Mind maps are a great way to sort out your ideas and put them into a format that’s easy for others to follow. It’s really useful if you have been thinking about a problem and you have a pile of papers full of notes with no clear idea of how it all fits together.
Mind mapping allows you to see the big picture, whilst also giving the opportunity to record all the smaller details that you would have in your notes. Mind mapping can help you learn more effectively, helps you improve your information recording capabilities and shows you different ways of thinking creatively to resolve problems. Once the mind map is complete, the visual nature of it helps you remember the points you’ve covered more easily than trying to learn them from a simple list.
So, how do you use mind maps? It’s really easy. To begin with, hand-drawn maps are fine. But, as you get more used to using mind maps you might want to use computer generated ones – more on this at the end of the post. For now, all you need is a piece of paper. The size of the paper depends on the idea you are planning on using the map for. However, in general, mind mapping takes up less space than traditional notes, so an A4 piece of paper may be enough to begin with. Now, write the main idea in the centre of the page and draw a circle around it.
Now, as you come across other ideas that need to be added on, draw a line from the centre circle with the idea written along it.
As you get further and further into the idea, you’ll start to get lines coming off all the major idea lines, so it becomes like a tree.
If you need some visual help, you can see the images here:
Here are some tips for making your mind map easier to read and understand:
1 Use different colours for different ideas.
2 Use print rather than cursive or joined-up writing, it’s much easier for others to understand.
3 Keep ideas short – simple phrases or single words if you can manage it.
4 Use images, if you can find appropriate ones, instead of words.
If you use all these tools, you could end up with something that has the same kind of visual impact at this:
You can see from this format that it’s much easier to insert new ideas as you go along than it would be if you were using a list style for making your notes.
Here are some links to software that creates mind maps:
Think Buzan
The Brain
Mind Meister
Images courtesy of Mind Tools
