We have been learning, thinking and making notes from very early on in our lives, however we never really learn how to retain this information or how to develop better ideas. These essential skills are not taught at schools.

Photo by: quartermane

Mind mapping allows us to do just that – to think creatively, assimilate information,  take effective notes and to accelerate learning. This phenomenon, popularised by world renowned pop-psychologist Tony Buzan, has been around for more than 30 years.

Mind maps are a way of graphically organising information and developing thoughts and ideas. The idea is to create a diagram that presents ideas, tasks and anything else radiating around and outwards from a central theme.

What are the benefits of mind mapping?

Mind mapping is a extremely useful and effective method of identifying and understanding key information about a given topic. Using mind maps you can construct detailed, yet concise topic diagrams.

What really sets mind maps apart from everything else is their ability to break away from linear, one dimensional thinking (lists) in to multi dimensional thinking. They make use of both sides our brain by integrating colours, shapes and imagination.

Additionally, here are a couple more advantages of using mind maps:

• Abandon lists
• Quick to review
• Effective mnemonics
• Encourages creativity
• Utilizes both sides of our brain
• Shows links between several related topics

What can you use mind maps for?

Due to their versatility and possibility of customization they can be used for any number of things. Some of their uses include:

• Planning tasks
• Problem solving
• Note taking
• Exam Revision
• Study skills
• Summarizing information
• Breaking down complex problems
• Idea generation
• Presenting complex information in a manageable format

How to create mind maps?

The examples below give you some ideas of what mind maps look like, but to create one for yourself here are the basic steps.

• Start with a blank piece of unruled paper, in landscape.
• In the centre of the page write down/draw your central theme, title or question
• Think of ideas, associations, actions and strategies relating to your central theme. Let these branch out from the centre, create a new branch for each key point. These are your level one subdivisions.
• Now, focus on each of the key points and create branches from each. Create as many subdivisions as required.
• Be open and creative, no idea is too dumb. Write everything down. Don’t worry if you’re missing information – you can keep adding more detail as you think of it.
• Think outside of the box. Make your mind maps as colourful as you want, include cartoons and pictures. Make them what you want them to be.

A finished mind map may have topics and ideas radiating in every direction. Think of mind maps as a tree, where your central theme is the tree trunk, and ideas radiate as braches, twigs and leaves.

Some examples

To show the effectiveness of mind maps, here are some examples of my mind maps and some others have done. In fact this site was planned and developed using a mind map, and I frequently use mind maps to plan posts and generate ideas.

Actually its interesting to note that a lot of my mind maps don’t conform to the guidelines set by Tony Buzan, because I’ve developed my own system that I find to be more useful for me.

Idea generations using mind maps:

This is one of my initial mind map, when I was thinking about some content for this blog. I’ve now got a electronic version which I add to every time a new idea occurs.

Developing ideas:

From the initial map I take an individual idea and draw up a mind map that becomes the outline for a post. Here are two examples:

The mind map used to write my post on creating better schedules:

Presenting complex ideas:

This is a mind map outlining central nervous system (CNS) infections, taken from the book Mind Maps in medicine by P. McDermott and D.N Clarke.

Summarizing material:

This is hand drawn by artist John Clapp summarizing 65% of the book “Vision + Art: The biology of seeing” on one sheet of paper.

This is a mind map on mind mapping, from Tony Buzan’s website.

Improving your mind maps

Here are some tips that will help you improve your mind maps:

• Use key words, and where possible images
• Use colours to show associations and make things stand out
• Use visual aids, such as icons to show links between different elements
• Use symbols and develop your own conventions
• Make important things stand out, if they stand out on paper they will stand out in your mind
• Don’t limit yourself. If you run out of space then attach more paper and continue rather than start a new map
• Write down ideas as they occur, don’t think whether they are relevant or not – this can be done later
• Think as fast as possible, if you run out of ideas then draw empty lines to encourage more
• Revisit your mind map and add more information if you need to
• Develop your own style
• Have fun with the process

Summary

When you first start using mind mapping, it may not seem as effective as more conventional methods you’ve been using for years. But with practice they will become second nature, and you will wonder how you worked without them.

Mind maps are an extremely effective and efficient method of taking notes, serving as mnemonics, and summarizing information. They not only outline the facts but also show the structure of each idea relative to the central theme i.e. the most important idea will have the most branches.

Additionally, they allow us to think more creatively and use both hemispheres of our brain. Which allows better retention of information and make associations between different topics that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Resources:

Books: The Mind Map book is an excellent starting point and resource to learn more about mind mapping.

Software: Both FreeMind (free, open source) and Mindjet MindManager (commercial) are excellent software if you wish to construct mind maps on your computer. If you want to work on the web then MindMeister is an excellent and free online mind mapping tool.

Others: Additionally you can visit Tony Buzan’s site for more information of mind mapping and other techniques or have a look at a video of Tony talking about mind mapping.

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