Mind Mapping

I want to share with you a technique to help you summarise lots of
information in a really simple way.

This technique should help you in your kaizen efforts to improve your personal  performance both in and out of work.

The technique is called "Mind Mapping"

There are many excellent books on this subject but all I want to do in this article is to give you something practical that you can try right now.

We only use about 1% of our brains

When we train clients about kaizen, the idea that we only add value about 1% of the time is a strong theme.

i.e. 99% of the time is taken up with waiting, moving, reworking, travelling etc.

It's a bit scary to think that something similar is going on in our brains!

Research has shown that most of us only really use 1% of our brains capacity - what a waste!

Our brain captures every single thing that we experience in our lives.

Have you ever suddenly thought about something that happened many years ago and remember it as  "if it were yesterday" in great detail.

That is because the information was always in there, but something triggered you to recall it.

Mind mapping is a great technique to help us to stimulate our brains so that it is easier to recall information on demand.

The Mind Mapping technique

The Mind Mapping technique can be used in lots of ways but some of the most common are :-

	Remembering things.
	Summarising large amounts of data.
	Planning Activities.
	Coming up with new ideas.
	Seeing the "whole" issue.

 
Try Mind Mapping

A mind map is very like an actual city centre map.

For example, say I picked up my OS map of Glasgow.

Glasgow would if you like, be in the centre of the map. The main roads will be shown in a certain colour. The smaller roads branching from the main roads are also shown.

The map also has Graphics of points of interest.

A mind map is similar to a real map but rather than actual places it can be used for any topic or idea that you choose to work on.

This is what you do

The first thing to do is get yourself a blank piece of paper and some coloured pens or pencils

(Using colour excites our brains!)

Draw a picture/sketch of the key topic that you want to mind map in the centre of the page.(Have you heard the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words." By using pictures as well as words we stimulate our brains which helps us recall things)
 
Draw a curved coloured branch from the central topic and place a key word at the end  of it - draw a graphic that represents this idea (A main road)


From this key word/graphic add further branches and graphics
(just like the minor roads on our Glasgow OS map)

Continue to add main branches, minor branches and pictures till your mind map is complete.
You should end up with a one page summary of all the key ideas.

By just remembering this picture you should with practice be able to remember most of the detail associated with the map, as the system stimulates you to recall information more efficiently.

I personally use this technique for the following:-

It really is only limited to your imagination.

Try it..

With practice it can really help you recall things and improve the overall performance of your brain.

The more we exercise our brain the better it will become.

More information

In my opinion the best resource on this particular topic is the best selling author, Tony Buzan

If you "google" his name you'll find lots of information on "Mind Mapping"

Another great resource that people often overlook is your local Library.

If you look for books with index numbers 153.1 you should find something of interest.

Let me know how you get on.

I'd be delighted to get feedback about your experience of trying out this technique.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Graham Ross

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