Learn
Consume information
If you’ve read the improve your memory section you will understand that by combining both left and right brain skills we can improve how we remember and learn information. A Mind Map can be an excellent tool in aiding this learning process, it helps create an understanding of a subject, gives us the big picture and stimulates all of our cortical skills to help us remember.
Learning Steps
Again, you can do this on your own or in groups. Imagine you are capturing information from a book in a Mind Map. You don’t need to have read the book from back to front but you should have an idea of what it is about. Ideally do a speed reading session (more on this to come…)
- Give yourself a time-limit (30-60 minutes)
- Start the clock
- Spend some time drawing the central idea, 3 colours, engage your imagination
- Start off with some Basic Ordering Ideas BOI’s
- Next, without looking inside the book just start to put down anything you remember (this will build up a framework of your current knowledge and let you know what areas you have to focus on)
- Start capturing information which is important and you missed out
- Enjoy the process by alternating between content and format
- Once you have a Mind Map with all your key information – take a break!
- Come back to your map and start clarifying your thoughts and making the map memorable ie. colour in, draw pictures, codes, arrows and symbols
- While looking at the Map imagine you are presenting to a group of people and talk through each of the branches (you will probably want to make some changes after this)
- Now try and re-create the mind map on a blank piece of paper
- If something doesn’t stick in your head, revisit the Mind Map and make it more memorable – use images etc.
- Finally you can use memory techniques for any details like numbers etc – see the improve your memory section.
