Your results are a reflection of a year’s work
Your results are a reflection of a year’s work, but the results of a life time of work ethic and habits.
I’m not only talking about exam results. This applies to YOU, whether you are at school, at college, at university, or at work.
- Did 2009 not go as well as it should have?
- Did you not achieve what you wanted?
- Are you stuck in a rut at work?
- Did you get poor results at school, college or university?
Do not despair! Take some time to reflect on where it has all gone wrong, but also reflect on where things have worked out well for you.
Those of you that did not do so well this year, may want to forget and move on. If you do this, then you stand the chance of repeating the same actions, which will lead to the same, or even poorer results.
Take a few days or even a full week and rethink your behaviour this past year.
We, at MindMaptutor, believe that learning should be a lifelong process. Based on this philosophy, everything said in this article should apply to you, whether you are studying formally or not.
Identify the situations and actions this year that sabotaged your learning and prevented you from delivering your best. Record this behaviour.
This does not have to be a long, laborious process. You can use a quick fire Mind Map to do this and complete the whole task in 5-10 minutes. There are numerous articles on MindMapTutor.com about quick fire five minute Mind Map bursts.
It may have been the obsession to answer cell phone messages while you are supposed to be learning, or getting hooked-on TV series…
Whatever it was, write it down.
Changing your behaviour
Now that you have done this, what do you think you can do to prevent such behaviour in future?
You may want to do another quick fire Mind Map burst of possible solutions. The quicker you jot them down, the less time you have to ‘edit’ your thoughts. This will enable your creative thinking hat to be the dominant one. Remember the article on the six thinking hats?
To change your behaviour, you need to monitor your actions. Keep a record of your actions which led to good results and use reinforcers (self-praise, or doing something you like) as a means to reward this behaviour. Self-administer punishers (disliked activity) when you failed to achieve your goal because of inappropriate actions.
“Failure is a stepping stone to success!” This is a well known saying, which means that by reflecting on one’s behaviour and acquiring the motivation to change such behaviour, you can be successful.
Now that you have done your reflection, it’s time to take action. Put some effort into managing your learning process during the coming year. You could use our Learning Management Programme to help you make the coming year the best one ever. Even one improvement in any of the areas could give you dramatic results.
We have had people say things like, “I’ve only implemented your time management tips and already I am achieving so much more”, or “Your motivation and goal setting methods have really allowed me to stay focused and achieve what I want to”, “Your study methods have really tapped into both my logical and creative side, which I never thought was possible.”
ACT NOW! And start producing remarkable results!
The Ed Hughes story
To end off, I would like to tell you about the Edward Hughes story as related by Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, in his book “Use Your Head”.
Edward was an average student until his father introduced him to “Use Your Head” and Mind Maps.
He was so inspired that he announced that he was going to get A’s in all his subjects and that he wanted his name put forward for Cambridge University. He also wanted to do this within a year!
The reactions of his teachers ranged from ‘…You can’t be serious!’ to ‘Don’t be daft!…’ They believed it would be a waste of the school’s money to put his name forward for Cambridge, as they don’t even get many passes from their best candidates.
After Edward’s persistence though, they put his name forward, but he had to pay his own entrance fee.
Tony Buzan goes on to mention that Edward’s response to anyone that questioned his goals was simply: “I will get an A.”
The school even apologised to Cambridge for putting his name forward and stated that they didn’t really think this student would get the place that he applied for.
Edward went ahead an put a plan in place based on ‘Use Your Head’. In a later version of ‘Use Your Head’, Edward is quoted:
“…I was getting nearer the exams. I summarised my last two years of school notes neatly in Mind Maps. I then coloured them, highlighted them and produced giant Master Mind Maps for each of the courses, and in some instances for each major section of each course. In this way I could see where and how the more detailed elements fitted together, and in addition get a good overview, thus enabling me to just ‘flick through’ giant sections of the course with completely accurate recall…“
He goes on to say how he could review easier by practising the recall of his Mind Maps until he could reproduce them accurately. He also studied good essay form and style and practised essay and exam writing.
He accompanied this by getting fitter, which made him better physically. This helped him to improve his concentration and mental well being.
The Results?
| Subject | Mark | Rank |
| Geography | A | Top Student |
| Geography Scholarship | Distinction | Top Student |
| Mediaeval History | A | Top Student |
| Business Studies | A and 2 Distinctions | Top Student Ever |
Within a day of the publication of the results, Edward’s first choice at Cambridge had been confirmed!
What will 2010 hold for you?
If an average student like Edward Hughes can reflect on his habits and put a plan in place to get top results, so can you. The decision to change your life starts now. Edward’s success did not end with these results. It was only the beginning. He went on to be one of the top students Cambridge ever had.
He secured a position as a strategic thinker in a multi-national entrepreneurial company after graduating from Cambridge.
A simple decision to change his ways and a programme to help him get there was all he needed.
Now go on! Make that change and make 2010 the year that changed your life forever…
Improve writing in 5 min.
Writing can be Easy, Effortless and Fun.
Mind Maps can be used to improve your writing at school, college, university and even at work.
I will cover creative writing in this article. I will cover business writing in another article.
Often the hardest part of writing is knowing what you want to write about. Finding your theme and how to begin can be the biggest stumbling block in the whole process.
Often an essay has to be written under severe time pressure. The worst kind of pressure is writing an essay under exam conditions.
Well, despair not! By using Mind Maps you can plan your whole essay in about Five Minutes. ‘Impossible!’ I hear you scream. ‘Trickery!’ and some ‘*!@%#$’ superlatives also come to mind.
If you have never created a Mind Map before, I suggest you read some of the other articles on this website, or do our Free, no obligation Mind Map course. Enrol Now and awaken your creative genius.
Pick a Topic
I suggest you pick a topic – any topic. Choose one now. If you cannot think of one, look around you. Choose any object that you can see.
I’ve chosen an onion.
Now draw a picture of your object in the centre of the page. Draw a few branches radiating out from this picture and write down Key Words of whatever you can think of about this object. Don’t worry about whether it makes sense at all. Just jot them down as fast as you can. Don’t spend more than two minutes on this.
When you Mind Map and allow your ideas and thoughts to flow freely, you’ll come to an ‘Aha’ moment where you suddenly know what you want to write.
Take out another page, or create a new Mind Map if you are using Mind Map Software.
Categorise your thoughts into clusters. This will differ for each subject. In the ‘onion’ example, you could have listed colour, shape, smell, uses, structure, biology…etc.
Under each of these categories, put down all the thoughts of your previous Mind Map into these categories. Add new thoughts as you go along.
Within Five Minutes you can have the whole structure of your essay mapped out.
I suggest you start with some tangible objects. I use my car as an example in our Free interactive Mind Map course, which can be found on classes.mindmaptutor.com. See the example below.
This process can also be much easier if you use Mind Map software. I suggest using XMind or FreeMind. Both are good Free Mind Map tools.
Using a Word Processor
If you are using a word processor like Microsoft Word, you could use this Mind Map to your advantage. If you put Microsoft Word into outline mode, you can type the structure of your essay from your Mind Map quite effortlessly. The branches and sub branches naturally define your different levels in Microsoft Word’s outline structure.
Now all is left is to type in the details describing and explaining the topics.
I hope this helps you to write effortlessly starts to put some fun into the writing process.
Example
Here is an example of a Mind Map of my car to give you an idea of how your Mind Map could look. This template is freely available in an interactive format, which can be used and adapted as you see fit using Free Mind Map Software, if you enroll for our Free Course.
How to increase your net worth wth a small (even free) investment
Increase your value by investing in yourself.
We are just coming out of an economic recession, where many investments, including safe investments like people’s homes have shown negative growth.
This article is based on an article that I wrote about a year ago. The article was about increasing your net worth without needing lots of cash.
I am glad to say that my investment would’ve had a positive growth in any economy, even during this economic recession. While I did not offer immediate riches, I did promise that you would increase your net worth, no matter what your current situation is, without needing lots of cash.
I asked you to imagine changing only one thing in your life and receiving almost immediate rewards and then went about showing you the one thing that you could change to receive these rewards.
Despite my guarantee of an increased net worth without investing lots of cash, I am sure that very few people that read the article made the investment. It’s not too late. You can still invest with guaranteed returns!
Why do so few people do this investment?
Ask yourself the question, “How much have I invested in myself the past year?” Compare this to the amount invested in entertainment.
Pareto, an Italian economist, described a phenomenon based on the land ownership in Italy where 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population. This later became known as the Pareto Principle. 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people, 80% of your income will come from 20% of your customers, 80% of the wealth is owned by 20% of the people.
80% of the knowledge is held by 20% of the people.
The same goes for this investment, 20% of the people will try to improve themselves. The other 80% will be exactly where they are a year later.
How will this give you a competitive advantage?
Look around you. Look at yourself. How do you rate yourself against the people you work with. How does your knowledge and your expertise compare.
How many “excellents” do you see. I am afraid to say that most people will just be mediocre. Are you one of the “excellents”, or are you one of the “mediocres”?
Are you in the top 80%?
If you are not, then this article can be most important article you’ve ever read!
Your ability to learn faster than your competitors may be your only sustainable competitive advantage – Arie de Geus.
Choose an area you would like to improve in and put a programme in place to manage your learning and make 2010 the year that you turned your life around!
Let’s look at the programme in action
In 1985, at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle and a product of apartheid education, I entered the workplace, working at the Post Office in one of the units that allowed ‘non-white’ entry.
Today I am the Business Intelligence Manager at a leading fashion retailer in South Africa with solid International and cross-industry work experience behind me.
What is it that made me progress from a poor, non-white Post Office worker to a well paid Senior Manager doing a job that I love?
- It wasn’t favouritism
- It wasn’t political affiliations
- It wasn’t salesmanship
- It wasn’t bribery
It was simply increasing my knowledge in my field of choice!
Our high school principle, Mr Ritchie, gave us one important message: ‘They can discriminate against your colour, your race and many other things, but don’t let them discriminate against your results or your knowledge.’
While I did not realise the value of the message at the time, it later became the core of my modus operandi.
Today I am sharing this message with you, on my own website, designed and hosted by me. Living in a so-called ‘Third World Country’ or ‘Emerging market’, I am able to reach an international audience, writing about topics I love, Mind Mapping and Lifelong Learning.
I don’t view myself as being more intelligent than the next person. In fact, my results at school were pretty average. Yet, my achievements were all based on the ability to acquire knowledge quickly and easily.
With this growth came various promotions and financial reward. I was able to work entirely as a knowledge worker in a foreign country, The Netherlands, where Dutch is not my mother tongue, as part of their highly skilled migrant programme.
I was able to learn the Dutch Language and obtain a Dutch as second language diploma within a year by attending ‘night classes’. I was able to come back to South Africa and work as a contractor, being paid based entirely for my knowledge. I was able to learn enough web design to do this website and a few others. I was able to do a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management and work as a Senior Manager today.
All this, because I discovered that the secret to success is gaining knowledge in your field. So to get ahead, simply increase the knowledge that you have of what you are doing right now!
Applying the programme
Let’s use a simple example to illustrate the point. Assume you are a waiter (or perhaps you are one) and you are not highly educated. What will make you a better waiter than your colleague? I can immediately think of a few things:
- Courtesy
- Friendly Greeting
- Knowledge of the menu
- What accompanies various dishes, etc.
- Memorising orders
- Etc.
I’m sure you can think of a few things yourself, even if you are not a waiter.
Now by simply increasing your knowledge of some of the above aspects, you can easily become the best waiter at your current workplace. You could even do a bit of research on the Internet, like I did, and come across the following site (http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Waiter) on how to be a waiter. You would then be in with a good chance to get a better waitering job, or even be promoted to being in charge of other waiters.
You could take it further, if you realise you are in the hospitality industry and grow your knowledge further…
As you can see, the above scenario illustrates a simple, but effective strategy to get ahead by simply increasing your knowledge.
Short-cutting the process
What am I selling?
To cut to the chase, I am simply saying that because knowledge is the key to your success, doesn’t it make sense for you to learn how to gain knowledge in the quickest possible way?
By learning how to learn you ensure that you have the shortest possible path to increasing your knowledge and therefore increasing your value and your net worth.
With this principle in mind, my wife Jasmine and I decided to put our efforts into learning how to learn. She is currently an Education Specialist in the South African Parliament after being in the same high school class as I and coming from an even more deprived background than mine.
The important point to note is that just focusing on learning was not enough!
We had to learn how to learn. And if we could learn effectively, we could learn faster than the next person, have more knowledge than them about our chosen subject and therefore be seen as an expert and therefore fast track our growth.
We explored all sorts of learning strategies and methods and tested them both in the classroom situation and in the workplace.
The result of all our efforts was our Learning Management Programme.
We wanted to ensure that we had a holistic approach to acquiring knowledge that allowed us to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Our methods had to be Easy to Learn, Simple to Use and Produce Fast Results.
We also wanted the programme to be used in all walks of life. Whether you are a high school student, or a doctor doing Post Graduate studies, you will be able to gain by following the programme. The programme is a holistic one that allows you to manage your learning, so that you are in control and therefore ensuring that you are on the path to success.
The framework
I am giving you the framework for no cost at all. Everything that you need to increase your net worth is right here!
But if you want to fast track the process, enroll for our Learning Management Programme.
Our Learning Management Programme started with Studying and Learning Methods. This is still at the heart of the programme, we’ve just added the body!
The Programme covers the following topics:
- Module 1: Motivation to learn – Covers why motivation is poor in so many cases. It then goes on to give step by step instructions to get you motivated to do your best.
- Module 2: Time Management – Teaches you how to get through the volume of work in the time you have available.
- Module 3: Learning Methods - Firstly gets you to evaluate your current methods and then introduces you to a method that can be applied immediately.
- Module 4: The Reading module - Shows you how to read effectively thus increasing your reading speed, comprehension and recall.
- Module 5: Effective Note Taking – Shows you methods that reduce the monotony and boredom of traditional note taking. It shows you how you can get better results with less effort!
- Module 6: Perfect Memory – Is achievable once you know how the brain works and how you remember. You will be given methods to increase both short term and long term memory.
- Module 7: Exam Technique - Prepares you for exam writing.
- Module 8: Sound Mind, Sound Body – Shows you the importance of keeping healthy – mentally, physically and spiritually. It also gives you principles that can be applied no matter what your beliefs are.
So, if you are ready to embark on this journey, enroll now for our programme to fast track your efforts. This is the small investment spoken of in the heading of this article.
Or just simply put a plan in place to focus on your area of expertise and become better at it. This is the ‘free’ investment.
Whatever you choose, good luck in your efforts!
Even with this offer, 80% of my students will come from 20% of my readers!
Technorati Tags: mind maps, mind mapping, learning management
Creating a Master Mind Map
I’ve been constantly trying to convey to you that your ability to learn faster is a great competitive advantage. For this reason, our Learning Management Programme was developed.
I’ve also written about a simple philosophy for success – find a passion and become good at it. This article was written nearly a year ago, as part of my motivational material for 2009. Have a look at it. If you had applied those principles, where would you have been now? It’s not too late. Start now!
These two skills will give you an advantage by making you the best you can be in your chosen profession. To complement this strategy, a Master Mind Map can be used to document your growth and serve as a roadmap of the knowledge base that you are creating on your subject.
Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, recommends creating a single, Mega Mind Map that covers your whole body of knowledge. I’ve tried this and it simply doesn’t work for me. I found that my page simply ends up being too small. I ended up looking for bigger and bigger pages for my Mega Mind Map; to a point that the mere size of it became unmanageable.
The Master Summary Map
I then started to experiment with a Master Summary Mind Map of the Main themes and individual Mind Maps for each of the themes. If you do this, you will end up with one Master Mind Map containing the main themes and each theme at the centre of a new Mind Map. Each theme of those Mind Maps could then become the centre of another Mind Map. This could probably go on forever.
The MindMapTutors we’ve been creating are based on this principle.
Try it
Before going further, take a few minutes of your time and try it. If you are not sure how to make a Mind Map, look at the articles and examples on MindMapTutor.com.
- Take a topic and create a Mind Map of that topic.
- Only put five to seven key concepts on the Mind Map.
- Now create five to seven new Mind Maps, one for each of the topics on that Mind Map.
- Draw five to seven branches on each of those topics and put one idea on each of them.
- You should end up with a set of six to eight Mind Maps on your chosen topic.
- Each Mind Map should be relatively simple compared to one big Mega Mind Map.
Now don’t get me wrong, many people use the Mega Mind Map to great success, as they find having everything on one page to be hugely advantageous. I just find it too complex and therefore started to created a set of related Mind Maps that are simpler to digest and memorise.
If you fill in details for each of those Mind Maps, you will already be miles ahead of most people and have the first framework for building a clear roadmap of your subject.
Organic Growth
You will soon find that your Mind Map starts touching on other subject areas. Many people feel that their knowledge is becoming too scattered at this point and may even feel that their knowledge structure is disintegrating. What is really happening is that your knowledge is becoming so deep and extensive that it is beginning to relate to other areas of knowledge.
Mind Maps enable you to take new knowledge and integrate this into your existing knowledge. The relationships between things become clearer and you develop more insights and even greater meaning leading up to that Eureka moment!
When developing our Learning Management Programme we found exactly this happening. We originally wanted to help people to learn faster and easier with Mind Maps. We looked at various study methods and tested them. We took the Mind Map Organic Study Technique (MMOST) of Tony Buzan and the SQ3R method generally proposed by many learning institutions and combined the two to for a ‘new’ method.
We then found that having a good study method is only a part of the solution. Without motivation and goals you don’t have a purpose. So we developed the Motivation Module. You can be motivated and have your goals set, but if you don’t sit down and do it, it’s useless. Out of this, the Time Management Module was born. We eventually ended up with eight modules.
You will find the same thing, if you embark on a lifelong study of your chosen profession or topic.
Both Jasmine and I have used this method of Mind Mapping in Post Graduate Studies and in the workplace to great effect, but managing the Mind Maps became a problem.
Paper Mind Maps are difficult to manage and sometimes difficult to add to or change.
Mind Map Software
Once we discovered Mind Map software though, everything changed! Mind Map software allows you to change and rearrange your Mind Maps as often as you want. Most of them also allow you to create hyperlinks to other Mind Maps. You can therefore use the method I am proposing to great effect. You can always ensure that your Main Mind Map is clear and uncluttered, but you can also add as much detail as you want in the other Mind Maps.
If you wanted to print them, you could do so at any time. You could also print a single Mind Map as you need it. As each Mind Map is a complete Mind Map, you could simply print the ones that you want to focus on at a point in time.
I’ve given my opinions on some of the software that I use in other articles on this site. As I am not affiliated to any of the commercial software, I won’t propose any of them, but I recommend that you give Xmind, an opensource product, a try. Once you have some experience with the free software, you could either upgrade to the premium version or try some of the commercial ones. Nearly all of them let you ‘try before you buy’.
Reviewing your Mind Map Notes
By reviewing your Mind Maps regularly, you will find that you can not only recall the details on each of them, but also recall related information that is not on the Mind Maps. The Mind Maps will trigger the recall of other topics, as the brain works by association.
A good way to review your Mind Maps, is to do a quick-fire five minute Mind Map burst of the topic before you review it the next time. You will soon be surprised how much you remember without any assistance.
You will then be well on your way to awakening the genius in you. And I would have done my job!
Benefits of the Master Mind Map method
- Build up a consolidated, integrated picture of your subject
- Use less space – hundreds, even thousands of pages can be summarised on a handful of Mind Maps
- Use centrally focused structure for each of your themes to integrate your knowledge
- Increase your brain’s hunger for knowledge
- Relate and integrate existing knowledge with new knowledge
- Quickly and efficiently review your knowledge
- Enhance your memory and understanding of books, lectures & presentations
- Excel in any course of study
Whose balls are you juggling?
Are you juggling your own balls, someone else’s balls, or simply too many balls?
This article can’t answer this question for you. It is just intended for you to rethink about the balls that you are juggling, so that you can really focus on what you really want to achieve in life.
It can also prompt you to look at your load at work, if you feel swamped and cannot get through your daily ‘To Do List’.
Once you have decided what YOU want to focus on, this article holds the secret to getting it done and reaching your goals, whether it be to increase your knowledge in your existing field, take an extra course, finish that degree, or start a part time business.
Before we go on to how you can achieve what you set out to do, please review your ‘To Do List’, if you have one.
The most common way of managing tasks and things to do, is the standard ‘To Do List’. I have already covered pitfalls of the standard ‘To Do List’ in my Article, Mind Maps for whole brain ‘To Do Lists’ on MindMapTutor.com. I’ve also shown you the Mind Map way of managing tasks in that article. This will ensure that you are juggling the correct balls.
Once you are happy that you know what you want to achieve, you need to focus on getting it done.
For example, you may be reading this article because you are interested in using Mind Maps to improve yourself or be more successful, or make more money. I have lots of Free Articles on MindMaptutor.com, which show you how to do this and the number of people visiting my site each month is in the thousands. Many people read the articles, comment on them and even say, ‘That was a great article!’ Yet, a few months down the line, they’ve implemented none of the advice that they thought was so great at the time.
So, what is the secret to getting the right things done?
To answer this, I will use myself as an example. I made a commitment in December 2008 to post one article a week on MindMapTutor.com and deliver it to people automatically via email. I wanted to be part of the Mind Mapping community and establish credibility in the market place. I am proud to say that I have not missed a single week since that commitment. In fact, you can subscribe to my weekly posts right now and get them in your email Inbox every week by subscribing on MindMapTutor.com.
How do I manage to do this?
I am an extremely busy person. I hold a demanding, full day job, which requires constant learning. I am a father and a husband. I’m involved with quite a few different websites. I exercise regularly. I follow the latest Internet developments and last, but not least, I write my weekly article for MindMapTutor.com.
While every article, including this one, is based on my personal experiences, it still has to be reasearched, collated, written and edited. I do all of this myself.
Is there a Magic formula to getting things done?
Yes there is!
For two years now, I’ve been following a guy called Ed Dale. He provides a free Internet Marketing course called the ‘Thirty Day Challenge’ in August every year. If you are thinking of starting an online business then definitely think about doing the Thirty Day Challenge before you start. I tried it last year – and failed! I did not manage to do the whole challenge, even though I thought it was a great course. What made matters worse, is the fact that even though it did not cost me a cent, I still did not complete it.
The problem was getting the discipline to sit down every day, for a fixed time, and work through the material. Not five hours once a week, but one hour five days a week.
This year, I committed myself to doing the whole Thirty Day Challenge and did every lesson, every day. This was one of the hardest things to do. There were demands at work, T.V., Manchester United playing and so many other distractions, but I am proud to say that I completed the whole Thirty Day Challenge.
Implementing the learnings from the Thirty Day Challenge is another matter altogether! That’s my next commitment.
Ed Dale also posted a Tweet recently, which I feel sums up this secret to success. He stated:
‘An hour of content creation 5 Days a Week as a habit is the difference between speaking at a conference, or paying for it.’
This can be applied to anything in life that you would like to achieve.
It is the difference between me writing this article and you reading it.
Stephen King, one of the greatest horror writers, is known for his great work ethic. When interviewed by the New York Times about how he managed to turn out six novels in six years, this is what he had to say:
“I’m not a fast writer, but I stick to it. I write 1,500 words a day, and the stuff just piles up. It’s a constant secretion. I have the feeling that if I stop, I won’t be able to do it again.”
That’s his secret! He writes 1,500 words a day – every day. It does not matter if it’s good or bad, but he sticks to it and eventually reaps the rewards.
At the moment, I turn out one article a week, but at least it’s every week.
What do you do next?
You need to focus on what you want to do. Make sure you are juggling the balls that YOU want to juggle. Put your plan down in writing using the Mind Map techniques on MindMapTutor.com, commit to the amount of time you want to spend on it. AND DO IT!
It does not matter whether you commit to an hour a day, or an hour a week. Just keep on doing it and the ‘stuff just piles up’, as Stephen King says.
Mind Maps are an expression of Radiant Thinking
In my article on the Six Thinking Hats, I used the term Radiant Thinking. Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, calls Radiant Thinking ‘The Major Evolution in Human Thought’ in The Mind Map Book.
He describes the brain as a Radiant Thinking Association Machine with five major functions:
- Receiving
- Holding
- Analysing
- Outputting
- Controlling
These five functions support and reinforce each other. The first three are expressed by the fourth, while the fifth function keeps everything together.
How well does your thinking methods support the above functions?
Tony Buzan goes on to say that the inherent weaknesses of traditional note making and note taking systems leave our brains in quandary. He also differentiates between note making and note taking. Note making is making notes of your own ideas and note taking is making notes of other people’s ideas. I will use the terms interchangeably, as the principles I would like you to apply are the same for both note making and note taking. Also, the best notes should be a combination of your thoughts and other people’s thoughts.
By analysing the ineffectiveness of traditional linear notes, we can appreciate the need to use a system that works with our brains rather than against them.
Let’s do a short exercise. Review your own notes that you’ve made for any of the following purposes:
- Memory
- Communication
- Innovation and Creativity
- Planning
- Analysis
- Decision Making
- Time Management
- Problem Solving
- Any other reasons.
Are they on lined paper, in a single coloured pen?
If your answer is ‘Yes’, then your notes probably have the following symptoms:
- No Visual Rhythm
- No Patterns
- Lack of Colour
- Little Imagination
- Minimal Visualisation
- One dimensional
- Absence of spatial awareness
- No Gestalt or big picture
- Little association between ideas
It is therefore not surprising that the following comes to mind when looking at linear notes:
- Boring
- Punishment
- Headaches
- Finger Cramps
- Homework
- Exams
- Time Wasting
- Failure
- Rigidity
- Depression
- Fear
- Study
- Etc.
It should not be surprising that normal, linear monotone notes are simply monotonous. After all ‘monotone‘ is the root of monotonous!
What does the brain do when things become monotonous and boring? It tunes out, turns of and goes to sleep.
We therefore end up with a global ‘sleeping sickness’ in response to learning.
Tony Buzan is very critical of this. In fact, this is what he writes in ‘The Mind Map Book’:
‘…We need only look at libraries in schools, universities, towns and cities around the world. What are half the people doing in those libraries? Sleeping! Our places of learning are becoming giant public bedrooms!…’
Our brains are in quandary. We have a dilemma on our hands.
Linear notes are largely responsible for this dilemma
Linear notes have four major disadvantages:
- They obscure the Key Words
- They make it difficult to remember
- They waste time
- They fail to stimulate the brain creatively
The main reason that linear notes have this disadvantage is that it does not allow our ‘left brain’ and our ‘right brain’ to interact with each other in a way that stimulates learning and engages our whole brain. Our note taking system actually encourages us to reject and forget.
Radiant Thinking
As I stated above, Tony Buzan calls this ‘The Major Evolution in Human Thought’.
Think about what happens in the brain when you experience any of the following:
- The smell of a ripe fruit
- The smell of fresh flowers
- Listening to music
- Watching a stream, river, or the ocean’s waves
- Touching a loved one
- Daydream
Is your answer both simple and yet extremely complex?
Each piece of information in your brain can be seen as the centre around which an unlimited number of other thoughts and ideas can radiate.
I covered the brain’s amazing powers in my article, ‘The Mind’s Unknown Potential’ on MindMapTutor.com.
Each thought, or idea, can be seen as a hook to which more things can be attached. This array of hooks acts as your memory bank, your database, your library.
The stronger the associations between these hooks are enforced, the easier it will be to tap into any of them at any time.
This Map of thoughts can be seen as a gigantic, Branching Association Machine, which strangely enough looks remarkably similar to the neurons, which make up the brain.
The more you learn to gather information in the way that the brain works. i.e. in an integrated, radiating, organised manner, the easier it is to learn more.
Radiant thinking therefore refers to associative thought processes that proceed from, or connect to a central point.
Mind Maps are an expression of Radiant Thinking
The third function of the brain stated above, is ‘outputting‘. If you think of a Mind Map, you will see the following:
- A Central Image or Theme
- Main Themes radiating out from the central theme
- Sub Themes radiating out from the main themes
- Branches as a subcentres of association
- Branches forming a connected nodal structure
The Mind Map is therefore an external representation of Radiant Thinking.
Even though it is drawn on a two dimensional surface, a Mind Map is a multidimensional representation of your thoughts, encompassing space, time and colour.
By using Mind Maps, you will naturally begin to not only use the amazing storage capacity of the brain, but also increase its storage efficiency. By increasing its storing efficiency, you will increase its storage capacity, as storing information efficiently multiplies your storage capacity.
The Way Forward
If you haven’t used Mind Maps before, you can do our Free Introductory course, which uses tangible objects to illustrate the principles. We feel this is necessary before you go on to more abstract thinking.
MindMapTutor.com also has many examples of Mind Maps which conform largely to the Principles of Tony Buzan. Look at these examples and start applying them in your daily life.
The Mind Maps on this site were created with iMindMap, but there are many other software packages, including free ones, that can take your Mind Mapping to another level.
Perhaps, my experiences with Mind Map software can be the topic of another article…
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