12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

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Twelve Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

Index
How Mind Mapping Works...............................................................................................................3 12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps with Self-Improvement.....................................................................3 Mind Mapping With NovaMind ........................................................................................................4 Getting Started ..............................................................................................................................5 Do.................................................................................................................................................5 Dont.............................................................................................................................................5 Sample Mind Maps ...........................................................................................................................6

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. (Carl Sagan)

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Mind Mapping on Mac OS X and Windows

12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

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How Mind Mapping Works

12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps with Self-Improvement

A Mind Map is a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock your brain's potential. Learning by sight accounts for 60-80% of everything our brain absorbs and images trigger our memories and associations. Through the combined use of key words, images, color and interaction a Mind Map appeals to many of the different ways that people think and learn, making new information easier to understand, less challenging and clearer thinking. An important part of your Mind Map is the use of relevant key words. When you play the game of word association, you think in singular words, not sentences. For example what comes to mind when I say Ice-cube. Your brain would respond with key words such as Freezing, Drink, Party, rather than Oh yes its really freezing stuff. I use it in drinks during summer and you always need it at parties. This is how easy it is to generate ideas for consideration and planning in your Mind Map. The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. (Robert Frost) It harnesses the full range of cortical skills word, image, number, logic, rhythm, color and spatial awareness - in a single, uniquely powerful manner. In so doing, it gives you the freedom to roam the infinite expanses of your brain. Mind Maps can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance your performance. Mind Maps are now used by millions of people around the world - from the very young to the very old - whenever they wish to use their brains more effectively. Similar to a road map, a Mind Map will: Give you an overview of a large subject/area. Enable you to plan routes/make choices and let you know where you are going and where you have been. Gather and hold large amounts of data. Encourage problem solving by seeing new creative pathways. Enable you to be extremely efficient. Be enjoyable to look at, read, muse over and remember. Attract and hold the attention of the eyes and brain.

Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think. (Ambrose Bierce)

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12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

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Twelve ways Mind Mapping helps with self improvement:

1. Learning - Reduce the 'tons of work' feeling. Feel good about study, revision and exams. Summarize a lecture; note the key points as they arise on the main branches of your Mind Map with further details recorded underneath. Have confidence in your learning abilities. 2. Concentrating - Focus on the task for better results. Using all your cortical skills attracts your attention. 3. Memorizing - Easy recall. 'See' the information in your mind's eye. Use Mind Maps as your study maps, summarizing vast quantities of information and saving time. 4. Organizing - Be on top of all the details for parties, holidays, projects, or any other subject. Try organizing your priorities using headings to represent short-term and longterm priorities then itemize your strategies for success. 5. Presenting - Speeches are clear, relaxed and alive. You can be at your best. Try printing from NovaMind as a presentation sheet or export to Keynote, PowerPoint or a HTML Java presentation. 6. Communicating - In all forms with clarity and conciseness using several learning stimuli. Pictures overcome language barriers. 7. Planning - Orchestrate all details and aspects - from beginning to end - on one piece of paper. Plan assignments, goals and your career. Record the aims, requirements, research tools and ideas. This helps break the project down into manageable chunks. 8. Meetings - From planning to agenda, to chairing, to taking the minutes. The jobs are completed with speed and efficiency. 9. Training Mind Mapping makes preparation and presentation easier and clearer as well as providing a good basis for review and testing. 10. Thinking - Having a method to analyze thoughts - almost a 'way-station' for them.
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Try brainstorming for ideas or to resolve problems. This generates new options and alternatives for consideration. 11. Negotiation - All the issues, your position and maneuverability are on one sheet. Selling your ideas will be more understandable and objectives clearer when you organize and develop your thoughts in a Mind Map. 12. Overviewing - See the whole picture, the global view, at once. Understand the links and connections. Plan your website, its pages, titles, hyperlinks and content.

Mind Mapping With NovaMind

The majority of our learning is done through visual stimulation are your Mind Maps visually colorful, attractive and imaginative? If not, it will have no appeal to your brain or other people and the data therein will be promptly forgotten. Also adding pictures, lines and text haphazardly around your page does not equate to creating a good, memorable Mind Map. With thought, you can transform your Mind Maps with relevant pictures, colors, varying lines and shapes to create something individual and appealing. There are many ways to draw lines, shapes and so many fonts. Combine this with an awareness of direction, texture, hue, saturation, value, scale, dimension, and motion, and you will quickly develop an original and engaging style.

Mind Mapping on Mac OS X and Windows

12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

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Getting Started
1. Start a new NovaMind document. 2. Select your topic, problem or subject to be Mind Mapped. 3. Gather any additional materials - research papers, text information. 4. Type in your Mind Map title. 5. Use dimension, expression and at least three colors in the central image in order to attract attention and aid memory. Do this using images, text properties, borders, shapes etc. 6. Top-level branches that radiate from the title are your BOIs (Basic Ordering Ideas), categories or chapter heading equivalents on the branches. 7. Add child branches under your BOIs to hold supporting data (most important closest to the centre) the further down the tree, the more detailed. 8. Use images wherever possible, branch shapes, attach graphics, graphic text. 9. Use colors as your own special coding to show people, topics, themes or dates and to make the Mind Map more beautiful. 10. Capture all ideas (your own or others) then edit, re-organize, make more beautiful, elaborate and clarify as a second stage of thinking. 11. Save your document and print scaled onto one page or multiple which can be aligned together to make a poster.

The lines must be connected, starting from the central image. The central lines are thicker, organic and flowing, becoming thinner as they radiate out. Make the lines the same length as the word/image. Use colors - your own code - throughout. Develop your own style of Mind Mapping. Use emphasis and show associations. Keep the Mind Map clear by using Radiant hierarchy, numerical order or outlines to embrace your branches.

Dont
Use lots of words on a single branch Be judgemental. Become side-tracked by working on the appearance of your Mind Map and less on the content.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work. (Thomas A Edison)

Do
Start in the centre with an image of the topic, using at least three colors. Use images, symbols, codes and dimension throughout. Select key words and print, using upper or lower case letters. Each word/image must be alone and sitting on its own line.

NovaMind Software Pty Ltd

Mind Mapping on Mac OS X and Windows

12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

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Sample Mind Maps

NovaMind Software Pty Ltd

Mind Mapping on Mac OS X and Windows

12 Ways Mind Mapping Helps With Self-Improvement

Page 7

NovaMind Software Pty Ltd

Mind Mapping on Mac OS X and Windows