Mapping is an ongoing process, in which you are invited to ask question after question. — location: 1456

The spread of your Mind Map across the page, as its branches become increasingly filled with symbols and words, is a wonderful testimony to the fact that your brain is generating more ideas. — location: 1461

Should your Mind Map appear overcrowded, you have simply reached the stage of generating mini Mind Maps – or “child” Mind Maps, which often have the potential to grow into big adult Mind Maps themselves (see page 142). — location: 1462

Procrastination is mentally draining and counterproductive, whereas pursuing a clear course of action is liberating, energizing and leads to direct lived experience, even if that experience may not always fulfil expectations. — location: 1530

It is always better to be proactive and to do something than to wallow unproductively in the pit of inertia. — location: 1531

Mind Maps will strengthen your ability to persist as they continue to offer up solutions for you, help you to dissolve problems and, in the process, give you the energy to keep on trying. — location: 1536

If you ever encounter a obstacle when you are Mind Mapping, remember that this is not designed to be a linear process. You do not need to keep banging your head against a problem. Simply sidestep it elegantly and explore another route! — location: 1543

Mind Maps can be an excellent resource for self-analysis and for tackling personal problems such as anxiety, shyness, excessive perfectionism, feeling down, and disappointment. — location: 1549

Mind Maps brought synergy and clarity to my decisions and produced results. — location: 1607

Mind Mapping trained them to exercise their thinking muscles while tuning into their creative instincts. — location: 1617

Probably the last one – ‘prioritizing’ – is the most beneficial and important use of a Mind Map for me. — location: 1660

The to-do Mind Map allows me to step back and be reminded of the grand overview of what I want to achieve in life. — location: 1661

A Mind Map planner can be used both to plan your life and to review it; it can help you highlight your priorities and make sure you are in charge of your own time, achieving a healthy balance between work and leisure activities. Rather than becoming a slave to a schedule that’s not of your own making or in your best interests, a Mind Map planner is a powerful way to make sure your days are literally full of colour! — location: 1758

you can use a Mind Map to create a yearly planner. A yearly planner Mind Map could have a branch for each month of the year, while the sub-branches will relate to that month’s most pressing concerns and considerations. It’s a great way to plan for important events such as weddings, travel, trips and parties. I also use yearly planners to make sure my year ahead contains a healthy balance of work, travel, writing and leisure. — location: 1778

in the workplace, where they have an infinite range of applications, including researching projects, creating presentations, writing annual reports, managing time, brainstorming, negotiating and thinking strategically. — location: 1798

Scaling their applications up a notch, Mind Maps can be used to plan the vision for a company on a grand scale, and have other sophisticated uses, such as resolving company disputes — location: 1800

On an individual basis they can help you decide which career path to pursue as well as plan how to climb the promotion ladder. — location: 1802

When you are making a Mind Map to help you make a decision, be aware that the colours and pictures you allocate to the different branches will give you an insight into the subtle workings of your subconscious, perhaps revealing hidden preferences through the use of favourite colours for likes, or less favoured colours and images for dislikes. — location: 1810

Whether you are deciding if you should redecorate your bedroom or move house, pursue a course of treatment proposed by your healthcare provider, or accept a new job, Mind Maps can act as a loyal companion along the way, helping you face life’s big (and small) decisions with equanimity. — location: 1824

Mind Maps are usually created by individuals as highly personalized thinking tools, yet they can also be a very productive joint enterprise. At this more advanced level, they can be an extremely useful and rewarding way to explore another person’s point of view in conjunction with your own, and for finding common ground and resolving disputes. — location: 1828

There are two possible approaches to using Mind Mapping in conflict resolution. — location: 1834

The first involves two or more people working together on a single Mind Map, taking turns to add branches, to explore associations and to discuss the approach. In the second method, the parties concerned work on separate Mind Maps, which are then shared, compared and discussed. — location: 1834

Once the exchange is complete, a positive step forward could be to create a joint Mind Map based on the solutions you have reached. — location: 1847

A possible approach is illustrated opposite, with the two participants each using an identifying colour (blue and red) to highlight their feelings and ideas, rather than each branch being given its own colour, as is more usual in Mind Mapping. Where feelings are mutual, both colours are used, and a third colour (purple) is used for the branch identifying the jointly reached solution. — location: 1848

it’s important to find work that gives us a sense of achievement in some way, or feeds our sense of purpose. Here again, Mind Maps can help, — location: 1853

There is a “quiet” majority of company employees who harbour an entrepreneurial ambition but who fail to garner sufficient energy to push themselves in the direction of their passions. — location: 1860

This Mind Map – and especially the final branch, which captured all my joyous emotions – gave me the much-needed courage to take the plunge and start out on my own without any further delay. — location: 1870

Learn Like a Native Through the use of colour and imagery, Mind Mapping lifts language off the page and releases the brain, like a bird from a cage, to fly free in the realm of ideas and association. — location: 1903

The Mind Map has an advantage over other teaching methods in that it is a product of the Human Language itself — location: 1907

Chunking can also be used very effectively in Mind Maps for language learning to group related information into memorable clusters, mirroring the way the brain processes information. — location: 1909

The design mindset is about building up ideas until an “aha” moment is reached, when the path forward becomes clear. — location: 2013

As design thinking involves making things visible and tangible, drawing is one of its main tools for working through ideas, sharing, dialogue and communication. — location: 2014

Mind Maps and mini Mind Maps can be applied at every stage of the design process – from the inception of a design to its practical realization – and can be used to design anything from the planting scheme of a garden to a plan for expanding a business to the outline of your ideal life. — location: 2018

Besides their use in promoting general wellbeing, Mind Maps have been shown to be effective in engaging with a number of conditions, such as autism and dyslexia. — location: 2024

People on the autistic spectrum often have strong visual skills, which means that autistic children tend to learn better through visual methods. Mind Maps are, of course, highly visual and encourage a learning-by-doing approach. They offer an overview of a subject, as well as emphasizing the relationships between different aspects of it, making information appear orderly and helping autistic students to improve their recall of that information. — location: 2025

For those with dyslexia, short-term memory, concentration and sequencing information can all be challenging aspects of daily life, so Mind Maps offer them a helpful way to organize and assimilate information. — location: 2028

For those suffering from depression and states of demotivation, a Mind Map can highlight symptoms, outline coping techniques and strategies, and include helpful medical information on the biological causes. It becomes an action plan as well as a diagnostic tool. — location: 2030

Wherever stress can lead to forgetfulness, rigidity and a downward spiral of fear, Mind Maps can act as stress relievers, massaging that stress away. When the brain is less stressed, the body becomes less stressed, leading to improved performance and mental and physical wellbeing. — location: 2032

Mind Maps can be used generally to improve your understanding of a condition and then devise a helpful treatment plan. — location: 2034

If, for example, you are creating a Mind Map to manage anxiety, you could start with a central image that relates to your feelings, then create main branches and sub-branches relating to: — location: 2035

has described on her blog how she could not function as well as she does without Mind Maps: “… as they map things out visually, offering another way to find my way”. Her story is a humbling example of the way in which Mind Maps can help a courageous individual like Kate live a fulfilling life in the face of a diagnosis such as dementia. — location: 2044

•  things that trigger your anxiety •  how anxiety affects your life •  things that are counterproductive or exacerbate your anxiety •  activities that help you manage it •  support from family, friends and professionals — location: 2047

Mind Maps can be useful for carers too. They can, for example, be used to record notes about important aspects of a person’s life, such as their preferred lifestyle and the significant individuals or events in their lives. — location: 2053

Besides their social function, Mind Maps can be used medically as a means of arranging and agreeing the details of care and treatment plans. — location: 2054

As storehouses or even giant warehouses of information, Mind Maps can help hold the fort in the battle against such devastating conditions as dementia. — location: 2056

They can be used by those who have been given a diagnosis of dementia as well as those who care for them. — location: 2057

Dr Huba soon found that Mind Mapping provided an especially effective and inexpensive way of ordering his daily life and memories, making decisions and planning for the future. — location: 2062

By getting rid of complex sentence structures and the need to learn by rote, Mind Maps appeal to the mind in the present moment. — location: 2063

He is a pioneer in the use of Mind Maps as a tool to tackle the effects of cognitive decline. — location: 2066

For those who have dementia, Mind Maps offer a visual thinking tool with which to record memories, organize daily routines and plan ahead. — location: 2067

They can be used, for instance, for choosing meals and clothing, for remembering medications, and as Mind Map diaries and schedule planners. — location: 2068

They can help Mind Mappers with dementia remember medical appointments and visitors. Some people with dementia may be able to express themselves more easily through pictures, sketches and scribbles than in words, in which instance the Mind Map can act as a useful communication device to help them relate to the people they love and the people who care for them. — location: 2068

We have seen how Mind Maps can be used to memorize information. They can also be used as productive exercises in their own right with which to improve your memory by giving your brain a healthy workout. — location: 2081

Most people feel note-taking slows you down when you read. The Mind Map does exactly the opposite for you: when your Mind Map is fine-tuned to the keywords in a text, your eye–brain system will search out, like a detective, the key elements of the content – immediately forming a network of associations that will give you the ‘aha!’ experience of understanding. As you refine your Mind Map, you will refine your understanding. — location: 2103

I hope by now you will be excited and intrigued by the possibilities that Mind Maps can offer you in every aspect of life. — location: 2141

the Laws of Mind Mapping are based on sound psychological principles, which means that the further a person deviates from them, the less effective the resulting diagram will be. — location: 2167

through the use of imagination, logic, association and individual interpretation of the world, the Laws of Mind Mapping are inextricably intertwined with the fundamental principles of good thinking. — location: 2210