Simple steps to do a Mind Map!

How to do a Mind Map?

Simple steps to do a Mind Map in an Effective way!

Before going into the ‘How to do?’ of Mind Mapping, let me tell you which type of papers you can make use of and also the other requirements. It is suggested to use a little bigger size of paper, A4 or A3 size and that too in the landscape orientation. Don’t use it in portrait size. Avoid checked or ruled papers or small sheets. We can make use of different colors for making this mind map. So, you might need different colours of sketch pens as per your taste! Why should we use different colors? Yes, to separate the ideas!.

Now, as we are ready with all the requirements, the next question arises! How do we have to make a mind map for a particular concept?

First, you read this write-up. This is a description of the season ‘Spring’:

Spring is one of the four seasons. During the beautiful season of spring, there will be warm sun, dormant plants start to grow again, and the trees begin to pop with buds. A variety of flowers bloom in the spring season and butterflies and bees fly around. While we enjoy the awakening of the earth, the little birds start to wake us up. This is also a season when we get an abundance of fruits and vegetables. 

Here, the concept is Spring.

Now, observe the factors that are highlighted, and draw the branches to indicate those various factors. If you look here, there are seven different factors. So you draw seven lines in different directions and write the names and pictures. You may use different colors for easy identification. If you do so, you will end up with a visual representation like this: spring in the center, flowers, honeybees, birds, etc.

Not only for meetings or studying, we can make use of this mind map for anything in our daily lives. For easy understanding of daily usage of the mind map, I am giving my plan for a week or to-do list:

Starting with an image at the center of a page representing the central concept of the mind map: “Weekly Planner”

Now draw the branches radiating outwards showing the various ideas relating to the main subject, here the seven days of a week. Then you can make use of different colors to have fun, attraction, etc. You can use single words and images.

A highly visual map will be produced like this:

Is it not better than writing the same in a diary or a planner? 

Once you have fixed the central image, see here in this mind map itself, one particular concept in one color, the other concept in a different color. So the colors separate the ideas and you can highlight similar ideas in a single color. You can use pencils, color pencils, highlighters, and sketch pens for coloring. When you are drawing this mind map, keep in mind all the branches you make as curved. Don’t make any branch a straight line because a straight line is just boring. Curved lines are more interesting to the brain. Draw the first-level branches thicker and the second-level branches thin.

And you can make use of pictures wherever it is possible. You draw pictures and you all know one picture is equal to a thousand words. And one more thing, we think in pictures. See when you are reading a story, ‘somebody is walking around a park’, your brain will not think ‘somebody was walking around a park’ as words with letters like this. It will be in pictures. Have you observed this? So we are used to visualizing things. So better if you draw pictures wherever it is possible. 

Highlighting not only the information and its sub-themes, you can make connections between the ideas. If you have a relationship between the ideas, you can even represent that here.

All mind maps are different, which is one of the key reasons why they are so effective. However, they follow an established format and principles which work in harmony with how the brain functions. Following these guidelines, you can learn how to use the mind-mapping technique to improve your creativity, take more effective notes, and boost your problem-solving skills.

Mind mapping therefore becomes a skill for life. A skill to be accessed anytime you need to learn, remember, or access your innate creativity. Mind mapping increases your understanding. It is a powerful memory technique in its own right. It is an excellent way to share information in a mentally literate way. It speeds up the process of review and revision.

It will turbocharge your learning. It enhances your ability to make notes from spoken, written, and creative inputs. As I said, there are mind mapping softwares available.

This Inspiration 9 is one software. If you google, you can see several softwares available for drawing the mind map. But, rather than the software, if you are preparing your own mind maps with pencil, pen, and paper, that will be more interesting and useful to you also. Because when you draw, you have the benefit of freedom. You are flexible to draw as you wish.

If you want to learn further about this mind mapping, you can refer to these books, ‘Modern mind mapping for smarter thinking’, ‘How to mind map, the ultimate thinking tool’, ‘The mind map book’, ‘Mind map mastery’, ‘The memory book’, etc. 

With this knowledge of mind mapping, you can improve your memory skills, the skills that you need to present yourself in any seminar, conference, or meeting. You can easily convince others by the way you are presenting your stuff.

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