Creativity is born of new ideas. To achieve stratospheric levels of creativity you have to be geared up to generate, assimilate and exploit worthwhile ideas on a consistent basis. But, first things first – how do you capture your ideas to begin with?
Catching ideas as they fly out of your mind is of crucial importance to your innovation efforts. It’s a struggle to be fully in command of your creative processes and to realise the value of your ideas if you let them escape! You can lose all sorts of inspirations by failing to note them down. Psychologist Graham Wallas says it best when he tells of a man “who had so brilliant an idea that he went into his garden to thank God for it, and found on rising from his knees that he had forgotten it, and never recalled it.” Recording your ideas is what sets off the process that takes them from being mere fancies into tangible and feasible possibilities. Ideally you need a ‘hub’ for your thoughts and ideas – a place where they can accumulate, interact and grow productively. I propose that place to be the MIND MAP.
A Mind Map is a visual diagram where thoughts, ideas or facts are laid out on branches around a central theme to form an organic, connected structure which ‘radiates’ outwards. It uses lines, key words, colour, space and images all according to simple, brain-friendly concepts. The popularity of the Mind Mapping technique has grown spectacularly in the last few decades and it’s now used by millions globally as an aid in study, organisation, problem solving and decision making.
Often people don’t use best practice when it comes to Mind Mapping or they believe that they’re Mind Mapping when, in actual fact, they’re doing something else. The term ‘Mind Map’ is regularly applied to map forms such as spider diagrams, flow charts, concept maps and bubble diagrams. These are NOT Mind Maps and work quite differently.
The Mind Map was invented and popularised by leading author and ‘brain expert’ Tony Buzan in the early 1970s. While at university, he learned that conventional linear methods of taking notes and recording ideas such as lists and outlines make inefficient use of the brain’s powers and can, in actual fact, be very wasteful to the thinking process.
Tony didn’t invent the brain – he did invent the instructions!
John Husbands, Institute of Management
Drawing on breakthrough scientific insights on the brain and the approaches of the great thinkers, scientists and artists of the past, Tony ultimately devised the Mind Map as a credible alternative to our traditional forms of note-taking. By understanding the operational principles of the brain, Tony was able to purposely formulate a tool to complement these principles, and in doing so, could offer us an incredibly practical and positive way to unleash our thinking capacity.
No matter what creative systems and strategies you use, a Mind Map allows you to readily capture and consolidate your ideas in physical form. Mind Maps can range from very simple to all-embracing, and are useful at all levels of the creative process from multiple idea generation to rigorous analysis of alternatives.
Read More 》Creating a linear list or outline forces the brain to work in a way that’s not natural for it. Adding new items and sentences to a list in a linear sequence actually funnels out your thinking, so as you get lower and lower down the list, your creativity bottoms out and you stop thinking. As a result your potential to draw out all of the ideas and information available to you is limited – not exactly ideal when you’re brainstorming! In effect, this orderly form of note taking is one of the best ways to destroy your creativity as it restricts the flow of your thoughts and dries up your creative juices very early on. That’s not to say that it’s not useful for analysing and organising your ideas as a SELECTIVE tool, but it’s absurd and illogical to try to organise your ideas before you’ve even generated them.
Mind Mapping on the other hand works ‘radiantly’ and expansively, using associations, connections and triggers to stimulate your brain to respond with more and more ideas. Topics are explored by working from the centre outwards, increasing the depth and breadth of your thoughts. Instead of long, running sentences, you’re encouraged to use one key word per branch to open up your thinking and spawn lots of new possibilities. This incites your mind to dig deeper and see greater detail on thoughts that were previously vague, something that isn’t easily done when the key word is trapped in a sentence.
For instance, the sentence ‘project deadline missed’ fuses words together in a way that limits the direction in which the thought process can travel. Switching your focus to the key word ‘project’ by itself allows you to address the subject in a wider context. The ‘deadline’ then becomes a secondary issue that can also be explored comprehensively as a key word on its own branch e.g. Was the deadline realistic in the first place? What resources were allocated to it? and so on.
A formal list or outline is dull and monotonous – it’s monochrome and imposes a restrictive linear and sequential pattern on the user. But the Mind Map encourages the full range of your mental expression by taking on board colour, space, rhythm, image and dimension as well as logic.
What’s more, the Mind Mapping process encourages you to keep thinking – it’s much easier to ‘see’ new opportunities between the branches of your map and your thinking will flow naturally to try and fill in the blank spaces. So with Mind Mapping you can think without limitation to explore an infinite number of paths, resulting in it being a GENERATIVE thinking tool.
Read More 》Your brain is made up of billions of neurons that, during the process of thinking, go firing across your brain in search of new connections. It’s effectively an association machine in which every bit of information, every idea, memory or emotion sparks hundreds and even thousands of associations which can be seen to ‘radiate’ outwards. What’s more, each of these associations also has its own unlimited array of neural connections.
Steven Johnson, best-selling author and one of the world’s most innovative popular thinkers, explains that a new idea is simply a ‘network’ of neurons that’s never before been formed. It’s what comes about when neurons explore the multitude of adjacent possible connections they can make in your mind.
To create consists of making new combinations of associative elements which are useful…the most fertile will often be those formed of elements drawn from domains which are far apart.
Henri Poincare, French mathematician and theoretical physicist
Contrary to standard thought, good ideas hardly ever occur as ‘eureka’ moments or ‘flash’ breakthroughs. In reality, they may take months or even years to culminate and evolve. And Steven Johnson’s concept of the ‘liquid network’ demonstrates that, rather than being something entirely brand new, an idea is the product of a combination of your existing knowledge or ideas, and those of other people, colliding and fusing together in a new way. It’s only when the neural connections in your brain reach a state of accessibility or ‘liquidity’ that the idea can actually materialise.
This theory echoes that of the philosopher and physician John Locke who maintained that ideas are derived from 1) sensation – observation of the external world and 2) reflection – our own mental operations and ruminations on our observations. And as Tony Proctor, author of Creative Problem Solving for Managers emphasises, ideas are not random, disconnected entities. They can be consciously related to each other through idea processing which “takes individual ideas and manipulates, synthesises and associates them with one another until they form a larger contextual pattern that we can consciously relate to some human concern.”
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask a creative person how they did something, they may feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things… A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. They don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions, without a broad perspective on the problem.
Steve Jobs, Co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc
With this understanding, it becomes possible to create an external environment that mimics the interactive way in which the brain connects ideas. By bringing together diverse thoughts and people with different backgrounds and interests, snippets of knowledge and assorted ideas can merge to create entirely new configurations. Ideas that are only part ready can connect into something larger and far more exceptional.
Mind Mapping is essentially a technique that emulates, supports and accelerates this ‘dot connecting’ process, allowing us to bring new ideas into being in the most liberating and cohesive way. In a Mind Map, information is structured and recorded in a graphic format that mirrors the expansive behaviour of the brain when it creates connections. This allows us to clearly ‘see’ how our associations can flare into novel and original ideas or solutions. The concept of association is widely believed to be at the heart of any creative act. Popularised by Arthur Koestler under the term ‘bisociation’, it suggests that linking one area to another gives rise to novel associations and that such associations form the bedrock of creative ideas. On these grounds, it clearly validates the use of many divergent thinking techniques such as Mind Mapping.
Whether we’re working on paper or on a computer, alone or in teams, our thoughts and ideas can be captured, co-ordinated and strengthened with great ease and resourcefulness in a Mind Map. Naturally, this makes it an exceptionally powerful tool for solving complex problems, broadening horizons and improving day-to-day decision making.
Read More 》You can create a Mind Map in one of two ways, 1) drawing it by hand or, 2) generating it on a computer using a bespoke software tool such as Ayoa.
While there are no ‘fixed’ rules for Mind Mapping, the following guidelines are designed to make full use of the natural expression of the human brain, utilising all the key elements discussed in this chapter. Before you begin, take a moment to focus on your core question, goal or challenge. Then, get creating!
In the centre of a blank sheet of paper create a colourful picture which represents the main subject or theme of the Mind Map. Try using at least three colours to focus the mind, attract attention and stimulate associations. For instance, if you’re creating a Mind Map for career development, you might draw a picture of your ideal vocation or workplace, or anything that represents success and advancement.
Next draw thick, organic, flowing lines branching out from the central image. These are your main branches. Allocate one for each of the main topics or ideas that relate to your theme and make sure they are each given a different colour to aid organisation. The branches can start out thick and become thinner as they radiate outwards.
Print key words onto each main branch to convey your topics potently and succinctly. For example, each main branch of your career development map might represent key career-related topics such as your skills, lifestyle, opportunities, interests, strengths, weaknesses and so on. Ideally the word or image should be the same length as the branch it sits on. Leaving ‘empty’ length at the end of a branch can disconnect the flow of the thought process.
Next, draw thinner lines off the end of the main branches. These will reflect your sub-topics and supporting information, and will flow naturally from the main topics. Continue to branch out with progressively thinner branches, adding more detail and associations as you see fit. As an example, under the ‘Skills’ main branch, you might have the following branches: Individual, Team and Practical. Under the ‘Individual’ sub-branch, you could explore further to identify the following third level branches: Technical, Motivation and Social.
Try to use images as much as you can throughout your Mind Map. Where possible, use them instead of key words on branches to add visual impact to specific topics and imprint your thoughts. If you find it difficult to draw images, use patterns or shapes in your words. Also, add symbols, colour or codes for extra meaning.
Once all your ideas are displayed in Mind Map form, it becomes easier to identify patterns and linkages between information in different parts of the map. Use relationship arrows to visually show how these different topics connect with each other. The arrows automatically guide your eye and give spatial direction to your thoughts.
Adding highlights or boundaries in the form of clouds or other outlines can make specific topics or ideas ‘stand out’ visually against the rest of its content. This makes them easier to remember and communicate to others. Our short-term memory is on average only capable of storing seven items of information and so ‘chunking’ information in this way can help us use this storage space more effectively. Simply surround a topic branch and/or its sub-branches with an enclosed shape, ideally containing a different background colour.
When you’re first learning to Mind Map, it’s a good idea to stick to these guidelines as much as possible as they provide a reliable and consistent framework for your thinking. Once you’re comfortable with the process, feel free to experiment and develop your own personal style to make your maps more meaningful. Above all, remember to have fun! Taking enjoyment from the activity has a hugely positive impact on your overall outcome.Read More 》
There’s no doubt that the advent of bespoke computer software has caused a revolution in how we Mind Map, particularly in the business world. While there are still times when a hand-drawn map is the most practical option (such as when you’re in a meeting without a computer to hand or you want to create your own unique work of art), Computer Mind Maps offer several attractive features that take them far beyond being a simple visual representation of ideas. For instance, excellent facilities in software tools bring powerful benefits for rapidly generating, reorganising, structuring and presenting ideas and information. Some of the key advantages of Computer Mind Maps are:
You can easily ‘flex’ and restructure your Mind Map, moving branches around in seconds. This gives you the ability to manipulate ideas and information with an amazing level of freedom and flexibility. You can quickly accommodate new insights and ideas and adjust your information so it’s more meaningful, without having to redo the whole Mind Map! This makes it a powerful tool for managing your projects and tracking their progress on an ongoing basis. As an added bonus, you’re not limited to the boundaries of a sheet of paper so you can go into as much detail as you need and present your ideas just how you like them.
You can enrich your Mind Map automatically with images, colours, highlights and relationship arrows using a selection of features available to you. You’re not just limited to pictures that you can draw but can take advantage of an array of clipart, 3-D animations, photos and video files that you can access through software or find on the web. You can highlight different features of a complex mind map using tools such as ‘boundaries’ for emphasis. All of these ‘extras’ will make your Mind Map more memorable and interesting and can be added almost instantly.
Although using single key words is essential to a good Mind Map, sometimes it’s helpful to write sentences of explanation for yourself or others, or to refer to more detailed information sources on your computer, an intranet or the internet. With a computer Mind Map, you can do this but keep the extra information hidden until it’s needed – your Mind Map acts like a visual front-end for your information sources. For instance, you can add notes or comments to branches to elaborate on issues discussed or agreed during employee coaching sessions or appraisals. You can also link to external files such as documents, websites or other Mind Maps to collate any relevant HR information such as job descriptions, procedures, terms and so on. All you have to do is click on your links for fast access to all your supporting information!
A computer generated Mind Map has an attractive, top quality appearance which can be used to share vital knowledge with others. Software programs offer all kinds of options for making your Mind Maps quickly available to other people, including exporting them as images or PDF files.
In the workplace, a lot of decisions are based on reports, proposals, presentations and project plans. As such, it might not go down well if you were to present your colleagues or manager with a coloured paper drawing of your plans and updates! A computer generated Mind Map gets past this problem as it can be transformed into a range of professional formats at the click of a button. For instance, you can export your Mind Maps as fully structured Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and Microsoft Project plans.
Mind Mapping software also opens up opportunities for collaboration that don’t exist with hand-drawn maps. Computer maps can be uploaded to shared workspaces allowing team members to contribute ideas and give their feedback.
Read More 》There are absolutely no limitations to how you can use Mind Maps. They can be applied to any situation that calls for idea generation, information capture, problem solving, decision making, learning or organisation – pretty much any activity where you want to think and act sharper.
Here’s just a sample of ways you can use them professionally and personally:
A Mind Map is a terrific tool for capturing information quickly and organising it in a form that’s easily digested by the brain. Use it whenever you need to note anything down – from books, lectures, during meetings, interviews (including appraisal interviews) or phone conversations:
Mind Maps really come into their own for generating new and innovative ideas in brainstorming sessions. By freeing your mind from rigid linear thinking, a Mind Map stimulates you to create an infinite number of thoughts, ideas, links and associations on any topic. The spatial layout helps you gain a better overview and makes new connections more visible, improving the outcome of your brainstorming session in terms of both quality and quantity.
![mind maps for brainstorming](/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brainstorming-1024x683.jpg")
Place your creative goal in the centre of a page and branch off ideas and thoughts all around it, and keep going until you feel you’ve covered enough ground. A good approach for more innovative thinking is to see every item in the Mind Map as the centre of a new map.
Mind Mapping can also be used as a clean way to capture ideas in group brainstorming sessions rather than having lots of flipcharts dotted around the room! People can form a ‘creative huddle’ around a Mind Map so that collaboration is enhanced and creative juices flow easily. Later on, a Mind Map of all your ideas can be viewed and distributed quickly and easily.
A Mind Map is an excellent planning tool. On one diagram you can orchestrate all the details of any type of endeavour from start to finish. Whether you’re planning a training event, working on a business strategy or plan, goal-setting, career planning or organising a holiday, use a Mind Map to lay out all the relevant details.
Map out the tasks involved, people’s responsibilities, important dates and what resources you’ll need, and use numbers or symbols to prioritise key tasks and actions. With this process, it’s easy to develop more clear-cut plans so you can accomplish your goals more smoothly and quickly. Indeed, there’s no better method to use for optimal employee performance planning and goal-setting.
If you want to speed up your learning and remember things with minimal effort, a Mind Map is the tool to use! Use it to lay out your study notes, to revise for exams, to remember facts and details like names, birthdays and lots more.
The act of creating a Mind Map will increase how much knowledge you absorb and retain. The process of manifesting your thinking in such a visual and tangible way requires a more active level of motivation and involvement. As a result, Mind Mapping promotes more meaningful learning than learning by rote or simply memorising facts and figures. Brain researcher Peter Russell states that “the more you consciously attend to something, the greater will be the depth of processing. The greater the depth of processing, the more meaningful the material becomes”.
All you need to do to review an entire topic is look at the Mind Map you’ve created. To learn the information more solidly, redraw the Mind Map from memory a few times – you’ll find it surprisingly easy. When it comes to recalling the information, you’ll be able to visualise the Mind Map in your mind’s eye.
Mind Maps can help you prepare and deliver speeches, presentations, sales demonstrations, staff training and lectures so you get your key messages across smoothly and impressively.
Whenever you’re confronted with a problem – professional or personal – it can sometimes be hard to see the best way out. A Mind Map can help you think with greater clarity to analyse thoughts and options and unveil the answers you need. Any problem solving process can be easily mapped out:
A Mind Map can help you make well thought-out, balanced decisions by helping you see all the relevant issues and analyse your choices in light of the big picture. You can work through any type of decision – will it be yes or no? option a, b or c? and so on. As you add more and more information to your map, the right decision will start to be revealed.
Mind Maps can be used to manage all aspects of meetings, from setting the agenda, to chairing and taking the minutes. A Mind Map of the agenda provides a perfect template for recording notes during the meeting and maintains the focus of all participants on the subject at hand. Whether the meeting involves idea generation, general discussion, negotiation or planning, you can summarise everything clearly within a Mind Map, including areas of agreement/disagreement and actions.
What’s more, as you’re not tied to a linear structure you have lots of freedom and flexibility when taking notes. It doesn’t matter if the discussion moves around a lot as you can still record an idea, statement or contribution in its appropriate place. The Mind Map is always organised no matter how disorganised the discussion is!
Read More 》
The success of Mind Maps all boils down to their ability to mimic the interactive way in which the brain connects information and ideas. They extract the thoughts from your head into something visible and structured, allowing you to further cultivate and build on them with great ease and resourcefulness.
Mind Mapping is contagious because it works.
Masanori Kanda, leading Japanese entrepreneur and marketer
The concept of radiant thinking describes how the brain processes and learns information. At its simplest level, the brain is essentially an association machine which links together bits of information. Every fact that enters the brain, every thought, idea or memory you have sparks hundreds and even thousands of associations which ‘radiate’ out in a multitude of directions. During the process of thinking, your brain will integrate and synthesise any extra information to what it already knows to form new ideas and concepts. These new ideas are essentially ‘networks’ of neurons coming together in new and different ways through mental association.
By forcing the brain to go in a linear direction, normal methods of recording information such as lists or outlines get in the way of this process. Your brain obviously doesn’t think in neat lines and adding new items or sentences to a list in a linear sequence actually works to diminish your thinking. Without a trigger for new associations your thinking very quickly dries out and you stop generating new thoughts and ideas. Consequently, your potential to draw out and properly organise all of the information available to you is limited. This is a real danger when you’re brainstorming, studying, project planning or trying to figure out the best way way forward!
Mind Mapping is different. It works hand in hand with the concept of radiant thinking to stimulate more expansive and expressive thought. By emulating the brain’s natural ‘networking’ processes and patterns it literally becomes an external reflection of your internal functioning – an actual ‘map’ of your thoughts and ideas!
One of the primary advantages of Mind Maps comes through using one key word per branch. Key words act as seeds from which to develop your thinking and conceptualise important points. They trigger multiple radiating possibilities and stimulate your mind to delve deeper and deeper into a subject, bringing more meaning to it. This is usually tricky when the key word is trapped in a sentence. By trying to choose a word to most appropriately convey a subject, we’re forced to think more actively than if we’re just copying or gathering information. In fact, Dr. Michael Howe’s research on note-making and note-taking in 1970 revealed that key word notes (made personally or given to students) were miles more effective in terms of the understanding and recall they engendered than complete transcript notes or sentence summary notes.
What’s more, you can’t run out of ideas. The Mind Mapping process compels you to continue thinking and prevents your mind from slacking off. Your brain hates to see pictures incomplete and so it will keep going to fill in any white spaces between the branches of your map. As an added bonus, it’s easy to do – precisely because you’re always following the non-linear train of your natural thought.
The associative process of Mind Mapping is also great for getting information into your brain, as well as out of it. This is reflected in the results of a study conducted by Farrand, Hussain and Hennessy in 2002. Mind Mapping was found to improve average learning efficiency by up to 13 per cent and the researchers reported that it encouraged “a deeper level of processing” for better memory formation.
It is a fabulous instrument, the brain.
Dr. Glenn Doman,
Founder of the ‘Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential’
Mind Maps are made even more powerful by the use of left and right-brain thinking instruments. In the late 1960s, research undertaken by Dr. Roger Sperry on the brain confirmed that the Cerebral Cortex, the ‘thinking cap’ of the brain, is divided into two major hemispheres (a right and left) which perform a range of intellectual (thinking) tasks called cortical skills. This research became the basis for the theory of brain lateralisation which has drawn a massive amount of public attention in recent years, arguing that the left and right sides of the brain exhibit different thinking patterns. These are broadly divided as follows:
As appealing as it is to take the viewpoint that the left and right brains operate as two separate entities, it’s not entirely accurate. Some hard scientists and psychologists would go as far as calling it ‘pseudoscientific’ nonsense. In reality, the left and right sides of the brain are intricately connected and doing certain activities can activate BOTH parts at once. Let’s look at an example. Through neurological scanning, Joseph Hellige, a psychologist at the University of California, discovered that language was represented on both sides of the brain, in matching areas of the cortex. Areas on the left of the brain handled core facets of speech such as grammar and word production, while aspects such as intonation and emphasis were galvanised by the right side. Hence the differences between the two halves are not so much about physical location and more to do with a subtle difference in processing styles.
Regardless of the existence of the two hemispheres, the brain is fundamentally designed to work as a ‘whole’. Society tends to force us into using predominantly left brain skills such as logic and sequence and discriminates against the more creative and holistic right brain skills. For instance, conventional methods of teaching are weighted towards reading, writing, arithmetic and, in most workplaces, the procedures, tasks and computer programs we typically use promote more linear analytical processes.
However, the ultimate goal for all of us is to adopt a ‘whole brain’ approach to our life and work so we can experience the productive synergy of both sides of the brain working together. By Integrating left and right brain activities, we force our billions of brain cells to work harder and ‘co-operate’ to maximise the use of the brain. Each cortical skill enhances the performance of other areas so the brain is not only balanced out – it’s working at its optimum!
When you Mind Map, you lock into your entire range of cortical skills – word, image, number, rhythm, colour and spatial awareness – increasing the resources you bring to bear on your particular task and uniting both logic and creativity. As Mind Mapping author and lecturer Ingemar Svantesson explains – by representing logical structures using an artistic spatial image, a Mind Map essentially connects imagination with structure and pictures with logic.
When you take notes using key words and a radiant hierarchical structure, you activate your logical left brain cortical skills. Add the use of bold colours, images and space into the mix and you also light up your creative and imaginative right brain. The result is better clarity, analysis and synthesis of thought, more free-flowing ideas and improved concentration and memory.
As we’ve seen images and symbols form a vital part of Mind Maps as tools for activating the right side of the brain. Where their benefit is really felt is in the power they can add to your creativity and retention of information. Have you ever heard the phrase – ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’? Images can be far more suggestive than words and make use of a massive range of our cortical skills, especially imagination. This makes them highly potent in triggering a wide range of associations, resulting in more innovative thinking. Also, it’s been proven that our ability to remember images is far better than our memory for words – something known as the ‘picture superiority effect’.
The Mind Map, with its colourful visuals and imagery, is undoubtedly an excellent tool for creative thinking, learning and recall. Not only does it use images, it is an image in itself – remembering the shape and structure of a Mind Map can provide the cues to memorising the information within it. It’s almost like creating a visual aid right into your brain!
Mind Maps are fantastically colourful and whilst many believe that this can make them look un- businesslike, actually the opposite is true. Here are some thought-provoking findings revealed by the Xerox “Colour Knowledge” report released in 2005:
Sourced from Xerox “Colour Knowledge” report (2005)
So, using colour isn’t just about making your maps look attractive. Colour can also add extra meaning to your maps. You can use it to ‘code’ content and organise different areas and subjects. All in all it’s a sure-fire way to stimulate creativity, enhance memory and make an impact on how you communicate with others.
With the power of radiant thinking, left / right brain co-operation, colour and images behind it, the Mind Map is the ultimate thinking tool. As discovered by Joyce Wycoff, all of these elements together result in active engagement of the full range of cognitive functions and processes, bringing better performance and productivity all-round.
Read More 》A Mind Map is a visual diagram where thoughts, ideas or facts are laid out around a central theme so that you can clearly ‘see’ their flow across different levels. It makes use of lines, symbols, words, colour, space and images according to well-documented concepts about how the brain works.
A Mind Map has five essential characteristics:
Using this simple process an exponential number of related ideas can be quickly produced with hardly any mental effort!
Mind Maps have lots of advantages over linear methods of capturing notes and recording ideas (i.e. text based lists and outlines):
All this means that Mind Maps are handy for tackling just about anything – projects, meetings, studying, writing a book, planning, note-taking, problem-solving, presenting and lot’s more. Basically any task that requires you to think or manage information!
Read More 》Mind Mapping is a powerful technique for recording and presenting ideas or concepts in a visual format that the brain finds captivating and easy to process.
It was invented and popularised by world-renowned author and ‘brain expert’ Tony Buzan in the early 1970s. While at University he made the surprising discovery that conventional linear methods of taking notes do very little to enhance the thinking process, and can even be detrimental to it!
Determined to find a way to help him study better, Tony delved into all the scientific research he could find on the brain. His in depth exploration into the subject revealed that the brain works according to certain basic principles, and having developed a fascination with the subject, he swiftly set about formulating a tool to complement those principles as an effective alternative to traditional linear note-taking. The result of this ‘labour of love’ is the Mind Map – a technique which today is highly regarded for its ability to help people organise their thoughts, stimulate ideas and tap into their innate productive capacity. When you create a Mind Map you engage your brain in both logical AND creative ways, making it a successful all-round thinking tool!
It’s no coincidence that some of the greatest thinkers, scientists and artists of the past (such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein) used visual concepts similar to Mind Mapping while drafting their notes. In recent years, the popularity of Mind Mapping has risen spectacularly with the advent of computer Mind Mapping, and the number of people using it globally as an aid in study, planning, decision making, problem solving and career management continues to grow and grow. High profile fans of Mind Mapping include the likes of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and former Vice President of the United States Al Gore.
“Most of us now live in an ‘information democracy’…. But while we’ve gone a long way toward optimizing how we use information, we haven’t yet done the same for knowledge…. But as software gets smarter about how people think and work, it’s starting to help them synthesize and manage knowledge, too… new generation of ”mind-mapping“ software can also be used as a digital ”blank slate“ to help connect and synthesize ideas and data—and ultimately create new knowledge.”
Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft – Newsweek, 19th Dec 2005
Mind Mapping is truly universal and can be applied to any aspect of life where clearer thinking, better organisation, greater creativity and improved learning will enhance human performance.
Read More 》