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Mind Mapping For Success

mind mapping for successWhen I first started out with mind mapping, many people told me I could use mind mapping for success in my life. Just create a mind map and you will learn how to be more successful, understand yourself better, have good understanding of what happens at work, etc. Great stuff, but does it really work that way? Let’s explore.

Let’s Get Started With Mind Mapping For Success

There are 2 areas we have a look at today in this article. The first area is success for yourself and others. The second area is location. That would be work, study and personal. When we combine these two areas we have different areas in which we can identify and use mind mapping for success more specifically.

Mind Mapping For Success At Work For You

Almost everything at work that you do can be done with mind maps. But should you? Yes for some things, no for others, maybe for most. It totally depends on what you try to do or reach.

Doing a planning in a map can be easy (because you have all the items in a single overview). Keeping an agenda based on days is not that smart because Outlook or Google Calendar does this as well.

Creating and delivering a presentation using a mind map is smart. Less noise than PowerPoint presentations and much easier to follow because you only have a single sheet.

Taking notes is amazing in mind maps. You will not get lost that fast using maps. The map builds up while you are listening to the person you are talking with. Quick tip: take notes together with the person you are talking with. Sit next to them and then start writing. Share your notes so they see immediately you understand what they are saying.

Organizing meetings is wonderful. You have a meeting invitation in a map that is shared with other people. When you start the meeting, you simply take the invitation and start going through it point by point. People recognize where they are and what will be up next. You can add thoughts and ideas and comments from people to the map and at the end… meeting finished, map done!

How will you start mind mapping for success at work knowing this?

 

Mind Mapping For Success When Studying For You

Studying is easy. It is simply taking in new information, organizing it, understanding the relationships between new and current ideas, and moving forward with that new knowledge.

What many people do however, it let themselves be overwhelmed by the books and hours they need to spend studying. A 600 page book may look overwhelming, but it is not that bad when you know that most of the information is not that radically new, and when you summarize the entire text into readable new text that is new to you, you probably end up with perhaps 50 pages or less…

For your studying, you have to create a map that answers a few basic questions:

  • what is it that I learn here
  • what do I want or have to learn
  • how does this new information connect to my current knowledge
  • how can I use this
  • if I teach others this material, how can I make it as easy as possible for them

That’s all you need to work on when going through the book. The result will be that you understand it and you can use it. A mind map can help you with all these questions. Just create separate branches for all of them and start working on a chapter that you have to study. You will see that this way it takes less time, is a lot more fun and you get better grades.

 

Mind Mapping For Success At Home For You

The way you can use a mind map at home is to outline the things you want to do, for ideas, or as an agenda for the next month (or year).  Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think you should use a map that tell you that you have a doctors appointment on the 17th, and you put out the trash on the 18th, etc.

Doing that would be silly, you have your (online) agenda for that.

There are people who will tell you that a mind map is also wonderful to create a grocery list… Yeah, because creating a simple list won’t do for you, right 🙂 ?

Don’t make it more complicated than it is. Keep it as simple as possible. A recipe is also much easier in linear format. No need to create a map because it looks to nice (unless you are creating a visual cook book for yourself).

What I am talking about is some sort of vision board where you put your dreams and goals in. Be creative if you want to. Use images to inspire yourself. Create a map that you look at at the beginning of the day. It is your Utopia, your world that you can create by working smart and hard.

So mind mapping for success is easy this way, you create a really compelling picture that gives you the strength to do amazing things in life!

 

Mind Mapping For Success At Work For Others

Think about it. You are a project manager and you have to make sure your team is motivated and people know what their responsibilities are. Sure, you can write a long manual that explains roles and responsibilities. But what happens then is that people often don’t feel motivated to read it, or they don’t read it well.

That is where a map comes in to your and their success.

You outline in a map the basics of your project. For each (key) person, you write out their involvement in the project. Remember, everything has to fit on a single sheet of paper that has to be readable when printed out on a single sheet!!! Don’t treat the map as another document for writing lots of text. Be concise!

You might want to follow a simple format for the map levels like, mission (centre), goals (level 1), tasks (level 2), people (level 3). Use colors for specific people. That way everybody knows directly what to look for in the map (besides their name). So for yourself you use purple text, for the next person green, etc.

When you created the map, you share it with the people around you. Ask them if they have any questions about it.

The result is a map that is easy to follow and won’t take much time to update an use. Make sure you update the map regularly to show you the present state of the project.

 

Mind Mapping For Success When Studying For Others

I am a trainer and (personal) coach for many years now. One of the things that I noticed really helps people is outlining for others how they can understand their study materials better (and faster). Think about it, I have a technique where people can summarize a book they never read into a mind map, within one hour! That map is the basis of their studies. So in stead of going through a book, read everything and then have a summary, you do it all backwards.

This method saves people lots of time and energy. It makes studying fun again!

Another way to have more success in studying is by outlining what you know and what you need to know in a map. You will literally fill in the blanks if you work like this. Benefit, you will see that you are not an empty sheet of paper on that topic. Also, you see the map grow with your understanding. Very motivating!

Finally, when I use a map for others in training courses, it gives them lots of clarity by not seeing dozens of PowerPoint sheets, but just one simple mind map that tells them everything. You create less overwhelm or overload of information.

 

Mind Mapping For Success At Home For Others

What happens when you use mind mapping for others at home? You can think of planning a holiday or a party for others. You can start to outline all that needs to be done and use the mind map as a to-do list.

Another way of making these events a success is by creating a simple mind map and allow others to fill in the blanks in the map. They create a mind map that you started. The aim… throwing the best party they have ever seen!

Do this by outlining the goal, what you like to do, what you need, where to get it, what people’s responsibilities are, etc. Create a map that all people feel is something they can and want to contribute on. Success guaranteed (except for the weather perhaps 🙂 ).

 

I encourage you to start mind mapping more and in different areas of your life. Let me know what you experience so we can move forward together with this.

As you can see, mind mapping for success is very easy this way, just as long as you know what works best and what you need to do to make it work.

image: winner

 

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