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Uses of Mind Maps
Notes. Whenever information is being taken in, mind maps help organize it
into a form that is easily assimilated by the brain and easily remembered. They
can be used for noting anything -- books, lectures, meetings, interviews, phone
conversations.
Recall. Whenever information is being retrieved from memory, mind maps
allow ideas to be quickly noted as they occur, in an organized manner. There's
no need to form sentences and write them out in full. They serve as quick and
efficient means of review and so keep recall at a high level.
Creativity. Whenever you want to encourage creativity, mind maps liberate
the mind from linear thinking, allowing new ideas to flow more rapidly. Think of
every item in a mind map as the center of another mind map.
Problem solving. Whenever you are confronted by a problem -- professional
or personal -- mind maps help you see all the issues and how they relate to each
other. They also help others quickly get an overview of how you see different
aspects of the situation, and their relative importance.
Planning. Whenever you are planning something, mind maps help you get all
the relevant information down in one place and organize it easily. They can be
used for planning any piece of writing from a letter to a screenplay to a book (I
use a master map for the whole book, and a detailed sub-map for each chapter), or
for planning a meeting, a day or a vacation.
Presentations. Whenever I speak I prepare a mind map for myself of the
topic and its flow. This not only helps me organize the ideas coherently; the
visual nature of the map means that I can read the whole thing in my head as I
talk, without ever having to look at a sheet of paper.
Mind Map Software |
Mind Maps |
Advantages of Mind Maps |
How to MindMap
Clickable Mind Map of earlier version of this site's home page
More information and examples can be found in The Brain Book and Tony Buzan's The Mind
Map Book