Want to be Well Prepared for Anything That You Are Doing? Do You Find Difficulty in Recalling and Remembering? Hope to Make Zero Mistakes? Mind Mapping Might Come in Handy!

 Usually, I want to be well prepared for anything that I am doing and do not accept any mistakes, even a simple comma or alignment in my work. Sometimes, my friends used to make fun of it. My personal assistant at college also said once “Just leave it, madam, no one will even notice this”! Jokes apart, see below, the points to be discussed in a faculty meeting that I have prepared in two different ways. Tell me which one looks attractive, is easy to remember and you like.

Or

           

The second one is the visual representation prepared for the concept of the meeting agenda. Do you accept that this is a better way of representing the agenda? Will it be easy for me to discuss the agenda and the faculty also will get a clear picture of what is going on in the meeting? Even if anyone missed a point discussed, they could get it from the picture, right? (There is always a chance for us to fly somewhere during the meeting/class and land after a few minutes. That landing should be smooth, isn’t it?) 

Yes, there are times that we consider very important in our lives and for those occasions, we make sure that we are well prepared. Be it a school examination,  college examination, civil services examination,  for that matter, any competitive examination, an interview we are going to attend, a meeting that we have to host, or a seminar that we are expected to present, anything irrespective of our age, experience, and purpose of situation, we all have such times that we hope to make zero mistakes. Do you agree with this?

Requirements may be different: brainstorming and exploring any idea, concept, or problem, note-taking, recalling information, communicating new ideas and thought processes in a meeting, organizing ideas and concepts in a presentation, education, summarizing, and examinations. Here, I believe the concept of ‘Mind Map’ may come in handy for any such needs. 

Here is another example that everyone can relate to. We can give a description(I have not given the description here as it runs more than 2 pages!) of health in a big paragraph that talks about diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management. The visual representation of that concept maybe something like this:

         

If we make a visual representation like this for any particular concept, it will be easy for us to remember and reproduce anywhere we need to. Now tell me which one will you appreciate. A description given in paragraph after paragraph or a visual representation like this? 

I think all of you will agree with me that this visual representation is a better choice. Such a visual representation of an idea or subject and associated components/parts using a creative and intuitive process to develop and structure thoughts in a radiant, hierarchical, and memorable way is a ‘Mind Map’. Devised by psychologist Tony Hassan in the 1970s, it improves upon earlier learning techniques such as spider diagrams, concept maps, etc. by structuring ideas to form a tree-like visual image. 

Let me tell you the benefits of a mind map. Starting from learning, in education if you are a teacher you need to plan, prepare, and deliver. If you are a student, preparing for examinations, revision, planning, for all these things you can make use of this mind map, particularly for recalling, reviewing, and summarizing.

If you need to present something in a meeting or a seminar, you can make use of a mind map very well for preparing and delivering. If it is a verbal presentation, what are the things you have to take care of? If it is a written presentation, what are the things you have to take care of? If you want to attend a meeting or host a meeting, for negotiation, taking notes, planning, decisions, discussions, or summary, for all these things you can very well make use of this mind map. 

For note-taking, this is the most useful tool. Maybe from lectures or books, media, conversation, interviews, or whatever may be the situation, you can easily make a note of whatever you are listening to. Information side you can make use, in planning, in organization, you can use this mind map. In activities, whether it is a personal activity or business activity, for creativity, time, time management, or time-saving, again Mind Map will help!.

For thinking, not only official problems but any general problem, you can define the problem well, you can identify it, and you can solve it. For decision-making also, you can make use of this mind map. 

Whatever I have discussed above is given in a single mind map below:

Knowing the uses or the benefits of mind maps, you may be interested in knowing how to do the mind map, is it not? That, I will share in my next blog!