Mind Maps

Mind Mapping Notes

The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan, 1993

Make notes, don’t take notes.

Note-taking is mere recording of someone else’s presentation. Passive. Its form is often nothing more than words, in a single color, with no emphasis added. The note-taker records an idea and moves to the next, paving a trail of unrelated idea bites. It’s all someone else’s stuff.

Note-making involves assessing, re-thinking, and re-structuring what’s being presented. An active process. Making connections. Use images, colors, whatever is at hand. You take ownership of the content. Word processing is not well-suited for note-making, for it is word-centric.[1]

Notes that are made, as opposed to notes that are taken, stick in our heads. For one thing, we’ve made them, thereby creating associations in our minds – amping up some neural pathways. For another, our notes become images that our brains recall better than words.[2]

Note-makers are hampered by learned helplessness – the erroneous belief that they cannot draw, are not inventive, will run out of associations, shouldn’t think beyond authority, and so forth. This is self-defeating claptrap.

Note-making saves time over linear note-taking because it:

· Notes only relevant words

· Reads back only relevant words

· Highlights keywords

· Concentrates on the real issues

· Makes associations clear

· Stimulates the brain with imagery, colors, and structure

· Encourages an attitude of discovery and continuous flow of thought

· Harmonizes with the brain’s natural desire for wholeness

It is obscene that schools and universities devote no attention to this sort of process improvement, the improvement of how one learns. I feel deceived and ripped off that my teachers wasted my time having me memorize useless facts when they could have been clueing me in to something I’d use again and again to learn. The world would be better off were we to rip up our school’s charters and give them a new mission of helping learners build associations and neural pathways. Standardized tests and grading measure the student’s ability to regurgitate rather than to learn. As the half-life of useful information decreases, our schools’ obsession with facts and memorization becomes a more and more wasteful anachronism.

Come to think of it, I can’t remember the concept of process ever coming up in school, even in such mind-twisting undergrad courses as Hegel, Nietsche, and Existentialism or The Philosophy of Mind.

Buzan provides guiding principles, rules, and even a few laws. Some are universal (positive attitude, natural light, comfortable surroundings, plenty of fresh air, best tools, and so forth.) Some rules are specific to Mind Mapping^TMand I plan to give them a try:

· Start with a single concept at center position

· Use individual words, not phrases, to provide balance and keep options open

· Let the mind range free. Don’t get trapped into methodically completing one branch after another

· Challenge yourself with questions

· For a lecture or book, sketch the outline mind map before reading the innards to bulk it up – be predisposed

· Do a map, reconstruct with basic categories

· In group, each bring completed map, discuss, make one giant map, let it incubate, reconstruct

I purchased Flair pens in six colors and an oversized sketchpad for my mind mapping exercises. I’m not so interested in taking notes as using the mind map approach for analysis, research, refining concepts, teaching, making decisions, and communicating with others. Mind Maps combine notes taken from the external environment (e.g. a lecture) with notes made from the internal environment (e.g. decision-making, analysis, and creative thought).

When I’ve used mind mapping in the past, my maps have two levels at most, perhaps a few dozen items on the page. Buzan gives an example that fills a very large page with tiny type although it appears to be a chart of chemical relationships, not a true mind map, and it contains no graphics.

Buzan buzzword translator:

· “BOI” = Basic Ordering Ideas = list of thought catalysts

· polycategoric = complex

· Radiant Thinking = associative, branching thinking – thinking in mind maps

I told my son Austin how I felt cheated by the teachers who had never taught me about mind mapping or, more importantly, how to process information in order to make it my own. I was surprised to find that Beacon High School covers note-making at the beginning of each quarter although Austin and his friends don’t take much advantage of it, preferring to take turns recording the notes for the day and consolidating them all at test time.

Applying one of my decision-memes^tm, I find that mind mapping has different applications in recording, in planning/setting expectations, and in generating alternatives. Buzan intermingles the three and suggests several iterations. If I’m putting together the pigeon-holes to capture information I am going to read, that’s substantively different than mapping out my thoughts on a particular situation. As a cheerleader for mind-mapping, Buzan weakens his case by not recognizing these differences.

Planning/ brainstorming	Capture broad variety of associations	Mind map
Summarizing book or lecture after the fact	Note intrinsic associations as well as external links	Visual summary
Getting ready for new activity or research	Set up framework with current knowledge and space for the new	Learning template (?)

On an 18” by 12” sheet of sketch paper, I’m drawing a four-color mind map.

· I added a Parking Lot for ideas that don’t want to connect to an existing branch.

· Some branches intertwine at later stages, and it would be useful to have an easy way to spot such synergies.

· I’ve downloaded a couple of trial-version mapping software programs. While drawing by hand sets thing in mind and is totally freeform, the ability to move things around – idea processing, if you will – would be extremely valuable.

MindManager seems quite flexible. It’s easy to learn. You can download a 30-day trial version for free. You can output to several different HTML formats. The jpeg imagemap looks very professional; check out the sample on the Jayhoo! web map. Visimap, the other software I downloaded for a look, appears to be an earlier version of MindManager – similar functions but clunkier look. Feels like a DOS app.

I have since purchased MindManager; it cost about $150. This is a marvellous tool. A tiny chunk of an elaborate map on adult learning:

I recommend the software but continue to recommend drawing mindmaps by hand. Today I explored ideas for a process learning kit while sitting through jury selection.

[1] When I’ve tried mind-mapping software, I’ve found it totally frustrating. No pictures allowed. Klutzy formatting. Easier to use pen and paper. Good note-making software could be a killer app. As I write this, I’m craving a way to connect it to other thoughts, e.g. mindful learning, visualization.

[2] Buzan describes experiments where test subjects look at thousands of pictures at the rate of one per second – and are able to recall an astounding 99% of them an hour later.

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