Mind mapping has shown to be a blessing for many people. It can be that for you as well.
There are several ways mind maps will be helping you when studying.
Make sure you follow the practical mind mapping guidelines and you will benefit as well!
Adult learners don’t have a lot of time for studying. We need a straightforward and clear process for capturing and updating our notes. This is where mind mapping comes in.
Looking at studying, we have a simple task. We transform our book into notes that we have to understand and memorize. Normally, we don’t need a mind map to be creative. When the map is nice to look at, that is a plus. The main goal is not to have a pretty-looking map. We just want to capture ideas, concepts, and information.
This article will focus on the practical benefits of using mind maps when studying.
1. Mind mapping will save you time
When done the right way, mind mapping will save you time. A mind map helps you to quickly outline your notes. It will also help you save time when you are going over your notes.
A mind map gives you not just the information. It puts everything into context. You see how information is related and how information flows and is combined. This gives you a very important additional layer that normal notes don’t offer.
The outline, combined with using fewer words will give you a clear and concise overview that saves you time when reviewing, analyzing, and memorizing your information.
2. Memorize faster by using a better visual outline
A mind map is a visual overview using words, images, color, and relationships. Compare this with the traditional way of note-taking. It starts at the top and with a single color uses lines of text to summarize your book. This is very boring and straightforward. It is not something your brain is drawn to…
You probably heard of the expression a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a mind map is a picture. It has color, perhaps even images! Because of the outline and structure of the information, it could be worth a thousand images.
Since your brain loves images, you should start using this in studying. Feed images of your notes to your brain, and you can remember the information better and faster.
3. Easy to update and expand upon
Did you have a process when reading and taking notes? Does your process allow you to quickly update your notes and still have a good overview?
Mind mapping is easy. You just need to follow a few directions and you are good to go. No need to follow a long training on how to use them.
(Learning more about mind mapping and the finer details is handy, however. This enables you to get even better at using them. You will improve your maps and by doing that you have better notes and outlines.)
With traditional notes, you add information by writing on the sideline, using stickies, or completely re-writing them. A mind map allows you to use arrows to connect to a different part of the map. Or you can simply add more information to the outside of the map. This is a very fast and easy way to update your map.
MY ADVICE: Make sure you keep your map updated. Not doing that will hurt the information overview and may even cause you to miss important relationships and insights.
Study Routine: Smart Summarizing
4. Works in line with the way you think
A mind map is an external brain. The mind map shows you the outline of information. Your brain outlines information in a mind map-like format. Information is not linear. Your thoughts can jump from topic to topic (awful when that happens during work or reading when you have to focus…)
Your mind loves images and is very good at recognizing and remembering pictures. That is why visualizing what you read when you study is so powerful. Your brain will understand things faster this way.
Your brain also isn’t very linear in the way it operates. When you start thinking about eggs, you immediately think about related words, images, and ideas. Perhaps you think of Eastern, a bunny, breakfast, chicken, toast, etc.
All these things are related to eggs. You don’t follow one idea, finish that, and return to the word egg. You start thinking about multiple angles at the same time.
A mind map allows you to quickly capture ideas AROUND the central topic. By working this way, you can capture ideas while keeping your focus on the main topic.
5. Mind maps keep everything on one sheet!
One of the major benefits of mind mapping is that you keep your information on one sheet. The benefit of this is that you can see how ALL INFORMATION is related to each other.
When you try to find something, you can often do this fast, because you can probably follow a branch in your map to locate your idea or answer.
You will be amazed at how much information you can put into a single mind map on a normal sheet of paper.
On one sheet of paper, you can fit notes from a chapter. When your knowledge grows, you probably remove information from your map (you have it in your head, right). This frees space for more information, perhaps a second chapter.
This way of working allows you to capture the summary of an entire book on one sheet of paper.
Traditional notes cover many, many pages. And to make it even worse, they only grow. The mind map stays within one sheet. A HUGE benefit!
Use these advantages of mind mapping in your own studies
Here are tips to benefit from mind mapping in your own studies.
- First of all… start mind mapping (without doing that, you will not benefit!)
- Follow a good routine to capture your notes quickly
- Be concise, keep all your notes on one chapter (or more) on one sheet
- Create a clear outline of your notes. This helps you to understand and memorize the information easier and quicker
Let me know if you have any questions so I can help you out!
