Anyone who Mind Maps professionally will want to work on a landscape layout. However this is not easy with a standard flip chart arrangement.
I have developed an adapter which will hold a standard flip chart pad and then attach to the normal conference flip chart systems.
These adapters are made to order. If you would like further details and prices please contact me.
Mind Mapping is a skill which I believe should be taught to all school children in the UK just as it is in Belgium and other European countries.
Buzan Training are offering a new course for Children and Parents on two dates this summer term. Follow this link for more details: http://www.buzanworld.com/Creative_Learning_For_Children_and_Parents.htm
In courses that I have run recently for KS2 and KS3 children they have all shown tremendous ability to think creatively once presented with the correct tools. Mind Mapping has played a huge role in this along with the basic ideas of thinking, memory and TEFCAS.
Mind Maps are proven to be a powerful and effective tool for learning and development. Many experienced educators and researchers utilise and optimise Mind Maps in the fields of application, instruction and special need learning. However more need to release the potential not only in themselves but also in their students.
Your brain is like a sleeping giant. Many experts believe that we use as little as 1% of our full potential. You have probably spent between 1,000 and 10,000 hours formally learning economics, history, languages, literature, mathematics and political sciences etc. Yet, you will probably only have spent 0 to 10 hours learning:
If this is true then it is shocking to say the least. Our Education systems and our Educators have got it so wrong.
What about your concentration and comprehension? You have been given content NOT process.
Taught what, but not how to learn!
Statistics show that, on average, executives spend:
It is essential that these skills be learned, that the brain be trained.
It’s time to reform and re-educate the educators. It is simply wrong to expect people (children) to learn and develop without knowing how to learn. If I had been taught how to learn and how to use my brain then I would have had a much better and easier time at school and university.
I have been experimenting with different pens and pencils for Mind Mapping workshops.
I have just come across some NEW and really good Stabilo pens which are double ended.
http://www.stabilo.com/pages-uk/products/trio-2-in-1.php
These pens are so good because they allow you to have the fine tip for writing and fine lines and the thicker end for colouring in larger areas.
They don’t bleed or smudge and they don’t seem to dry out even if you leave the lid off all day in a warm room!
One of my tests is to draw with the pen and then wait a few minutes before using a plastic rubber on it. Most pens fail this test by smudging the link. However these pens pass this test easily.
My only slight disappointment is that the range of colours is so small (only 10) but these pens are new onto the market and maybe Stabilo will extend the range.
My plan will be to obtain these pens in bulk and then sell them on to the Mind Mappers who are interested.
Highstreet prices are £5.99 which is about the norm these days for good pens.
So to sum up these pens are great value and high quality, they perform well and hold their colour. Mind Mappers these pens will be great for ‘out and about’ Mapping.
If you have used these pens then let me know what you think too.
Paul is the CEO of an Australian company that promotes mindmapping.
Mindmapping for Success produces some very interesting e-books and videos which can be purchased by clicking this Click Here! .
Over the course of the next few weeks I will be working my way through the different materials and I will let you know what its all about!
My immediate reaction is it looks good, its produced in sensible sized pieces which can be easily followed and understood. That has to be a good plus!
So watch this space!
I did not know that Alex Osborne, or anyone else for that matter actually invented brainstorming! But I do now!
That quote really sums up Osborne’s ideas on brainstorming and creative thinking.
Brainstorming is method of thinking up solutions, ideas or new concepts. Brainstorming is NOT the same as Mind Mapping.
Brainstorming is:
However it can be difficult process for many reasons: sometimes people are unwilling to suggest a solution for fear of criticism or the problem may just be a very difficult one, and one that no existing solutions exist for yet.
Osborne suggested by the above quote, that to think up as many ideas as possible regardless of how ridiculous they may seem at first. Since it is very unlikely to think up the perfect solution at the first sitting, he recommends getting every idea out of your head and then go back to examine them afterwards (this why I feel that reflection time is so important). An idea that may have initially sounded off-the-wall may actually turn out to be a plausible idea with a little modification.
Osborne’s technique of deferral increases the individual’s synthesis capabilities by releasing the human mind from the analysis mode of thinking. This is very similar to the processes of Mind Mapping. Brainstorming is considered to be a group method of listing suggested ideas to craete a solution for a specific identified problem.
Creative thinking requires tools such as a visual map or diagram, often known as a spider diagram. Brainstorming is simply collecting all ideas put together by a group in response to a given problem or question.
In 1939, a team led by advertising executive Alex Osborn coined the term brainstorm. According to Osborn, Brainstorm means using the brain to storm a problem and to do so ” in commando fashion, each stormer audaciously attacking the same objective.”
Creativity is encouraged by not allowing ideas to be evaluated or discussed until everyone has run dry. Any and all ideas are considered legitimate and often the most far-fetched are the most fertile. Structured brainstorming produces numerous creative ideas about any given “central question”. Done right, it taps the human brain’s capacity for lateral thinking and free association.
Other rules for brainstorming according to Osborne include creating an environment where team members are not criticized for their ideas. Ideas can be evaluated after the brainstorming session but judgments during the process will only alienate team members. Also, after the idea generating process team members should try to combine and modify ideas.
In recent years it has been decided by some (maybe while brainstorming the problem) that the word brainstorming is not politically correct, the new ‘correct term’ is thought shower. I make no further comment!
Ideas for this post were taken from SKYMARK and their copy is acknowledged.
Mind Maps for Kids by Tony Buzan
Available from all good book stores and online resellers.
Al Gore and Bill Gates use them so why can’t you?
‘Mind Maps are fun for all ages.’ The Independent
The whole world should Mind Map.’ THE EXPRESS
‘The biggest name in memory.’ THE NEW YORKER
‘Tony Buzan deserves a medal for coming up with the sanity-saving concept of Mind Maps, which make difficult mental tasks possible, even pleasurable, by engaging the right side of the brain, where colour and creativity reign!
All of these accolades are true and fair! The system can indeed be a lifesaver for children and adults. I wish I had this book long ago, a planning system that cuts down homework time, eases memorisation, note-making, revision. In fact all the drudgery of schoolwork.
Mind Maps for Kids by Tony Buzan is a breakthrough way of making schoolwork and revision fun. Mind Maps are a magic formula that make remembering facts and figures a piece of cake.
Mind Maps for Kids demonstrates a new take on study, homework and tests skills on Mind Mapping. The book is a system of planning and note-taking short cuts which can cut homework in half and make school work seem like fun.
Mind Mapping is a breakthrough system of planning and note-taking that cuts homework time in half and makes schoolwork fun. Mind Maps for Kids is Tony Buzan’s first book written specially for a younger audience, suitable for ages 7 to 14. Tony Buzan has been teaching children all over the world for the past thirty years and has proved that Mind Maps are the magic formula in the classroom: remembering facts and figures is a piece of cake, planning is a doddle and getting stuck for an answer is a thing of the past. In Mind Maps for Kids, Tony Buzan explains this amazing system using step-by-step examples in every subject across the curriculum. He shows just how easy Mind Mapping is and how it can help kids to remember things and concentrate better, make clearer and better notes, revise and ace exams! , come up with ideas and unlock the imagination, save time Mind Maps for Kids is a full-colour workbook, with the emphasis on having fun.
As well as tips for improving memory and concentration, the book is packed with jokes, cartoons and brainteasers. Mind Mapping is the shortcut to success that puts kids one step (and sometimes miles!) ahead.
As I have been often heard to say ‘try them, try them you will see….’ Mind Mapping has helped me and many, many other people, you could be one of them. Unlock your potential and use a Mind Map today.
Last summer I was a witness to a serious crime, a young woman was mugged and stabbed.
I have given statements in the past, they are time consuming and I would suggest (although I have no proof) not completely useful.
The process seems to be, you tell your story, the Police listen, you tell it again and they make some notes. You tell it again and they start to write the story down, asking a few but not many questions. The statement is complete, it is read back to you, then you read it correcting any errors or adding bits that are missing. Then it is written out again, you read check and hopefully sign.
This takes an age.
I Mind Map the crime I witnessed, it took 15 minutes or so. It allowed me to think of all the things that happened and that I could recall. I was able to add information as I recalled it the BOI’s allowed me to focus and recall quickly, easily and accurately.
Then we produced the statement, quickly, accurately and in a much shorter period of time.
The detective had never seen a Mind Map and did not know how they worked. He was impressed, I had saved him loads of time in the early hours of the morning.
The question I have is why don’t the Police use Mind Mapping. Maybe someone will tell me or put me in touch with someone who can let me train the Police to Mind Map. I hope so. My friends who are Police Officers have also never seen or used Mind Mapping, they don’t know who I should speak to about getting this fantastic process and tool into the Police service.
We will see……………….
Dashboards are one of the most useful tools that I have come across for the daily use of a Mind Map to keep me organised and in control.
I was working on a course recently and one of the delegates caught sight of my note book (which never leaves my side).
‘Wow, you really use this stuff don’t you?’
Yes of course I do and Dashboards are so useful.
This picture shows a ‘master dashboard’ which can be completed each week.
So let me tell you how they work for me.
DASHBOARDS are long term and short term Mind Maps for planning and organising. They are often linked to each other which why using software to create them is so useful. Like the dashboard in the car which has all your controls at your finger tips, the Mind Map dashboard lets you have everything at you finger tips.
At the start of each week I produce a ‘to do map’ (a to do list). Each of the first order branches (BOI’s) then forms a child map or separate map.
The master map (dashboard) is linked directly or indirectly to the child map. I have a quick overview of what is going on that week, as tasks come along they are added to the dashboard and the detail added to the child map.
There are many more uses for this type of approach to planning and organising. I will add them to this post in the next few days.
This Mind Map was produced using iMindMap.
I believe that it is essential that everyone has time to reflect and review anything and everything that they are doing. This could be work, study or just things for yourself.
We read daily of the stress induced by modern lifestyles and work, stress caused by driving, call centres, children, family, relationships, finance issues, corporate and personal change and much more.
Everyday people end up hospitalised because of stress and the physical effects of stress on the body.
Young children seem to know how to deal with stress, they lie down, curl up and snooze!
I have been teaching a lot of creativity workshops recently and one element that I include is relaxation, reflection and review. Why? Well sometimes when we are trying to solve a problem we meet a block, a brick wall. We can’t get further, we think we can’t solve the problem but if we take time to stand back, lie down, curl up and reflect, review and relax we CAN solve the problem often in the most imaginative and different way.
Great ideas come from reflection. It is often reported that all the great problem solvers and thinkers build time in their days to do just this.
Give it a try and see what happens!
Well I have to say a big ‘thank you’ to Donald Jones for his help with getting RSS feeds working on my site. It is amazing the people you meet on the internet and how helpful they can be!
So now you can click the link on the right of the screen and get instant updates from this site!
Tim
