Mind maps can help you sort out the problems and challenges at work, in the classroom, and in your personal life. The advantage of mind maps is that your mind finds it easy to remember and review the points, and make associations that you may not have thought of otherwise.
Popularized by Tony Buzan, an author and educational consultant, mind maps show the way facts relate to one another, and make associations that aren’t visible in a list format. And if you think of something to add in, it’s easy to attach it in the appropriate place and allow you to consolidate all the information on one page. This is especially useful in the classroom setting, when you are receiving a lot of information during the instructor’s lecture.
First write the title of the subject you are exploring in the centre of the page, and draw a circle around it. Draw lines out from the circle and add important related headings, then add further lines from each of these headings to reflect facts pertinent to these particular areas. Use single strong words or very short phrases. Using a variety of coloured highlighters might help you to keep different ideas separate and appeal to you visually. And it’s okay to use a symbol or image if it explains better than a word.
Soon it will look like branches and twigs emanating from the trunk – the circle in the centre – of a tree. You can easily do this on paper with pencil or pen, but there are also various software packages that do the job nicely too, and will even allow you to consider using it for a work presentation.
So we’ve seen how mind maps help sort and organize information in a work or school setting, but can they also help organize your personal life? A common thread amongst all the world’s successful leaders, revolutionaries, and thinkers is their creativity, suggesting that there is a close correlation between creativity and success. Mind maps help us use our creativity to devise solutions to problems in our lives. We can throw out all the so-called logical ways that we have been conditioned all our lives to accept, and create new ideas that work specifically for us. You dredge up so many possible associations that you will have many choices to consider, greatly increasing our potential possibilities. Even non-creative people have been able to use mind maps successfully because their use increases our creativity.
You can use mind maps for everything, from big questions like your life’s goals, to improving your health, to getting through a busy day ahead of you. Fill your page with colour and images, letting your mind wander, and write freely. Don’t analyze what you are writing, just write. These thoughts that have been cluttering your mind will soon be exposed on paper where you can see them, adding amazing clarity of thought and suggesting simple solutions.
Start today to build the use of mind maps into your life. Make one for all the birthdays and anniversaries you need to remember, using one page per month, or one page for the whole year, whatever works for you. Make another for your monthly expenses, complete with budgeted amounts. How about one for planning your wardrobe? Organizing the details of your wedding? Menu planning is another great application for mind mapping, perhaps one page for your favourite beef recipes, another for chicken, or thinking through the next week’s meals at a glance. Planning your daily schedule? You might be surprised to find areas that you can eliminate or delegate that you are now doing yourself, perhaps not using your time to your best advantage. As the ideas spill out onto the page, prioritize them, making sure you are making time for yourself, or pleasing yourself, a number one essential activity.
Once you start to use mind maps, you will begin to think more creatively, and experience valuable self-analysis. You will find an increased personal growth, organization, and peace of mind and you will greatly streamline your thinking process with clarity and purpose. Start today using this valuable tool for personal growth and satisfaction.
