Education White Paper 2010 Summary in a Visual Format

The long awaited and recently published Education White Paper makes for interesting reading. I have read it and several reviews by others producing a summary in the form of a Mind Map. (displayed  below). The original text can be found at: White Paper 2010.

Here are some links to other summaries (all original writers acknowledged with thanks).

Teacher Support

Montrose42 Blog

Text based version with text taken from School Drudgery on Twitter and from the original white paper.

Education White Paper: Summary

• Schools will no longer have a duty to cooperate with Children’s Trusts and LAs will not have to produce a CYPP
• There will be a reduction in statutory prescription for Governing Bodies. In other words if they can justify their actions then they can do it provided its legal.

• Schools will no longer be required to complete a centrally determined SEF, although self evaluation will still be important. My guess is that there will be a number of alternative versions around hopefully software based.
• Centralised target-setting will end. Not sure how this will work, how will OFSTED manage to compare institutions?
• Schools will be free to determine their own assessment methods – APP will not be expected. However this means that it can still be used.
• FMSiS has been scrapped and will be replaced with a simpler standard next year.
• All current guidance is to be reviewed and replaced by a simple, definitive suite of guidance. One comprehensive document or a suite of conflicting documents is more  than likely to develop.
• Academy status will be the norm, although no school will be compelled to convert however those who under perform  the Secretary of State will use their power to order conversion under a new provider.
• Schools will be expected to collaborate but this will be driven by school leaders and not centrally. Or should it be should be driven by school leaders?
• Good schools with outstanding features have been invited to apply for Academy status, and other schools may do so in partnership with a good or outstanding school.
• Free schools will be allowed to open where there is demand.
• LAs will be encouraged to market their school improvement services to all schools.
• LAs will coordinate admissions and ensure fair access to all schools, the requirement to have an admissions forum will be removed.
• There will be a consultation on a new Admissions Code, although it will retain many of the requirements of the existing code. This seems to imply that the consultation has already taken place!
• LAs will retain responsibility for providing and organising school transport.
• LAs will retain their responsibilities for children with SEN and ‘looked after’ children.
• Over time, local authorities will move towards a ‘strategic commissioning’ role.
• The primary responsibility for school improvement rests with schools (hasn’t this always been the case?)
• Schools will determine what targets to set for themselves, choose what forms of external support they want and determine how to evaluate themselves. In other words they are solely responsible for improvement
• Teaching Schools, National and Local Leaders of Education will help provide support for school improvement.
• There will be a new market in school improvement services, but it will be up to schools to determine what support  they need.
• There will no longer be a requirement for every school to have a School Improvement Partner.
• Local authorities will be expected to intervene in underperforming schools and help produce a plan for improvement or conversion to Academy status with a new provider.
• All the information that underpins government statistical tables will be published for each school.
• DfE will also publish ‘families of schools’ documents, that  group similar schools in a region and provide detailed performance information that can be used by schools to identify other schools from which they can learn.
• Schools will be required to publish a range of information online.
• The Contextual Value Added measure in league tables will be scrapped.
• Performance tables will include a measure of how well pupils progress as well as attainment
• New floor standards will be introduced for primary schools: schools where fewer than 60% of children achieve L4 in English and Maths in Y6 and make less than 2 levels progress Y2-Y6 will be considered to be failing and risk being taken over by new providers.
• The floor standard for secondaries will be raised to 35% of children achieving 5 A*-C grades at GCSE and failing to make more than average progress between KS2 and KS4.
• A new Ofsted framework, with inspections focussed on pupil achievement, the quality of teaching, leadership and management, and the behaviour and safety of pupils, will be introduced from September 2011.
• Governing Bodies will be focussed more closely on strategic direction. Chairs of Governors will be trained by the National College.
• Governing Bodies will have the freedom to be smaller with fewer parent governors (minimum two) and more representatives from business and professions.
• The new Pupil Premium will provide an additional sum of money to schools for each disadvantaged child on its roll. The White Paper does not include the definition of disadvantage.
• Schools will be free to spend this money as they choose but will have to account for how it is spent and report on the progress of the children for whom it is allocated.
• There will be a consultation on a new National Funding Formula for schools to distribute the Dedicated Schools Grant.
• A new agency will replace the Young People’s Learning Agency and direct money to Academies and Free Schools and all 16-19 provision. It will also pass money to LAs for distribution to non-Academy schools.
• The additional funding that Free Schools and Academies receive is to be reviewed.
• Funding for 16-19 year olds in sixth forms will be reduced progressively to the level received by FE colleges.
• Local authorities will no longer be required to have a claw back mechanism for surpluses from school budgets from 2011-12 and guidance on clawback will be reviewed.
• Obtaining the services (shared or full time) of a high quality business manager should be a priority for all governors and headteachers.
• The DfE will work with schools and other partners to improve procurement practice in schools
• Capital budgets have been cut by 60% and a review is underway on how the remaining money will be allocated.
• Both primary and secondary National Curriculums will be reviewed and slimmed down to become a national benchmark of the knowledge and concepts children should be expected to master in core subjects at each key stage. It will be designed so that parents can hold schools to account for what their child has learned.
• There will also be a review of the EYFS.
• Academies and Free Schools will not have to follow the National Curriculum but will have to provide a broad and balanced curriculum.
• Every school will have support for the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics, as the best method for teaching reading.
• There will be a new national test at age 6 to check children’s ability to decode words. Results will be reported through RaiseOnline for comparative purposes. Children who are struggling will be expected to be provided with extra help.
• Children will also be expected to master the core arithmetical functions before they leave primary school.
• A new award – the English Baccalaureate – will be introduced to recognise children who achieve 5 good GCSEs in a broad range of subjects at GCSE. Schools will be judged on the proportion of children achieving the new award.
• The requirement to provide PE lessons is retained, and there will be an emphasis on team sports.
• Teachers will have flexibility on how best to provide good quality PSHE.
• Children will be expected to be given a rich menu of cultural experience.
• School leaving age will be raised to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015.
• As well as the new national reading test at age 6, there will be a review of KS2 tests and a review of whether assessment in KS1 is appropriate and proportionate.
• A new suite of optional tests will be developed for schools to use at the end of KS3.
• The rules on GCSE and A-level re-sits will be changed to prevent students from re-sitting large numbers of units.
• GCSEs will be reformed so that exams are typically taken only at the end of the course, and A level courses will be reviewed to ensure they meet the needs of universities and employers.
• Mark schemes will take greater account of the importance of spelling, punctuation and grammar for examinations in all subjects.
• Vocational education is under review to ensure it provides robust and appropriate qualifications.
• Remove the requirement for 24 hours notice of after school detentions
• New guidance will be issued to cover how teachers can use reasonable force to restrain disruptive pupils.
• Teachers will be given the power to search pupils for any item which they reasonably believe is going to be used to cause harm to others or to break a law.
• Teachers accused of misconduct by pupils will be given anonymity until charged and there will be no presumption that an accused teacher should be suspended.
• Statutory guidance will be issued to extend head teachers’ powers to punish school pupils who misbehave on their way to or from school.
• Simplified guidance will be issued on bullying, including prejudice-related incidents.
• Behaviour and safety will be one of the four areas inspected by Ofsted.
• Independent Appeals Panels for exclusions will be reviewed and will no longer be able to compel reinstatement.
• Schools may be required to contribute towards the cost of additional support for the excluded pupil.
• DfE will pilot a system where schools that exclude pupils remain responsible for their funding and achievement.
• Pupil Referral Units will be given the same self-governing powers as community schools.
• Consultation on changes to teachers pay and conditions to introduce more pay flexibility.
• DfE will shorten and simplify regulations on teacher competence to remove the current duplication between the performance management and the ‘capability’ procedures for managing poor performance.
• There will be a review of teachers’ professional standards and code of conduct.
• DfE will abolish the General Teaching Council for England and take powers to bar teachers from the profession.
• DfE will cease to fund PGCE courses for applicants who do not hold at least a 2:2 degree or equivalent from September 2012 and tighten the operation of the PGCE basic skills tests of literacy and numeracy to make it more rigorous
• Teach First, a scheme that fast tracks the brightest graduates into challenging schools, will be doubled to 1,140 new entrants each year by 2015. This will include extending it across the country, and into primary schools. A similar scheme, TeachNext, will be started for career changers.
• A ‘Troops to Teachers’ programme will be developed that will sponsor service leavers to train as teachers, including those without degrees.
• DfE will consider a scheme to pay off the student loans of high-performing graduates in shortage and explore university scholarships for capable students who commit to entering teaching after graduation.
• Consultation on funding of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in January.
• SCITT and GTP programmes of school based teacher training will be expanded.
• A national network of Teaching Schools will be created to provide a local lead for ITT and CPD, with National College providing quality assurance. Higher Education Institutions will be encouraged to partner with schools to develop a University Training School model.
• Encourage teachers to observe and be observed by other professionals with no limit on observations.
• Competitive national scholarships scheme for teachers to undertake intensive CPD.
• The National Professional Qualification for Headteachers will be reviewed to focus more clearly on leadership.
• The National Leaders of Education will be expanded to allow more outstanding heads to share their experience with other schools.
• Children with special educational needs and disabilities: a call for views has recently closed, and the DfE will be publishing a green paper with proposals on improving the system.

• Curriculum: the curriculum review (covering both primary and secondary) will be launched shortly. The DfE intends to publish the new curriculum in the autumn of 2012 with first teaching in September 2013.
• Accountability: Ofsted will consult on a new framework. Subject to legislation, the new framework will come into force in autumn 2011.
• Admissions: the DfE will consult on a simplified and less prescriptive Admissions Code.
• Independent reviews and consultations are also ongoing on Key Stage 2 assessment and accountability, 14-19 education, and the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Summary Mind Map

Everyone has creativity if only they would use it…..

This is from a post by Kathy Berman published on her excellent site. I would like to thank Kathy for inspiring me with this post and others on her site.

Everyone has creativity. To get in touch with new energy in you, try one of the following exercises.

Action board—use a large bulletin board to post 3×5 index cards for the 5 main categories of your life. You may wish to use general categories; such as goals, deadlines, dreams, etc. of be more specific, such as marketing, sales, etc. Using different colored 3×5 cards may help you to see the categories more easily. My suggestion is that you use a Mind Map which you leave displayed where you can easily see  and add to it. See an example of a review Mind Map which I created with  a friend who was going through a difficult time in their life. It enabled a clear path to be seen for the way ahead. Mind Maps give a very clear overview of what is going on and the connections between them. In this Mind Map you can clearly see that the aim was to be happy and creativity was what made the the happiness.

Every Sunday evening or another evening of your choice, review your boards and update them for the upcoming week/month/year depending on your system. This update will go quickly and will give you a clear, concise review of where you are and where you are going. This will lead to greater confidence. Remember if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Regular reviews are vital which is why having this in a visible location is an excellent idea.

Begin keeping a creative basket (a shoe box is another suitable container)—pretend you are 10 years old or ask a young friend and/or family member to help you. Take a large basket with a handle and put all the things in it you might enjoy using to create a new project. You may include sequins, glitter, paste, colored pens, watercolors, sketch pads. You may use these materials to play with often as way to express your creativity.

Love Jar—collect a glass or clear plastic jar. Using bright construction paper, cut into strips. On the strips of paper, write down short suggestions for yourself of ways you can feel greater love in your life. These activities will also add new confidence skills. For example:

• Clean out a cupboard or drawer today. Organise computer files and documents.
• Take a warm bubble bath.
• Explore a new lake or a nature retreat.
• Make a list of 15 of your strengths as a Mind Map and put it in your wallet
• Create a bulletin board of special cards others have sent to you or go to a card store and pick out 5-10 cards that you really love.
• Make a picture wall of your favorite picture.
• Make a recording of your favorite inspirational quotations.
• Trade skills with a friend to explore new ways of doing things.
• Choose a new hobby or improve on an older one.
• Have company for dinner and create an original menu.
• Cook or bake something today for someone else.

Begin keeping a loose-leaf notebook I call my “life-book”. The 5×8 size is convenient. I keep everything I might need to know in the immediate future. I also keep an index-sized Rolodex but the lifebook goes everywhere with me. It is a great companion when you’re remodeling or moving. You may have a companion on your computer. Keeping a collection of images also helps when you are feeling low and lacking in creative inspiration. Spread the images out and view each one fora few seconds then pick up one or two and look carefully for a longer periods of time.

Play is essential everyday for everyone. Plan to play everyday. The time you allot to play will repay you in increased productivity. Be sure to set time limits for play so that you don’t use play to prolong procrastination for some work you need to do. Make time to play and relax everyday!

Inspiration v1 Tim Fulford 2009

1000 word Mind Map challenge using iMindMap

Paul Foreman issued a challenge: 1000 word Mind Map

Well I am usually up for a challenge, so I have started my 1000 word Mind Map using iMindMap. This map is partly made and does not yet have 1000 words but I am getting there!

I started with Apple and off I went!

What I found and am finding interesting is that I am returning to the same original word at the ends of branches. I am also fascinated to see where a branch starts and where its little journey takes it.

I will keep adding words and then some images……

Current Word Count: 700+ and still going!

Over 650 words now!

Roles and Goals

I have just read the blog posting on Mind Map Tutor: The Mind Map in the post which can be downloaded as a template or full image is restrictive in my opinion. Tony Buzan would ask why the Mind Map was not conforming to the much researched and tested one word per line rule and why it did not contain any images. I ask the same.

I have redrawn the Mind Map to suit my purposes and maybe others will find it useful too. If you would like an iMindMap file or PDF version then please contact me and I will forward them to you.

Living on Purpose

Last week’s article, living on purpose, introduced you to big picture thinking of your life. If you always have the big picture in mind, passion, which is a primary ingredient of success, is usually sustainable.

Single-minded focus is undoubtedly the biggest guarantee of success and a Mind Map is the ideal tool to document this focus, as a Mind Map always has a central theme – a single focus.

While having a single purpose and focusing on it, will dramatically increase the chances of you achieving success, does it bring balance into your life?

The need for balance

I believe that having a balance in your life is crucial to sustained happiness, but a balanced life is anapparent contradiction to having a single purpose.

A common complaint quoted in ‘First things First’ by Stephen R. Covey and A. Roger Merrill is:

‘I want to provide for my family and be successful in my career. But my company doesn’t think I’m serious about advancement unless I get to the office early and work late and on weekends.

By the time I get home, I feel exhausted. I have more work to do, and no energy to give to my family. But they need me. There are bikes to fix, stories to read, homework assignments to help with, things to talk over. And I need them. What is quality of life if it isn’t spending time with the people you love most?…’

Does this sound familiar?

Let’s examine how we can remain focused on our main purpose in life and still live a healthy, balanced life.

The Mind Map as a thinking tool

Before we dive right in, I would like to remind you of the Mind Map’s benefits as a thinking tool. It is not for nothing that Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, calls it the swiss army knife of the brain.

The Mind Map can be used in many ways as a thinking tool, but one of the ways I often use it, is to Mind Map the big picture and then drill into the details. I use this method to learn something new as well.

Using Mind Maps can be compared to assembling a jigsaw puzzle. You start with the big picture, which you keep visible at all times. From this big picture, you start putting down the pieces you know, one piece at the time, often starting in the centre or one of the corners and building on them.

As you are building your puzzle, it may not look like a cohesive whole, but it is still being built with the big picture in mind. You will see the centre core growing and the corners growing until they start to meet and become one.

Life is often like that. If you only focus on the detail pieces, you lose track of the big picture. If you onlyfocus on the big picture, you don’t do anything. It just exists in your mind, in your imagination.

Putting together Goals for yourself is very similar to building a jigsaw puzzle.

You have to start with the big picture if you want a more fulfilling life. Having the big picture – the purpose -gives you hope and keeps the passion burning. Passion is the one ingredient that is uniquely yours. The amount of passion you put in is often the most determining factor of all.

But passion without direction, often leads to nowhere. It can also consume you and even lead you down the wrong path. You need something else to restore the balance.

What is balance?

One way of looking at our lives is via four dimensions: physical, spiritual, social and mental. I like the concept of using these four dimensions to ensure balance in my life.

The physical dimension requires or creates resources, the spiritual dimension connects to mission, purpose and principles, the social dimension involves relationships with other people, and the mental dimension requires thinking and learning.

By having a long term view of these dimensions, you start building a picture of a well balanced life. Often, to succeed at something, one of these dimensions become the focus for a short period and it appears that your life is not balanced. It is important at this point to look at the big picture again to give perspective. Balance is determined over months and years, not days and weeks.

A very good example of this is having a new baby. I remember when my daughter was born. She was only four months old when my wife and I decided to leave South Africa to go to The Netherlands.

My wife left her job and spent the next three years in a foreign country where her main focus was looking after our daughter. Her life seemed out of balance at the time. She had no friends, no extended family and no job.

If I look back at the last decade of her life though, I get a very different picture.

Her choice at the times was also very difficult because of the way modern society sees motherhood. I share the sentiments of Rebecca A. Merrill, one of the co-authors of the book ‘First things first’:

‘I’m often troubled by the stigma attached to women who choose to focus their time and effort primarily on motherhood. It is as if society somehow deems it less valuable to raise competent children than to raise the profit on a company’s product line.

A woman who chooses to focus on motherhood, and does so out of a clear sense of her own personal vision, becomes truly energized in her role. She recognizes the value of shaping the characters of future leaders in society. And in the process, she develops competence and character to fulfill other roles. Perhaps a second career or another degree are in the plans, but that doesn’t distract from the task at hand. It is not a matter of capacity, but of chosen contribution…’

It is as if this piece was written for Jasmine, my wife. Today she is in a second career and has another degree. She studied a new degree while being a ’stay home mom’ and when she decided to go back to work, she landed not only a new job, but a new career!

Did her period of focused motherhood detract from her success in any way? I think not! If anything, it gave her the character and strength to accomplish greater things. It also gave her a balance of the physical, spiritual, social and mental dimensions.

When looking at balance therefore, one should not have a short term view. If you are starting a new project, a new business or venture, or having a new born baby, your life may seem out of balance as you are focusing so much time on one thing. This focus is of the utmost importance to succeed. It is the peoplewho don’t have the discipline to focus on what they need to do to succeed, that fail.

This imbalance is often short lived though, if you have your Roles and Goals well defined.

Restoring balance – the power of Roles and Goals

We all have to fulfill different roles in life. Knowing the roles that you have to play, and the goals you have for them, will help ensure that you start, and continue, to live a balanced life.

Take some time out and draw a Mind Map with yourself as the central theme. Draw six branches coming out of central theme and list the roles you have to fulfill in your life. An example of roles could be:

• Father/Mother
• Son/Daughter
• Brother/Sister
• Employee (List job function if you want to)
• Business Owner
• Community Service
• Manager
• Etc.

Once you have these roles on your Mind Map, put down three goals for each of them on your Mind Map for the coming year.

Does this bring a new perspective into your life?

Each role must be seen as a stewardship. You have been entrusted in life to fulfill each of these roles. They are your roles. You’ve chosen them. You also choose the goals for each role. Remember, it is YOUR choice.

Each of the roles contain all four dimensions: physical, spiritual, social and mental so ensure that you set goals using these four dimensions as a guide.

As mentioned, sometimes one of the roles needs more focus than the others. This is quite normal. By having a Mind Map picture of your roles and goals, you are able to bring it back on track to ensure that you have a balance.

I’ve added two Mind Map PDF downloads at the end of this for you to print out and use to define your Roles and Goals.

This one year picture of Roles and Goals is a bit more detailed than the Purpose vision of last week, which is a lifetime vision.

Remember the jigsaw puzzle analogy? The purpose is the centre of your jigsaw puzzle and the roles and goals the corners.

Planning – The next step

Your Roles and Goals Mind Map will give you a roadmap, but the journey still needs more detailed planning though and will be covered in a future article. Be sure to look out for it.

Before we get to the detailed planning though, Goal Setting needs to be covered in a bit more detail. That will be the subject for next weeks article.

Click here for a download of the Mind Map PDF guide.

Click here for a blank PDF template.

10 Ways to improve how you manage information…..

When I was a full time senior manager in a large school I had huge volumes of information to manage. The only way I could deal with it was to apply a huge filtering system to everything that came across my desk or via email. Then I managed the filtered information with a Mind Map dashboard, I had control, I knew how to find the information I needed when I needed it.

Now that I have escaped from this I see managers in many organisations struggling with information overload.

Bill Gates is quoted as saying that ‘….we live in an information democracy…. but while we’ve gone a long way towards optimising how we use information, we have yet to do the same for knowledge.’

I came across a post by JD Meier who works for Microsoft and I was intrigued by the content which suggests 10 ways to improve how we manage information.

As I read the post I digitally Mind Mapped as summary using a Nokia SU-1B digital pen.

10 ways to improve how you manage information

I humbly acknowledge the post by JD Meier which can be read below.

“The problem of information overload, therefore, may not be the quantity of it but our inability to know what to do with it.” – Danniel Tammet

One of the most important skills I mastered early on at Microsoft, is information management.  My ability to organize information directly impacts my success.  For me, information management is the key to daily productivity from researching to learning faster to keeping my email inbox empty.

When I first joined Microsoft, I found myself spending four or more hours on administration and email.  Then one day I decided … enough is enough.  From that point on, I refused to spend more than 30 minutes a day between email and administration overhead.  That day marked the start of my pursuit to find the best ways to handle and organize information.  While my motivation helped, it’s actually finding and creating effective techniques that really made the difference.

Here are ten of my favorite ways to manage information:

1. Factor reference from action.   Carve out action items, To Dos, and tasks from your incoming streams of information.  if it’s not an action, it’s reference.  I first learned this practice when I was dealing with information overload as a support engineer.  I ended up cementing the idea while working on our Microsoft Knowledge Base.  The Knowledge Base is a vast collection of information, where each article tends to be optimized around either action or reference.
2. Create lists.  Make a new To Do list each day and use it to organize your key action items for the day.  Create checklists for your common routines.
3. Create collections.  Put things into collections or think in terms of collections.  Consolidate your notes into a single collection that you access quickly, such as in a personal notebook, a Word document or etc.  Consolidate your thoughts or ideas into a single collection.  Consolidate reference examples of your heroes or stories you can use for inspiration.  Consolidate your “ah-has” into a single collection.  Note that by single collection, I don’t mean you have it all in a single document, although you can.  Instead, I’m thinking of collections of items, much like a photo album music collection.  By stashing things of a similar type, such as “idea” or “note” … etc., you can determine the best way to arrange that collection.  Maybe it’s a simple A -Z list or maybe you arrange it by time.  For example, when I keep a journal of my insights, and each time I get an “ah ha”, I write it down under the current date.  This way I can easily flip back through days and see my insights in chronological order.  While I could arrange them A – Z, I like having my most recent ideas or inspirations bubbled to the top, since chances are I’m finding ways to act on them.
4. Put things where you look for them.  Where ever you look for it, that’s where it should be.  If you keep looking for something in a certain place, either just put it there when you find it or add some sort of pointer to the actual location.   While you might logically think something belongs in a certain place, the real test is where you intuitively look for it.
5. Keep things flat.  Out of sight, out of mind holds true for information.  Avoid nesting information.  Keep it flat and simple where you can.  Think in terms of iTunes or a playlist.  A well organized playlist is easy to jump to what you need.
6. Organize long lists or folders using A-Z.    When you have long lists or big collections, then listing things A-Z tends to be a simple way to store things and to look things up fast.   Once a list gets long, A-Z or a numbered list is the way to go.
7. Archive old things.   When information is no longer useful for you, consider archiving it to get it out of your way.  This usually means having a separate location.  I’m a pack rat and I have a hard time letting things go, so I tend to archive instead.  It let’s me get things out of the way, and then eventually get rid of them if I need to.  Archiving has really helped me get a ton of information out of my way, since I know I can easily rehydrate it if I need to.
8. Bubble up key things to the top.  When you have a lot of information, rather than worry about organizing all of it, bubble up things to the top.  You can effectively have a quick, simple list or key things up top, followed by more information.  Keep the things up front simple.  This way you get the benefits of both exhaustive or complete, as well as simple.  Whenever you have a large body of information, just add a simple entry point or key take aways or summary up front.
9. Know whether you’re optimizing for storing or retrieving.  Distinguish whether you are storing something because you will need to look it up or refer to it a lot, or if you are simply storing it because you might need it in the future.  For information that I need to look up a lot, I create a view or I make it easy to get to the information fast.  For example, I might use a sticky note since I can quickly put it wherever I need to.  For a lot of information, you simply need a quick way to store it.  What you don’t want to do is have to work to hard, each time you need to file a piece of information.  This I is where having a place for things, using lists, and organizing information in a meaningful way comes in handy.  For most of my reference information, I organize it either by A-Z or by time.  This way I don’t have to think too hard.  I don’t create a bunch of folders for my email.  Instead, I just store it all flat so it’s easy to search or browse or sort.  For example, if I need to find an email from somebody, I simply sort my email by their name.  Just by asking the question whether you’re optimizing for fast filing or for fast lookup will get you improving your information management in the right direction.
10. Create views.  Create views for the information that you need to frequently access.  For example, you might put sticky notes of information that consolidate just the key things.  As an analogy, think of your music store versus your playlists.  You store might be a large collection organized A-Z, but your playlists are views that are more focused or have themes.  You can apply this metaphor to any of your information collections.

Well, there you have it.  Those are my top 10 favorite techniques for organizing information.  I’ve had the privilege of learning and modeling from many great colleagues and mentors.  The beauty is, I get to practice my information management skills every day while hacking my way through the information jungle.  These skills save me a ton of time whether I’m reading books, taking notes, learning something new, or just about any time I’m dealing with information.  It’s deliberate practice with immediate results.

Two More Ways to Improve Your Information Management
As a bonus, I’m including two additional techniques that significantly changed my game:

1. Periodically sweep things.   No matter how well you organize things, you’ll need to periodically sweep.  Sweeping simply means cleaning things up after the fact.  Periodically, allocating a block of time to go back through and clean up some of your messes.   Things will always get out of disorder over time.  Time also changes what’s important.  When you revisit things, after the fact, you also gain the benefit of hind sight.  Make the time now and then to make a pass through your collections.  Get rid of what you don’t need.  Archive things that you don’t currently need.  Restructure your information to support your usage scenarios.  This is one of those vital practices that really makes the difference if you actually do it.
2. Reduce friction.   Whenever you find that you’re working too hard to either find, organize, or use your information, pay attention to the friction.  Work to reduce the friction.   This might mean getting more information out of your way.  It might mean bubbling more things up to where you can find them quickly.  The key is to make it easy to use your information, and don’t let it become a burden

Equipment and Materials for Mind Mapping

Hand drawn Mind Maps have a very different feel to those produced digitally. I get a great deal of pleasure out of producing a hand drawn Mind Map.

Effective Relationship Mind Map

I have been asking fellow mappers which pieces of equipment or materials make Mind Mapping by hand such a creative and therapeutic process.

The list so far is as follows:

• Moleskine Notebooks (A5 and A4)
• Faber Castell Manga Pens
• Derwent Inktense Pencils
• Pental Waterbrush – excellent idea!
  

  Pental Water Brush

• Derwent Coloursoft
• Karisma Berol Pencils Now sadly no longer made
• A3 high quality paper in loose or pad forms
• Derwent electric eraser

• 

  Derwent Battery Operated Eraser

• Derwent pencil roll

Let me know if there are any others which should be added to this list.

Question Kit used in study skills workshops

The future: Making it ideal

When I am teaching Mind Mapping I often get my delegates to think about their future. If you are thinking about where you want to be in 6, 9, 12 months time then producing a Mind Map might help you get a clear plan of action. You might see connections and links between areas of your life that you have not noticed before.

 

Planning your future

 

 

The Process Involved To Make a Mind Map

Taken from this source, all rights respectfully acknowledged.

People trained in public education may be unaware of what it is to make a mind map, this is undoubtedly true because teachers are not normally trained in the used of a Mind Map. As a former teacher and senior educator I find this shocking as it is such a useful and effective way of learning, improving recall, planning and researching. We don’t expect people to run on one leg but we train people to teach using only the left half of their brain! and not realize how useful it can be. This sort of thinking is associated with the right side of people’s brains rather than the left. With left-brain thinking, thought processes are more logical and linear. You do what the Red Queen advised Alice in the Wonderland books: “Begin at the beginning. Then proceed until you come to the end. Then stop.” But right-brain thought doesn’t travel in straight lines. It works more on the basis of a picture, a sort of visual map of associated ideas. And in COLOUR.

The use of such mind tools isn’t intended to be exclusionary and shut left-brain thinking right out. Rather, people who talk about these tools hope that the world can learn to add right-brain thinking as a method that works in partnership with the centuries old, tried-and-true methods employed by the left brain. The goal is to discover relationships and possibilities that might never have been recognized in the left-brain way of approaching knowledge. Learning to make a mind map may be a way of expanding that knowledge beyond its previous boundaries. Try a simple experiment: close you eyes and have some say the name of an object to you (eg CAT) what happens in your head? You get an image of a cat not the word printed out, you might get the smell or taste or sensation of a cat but certainly not the word. We recall in images yet we are expected to learn in text. the two go together, thats how we learn to read: Image and Association.

So how does one begin making a mind map? One starts with a central concept or idea, written on a piece of paper, a white or blackboard, or perhaps on a computer screen. Then the brainstorming begins brainstorming is not the same as Mind Mapping and shoud not be confused with it, however it is a very common misconception. One can do this alone, but it’s even more effective with several people. Everyone tosses out any idea they think of that relates to that central concept, and all ideas are written down. Once everyone is done, all the concepts are analyzed and gathered into broad themes that suggest themselves, essentially doing visual mapping to link common ideas together.

By brainstorming like this and using mind mapping techniques, sometimes new connections are discovered that weren’t noticed before. Things might be seen to affect the central issue that no one previously realized had anything to do with it. Left-brain linear thinking concentrates more on the fine details of an issue, while as one works to make a mind map, it becomes a means of seeing the bigger picture, or discovering the constellation of ideas forming the wider environment of the issue. These two ways of approaching a problem don’t need to be in competition, but can work together to form a more comprehensive whole.

This is a good article but it misses huge uses of Mind Mapping: LEARNING, RECALL, RECORDING, PLANNING and MEMORY. Mind Mapping is certainly not brainstorming. It has many other more powerful functions. In education which is where the article started so well MM should be taught so that everyone can use  more of their potential. This article also confuses the concept of brain storming which is usually a group creativity/ideas generating exercise with the process of Mind Mapping which is a tool which can be used for LEARNING, RECALL, RECORDING, PLANNING and MEMORY as well as creativity exercises.

Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed cure panic attack cures as well as tips on the various anxiety attack medications available at anxietydisordercure.com.

Question Kits 5w x 1h

For years people have used what have become known as ‘question kits’, some by planning them others just by ‘doing’. When I am running a study skills workshop I will always get the students to consider the questions that they need to ask. Eventually they will arrive at the common:

• When?
• Where?
• Who?
• Why?
• What?
• How?

If you apply this to most questioning situations you will see how the application works effectively.

Question Kit used in study skills workshops

Paul Foreman has used a similar idea which I really like as well…

Solution finder by Paul Foreman

Paul’s solution is a Visual Map of ‘how to find a solution’ using the same questions.

Watch the news and see people being interviewed, the questions are the same. Listen to a Crime drama on the radio and the questions are the same.  We all use these questions when we are trying to find the answers to problem, question, how or when something needs to be done.

iMindMap on the iPhone

iMindMap on the iPhone preview.

Further details available from tim.fulford@btinternet.com