Learning Maps and Memory Skills (Creating Success)

Overview

The thinking process is a very chaotic and confusing one. Thoughts don t follow a straight, logical path . They are the result of some million chemical processes among the brain cells each second. Thoughts follow many streams at the same time, making leaps, following a sideline and then returning to the mainstream again.

If you take notes in a traditional, linear way you have to force your thinking into a logical format that is unnatural and will hamper the production of ideas. On the other hand, if you take notes in the form of a learning map you will follow the natural thinking process and make leaps when your thoughts leap. It is also very easy to add new information on lines anywhere in the map.

Here is an example: Start by defining your subject. Then write the word or draw a symbol for it in the middle of the paper. Let s use the word ˜apple as a starting-point.

Apple

Around this starting-point you then draw lines and write one word on each. Let the information flow for five to six minutes and follow the directions of your thoughts whichever way they take. Write down as many words as possible.

Finally you will end up having a lot of words ranging around your starting-point. By not restricting or structuring the flow of thoughts you have been able to take down a lot of words that would otherwise have been censored before they reached the conscious level in your brain. Once there they can contribute to the process of finding new ideas, new ways of putting the words, combining them with other words in the map to create new images. You have now created a map of possibilities.

This is what the map may look like after four or five minutes of free association:

• Add new words to the existing branches by drawing out ˜twigs after the subheading . Write down as many words as you think you need to be able to recall the content. The point is, by choosing the right word and using a limited number of words you will be able to remember more. Each word should contain a lot of the associations and facts you need when you talk about apples. The words will open up like flower buds and give you all the information you need.

Maybe a completed learning map on ˜apple will look like this:

Let s go further and use this map of the word ˜apple . The next phase in the process is to use logical thinking in order to find a structure, to make a choice of words and find suitable connections.

• Pick one word, the word you feel is the most natural to start with, and highlight it.

• Then pick out four, five, six words, you can use as subheadings in the structure. Those words are often of a general, comprehensive nature. If you cannot find such words in the map, make some new ones up! Write them on the lines as you can see below “ one on each line. Try to limit the number of headings. Four to six should be sufficient.