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For centuries the human race has noted and recorded for the following purposes: memory; communication; problem solving and analysis; creative thinking; and summarisation, etc. The techniques that have been used to do this include sentences, lists, lines, words, analysis, logic, linearity, numbers, and monotonic (one colour) usage. Good though some of these systems seemed, they have all used what you know to be the dominantly 'left cortical' thought modalities. When you begin to use these necessary elements in conjunction with rhythm, rhyme, form, dimension, colour, space and imagination, your skills in all mental areas will increase significantly and your mind will begin to reflect its true majesty. How often have you seen 'the diligent student' hanging on every word that his teacher or professor utters, and faithfully recording each gem in his notebook?! It is a fairly common sight, and one that brings a number of negative consequences. First the person who is intent on getting everything down is like the reader who does not preview - he inevitably fails to see the forest (the general flow of argument) for the trees. Second, a continuing involvement with getting things down prevents objective and on-going critical analysis and appreciation of the subject matter. All too often note-taking by-passes the mind altogether.
CHAPTER ELEVEN MIND MAPPING - A NEW DIMENSION IN THINKING AND NOTE-TAKING For centuries the human race has noted and recorded for the following purposes: memory; communication; problem solving and analysis; creative thinking; and summarisation, etc The techniques that have been used to this include sentences, lists, lines, words, analysis, logic, linearity, numbers, and monotonic (one colour) usage Good though some of these systems seemed, they have all used what you know to be the dominantly 'left cortical' thought modalities When you begin to use these necessary elements in conjunction with rhythm, rhyme, form, dimension, colour, space and imagination, your skills in all mental areas will increase significantly and your mind will begin to reflect its true majesty How often have you seen 'the diligent student' hanging on every word that his teacher or professor utters, and faithfully recording each gem in his notebook?! It is a fairly common sight, and one that brings a number of negative consequences First the person who is intent on getting everything down is like the reader who does not preview - he inevitably fails to see the forest (the general flow of argument) for the trees Second, a continuing involvement with getting things down prevents objective and on-going critical analysis and appreciation of the subject matter All too often note-taking by-passes the mind altogether And third, the volume of notes taken in this manner tends to become so enormous, especially when combined with added notes from books, that when it comes to 'revising', the student finds he has to almost the complete task again Proper note-taking is not a slavish following of what has been said or what has been written, but is a selective process which should minimise the volume of words taken down, and maximise the amount remembered from those words To achieve this we make use of the 'Key-Word' concept A Key-Word is a word that encapsulates a multitude of meanings in as small a unit as possible When that word is triggered, the meanings spray free It can be effectively represented by the diagram below Selecting Key-Words is not difficult The first stage is to eliminate all the unnecessary surrounding language, so that if you came across the following statement in a science text: 'the speed of light has now been determined to be 186,000 miles per second' you would not write the whole sentence down but would summarise it as follows: 'light's speed = 186,000 m.p.s.' It is important to remember when making your notes with key-words that the Key-Words must trigger the right kind of remembering In this respect words like 'beautiful', and 'horrifying', while being picturesque, are too general They have many other meanings which might have nothing to with the particular point you wish to remember INFORMATION FUNNELLED IN SPRAYED OUT KEY-WORD Fig How key-words work in assisting note-taking and memory Further, a Key-Word should be one that you find personally satisfying and not one which you think somebody else might think is good In many cases Key-Words need not be taken directly from the content of the lecture or the material being read A word that you choose yourself and which summarises somebody else's words, is preferable If you practise Key-Word note-taking effectively you will be amazed at how much more information you can get into a given space The Mind Map — A New Dimension in Note-Taking A Mind Map draws on all your mental skills: the Associative and Imagination skills from your memory; the words, numbers, lists, sequences, logic and analysis from your left cortex; the colour, imagery, dimension, rhythm, day-dreaming, Gestalt (whole picture) and spacial awareness abilities of the right side of your cortex; the power of your eye to perceive and assimilate; the power of your hand, with increasing skill, to duplicate what your eye has seen; and the power of your whole brain to organise, store, and recall that which it has learnt In Mind Map notes, instead of taking down what you wish to remember in the normal sentence or list-like fashion, you place an image in the centre of your note page (to help your concentration and memory) and then branch out in an organised fashion around that image, using Key-Words and Key Images As you continue to build up the Mind Map, your brain creates an organised and integrated total map of the intellectual territory you are exploring The rules for a Mind Map are as follows: A coloured image in the centre Main ideas branch off the centre Main ideas should be in larger letters than secondary ideas Words - always one word per line Each word has an enormous number of associations, and this rule allows each one more freedom to link to other associations in your brain Words should always be printed (either upper or lower, or a combination of upper and lower cases) Words should always be printed on the lines (this gives your brain a clearer image to remember) Lines should be connected (this helps your memory to associate) The connected lines should be the same length as the word for efficiency of both association and space Use as many images as possible (this helps develop a whole-brained approach, as well as making it much easier for your memory; a picture is, in this context, worth a thousand words) Use dimension wherever possible (things outstanding are 108 Fig 10 A Mind Map by a company director, summarising the Brain Training and Mind Mapping Course The central image refers to the integration of the brain and the body The branches off the central image summarise the major elements of the course Images, rather than words, provide succinct memory aids This Mind Map was used both as a summary and review tool It was also used as a means of presenting to other members of the company what had been gained during the course more easily remembered) 10 Use numbers or codes or put things in order, or show connections 11 For coding and connecting use: a Arrows b Symbols c Numbers d Letters e Images f Colours g Dimension h Outlining On page 109 is a Mind Map summarising a three-day Brain Training and Mind Mapping Course The Mind Map was made by a father who was also a company director He used the same Mind Map to summarise the course for himself, and to explain the course to his wife, children and business colleagues The central image refers to the integration of the brain and the body The branches, clockwise from 'exercises' at o'clock, summarise the major elements of the course Images, rather than words, provide succinct memory aids The Mind Map note of this three day course, as you can see, can be useful not only as a noted summary of all that was dealt with, but could also be used as the notes for the speech itself In this situation the Mind Map becomes the 'note from your own brain' which then allows you to communicate to others, thus completing the Speed and Range Reading cycle As an interesting exercise in the power of the Mind Map technique, try 'reading' in detail the Mind Map on the Brain Training and Mind Mapping Course, to see how comprehensive a summary/understanding you can obtain from this one page note Now that you have learnt the Mind Mapping technique, it will be useful for you to go back over the Self Tests in Chapters 1, 3, 7, and 10 Continue to extract the Key-Words from them, and to make Mind Maps of each essay In this way you will be reviewing your speed reading skills, developing your note taking and Mind Mapping skills, and establish110 ing basic knowledge foundations in the fields of the brain, psychology, science, history and music As you continue through Speed Reading, make it a practice, after you have tested yourself on the Self Tests, to review them, underlining key words and concepts, and subsequently to Mind Map each article As a matter of interest finish this day's reading by thumbing through some of your old notes from school or other sources, observing how much was completely unnecessary, and how much time you could have saved first in writing them down, and second in reading them back Many people find that only as little as 10% was necessary For a full explanation of the Mind Mapping Technique see Use Your Head by the author III Personal Notes 70 Noting A: Key words Overview • Exercise key words; standard responses • Key words and concepts - creative and recall • Memory - a comparison between standard note and key word noting • Transition from advanced key word note taking to advanced Mind Map key word note taking 71 Exercise and discussion Imagine that your hobby is reading short stories, that you read at least five a day, and that you keep notes so that you will not forget any of them Imagine also that in order to ensure a proper recall of each story you use a card filing system For each story you have one card for the title and author, and a card for every paragraph On each of these paragraph cards you enter a main and a secondary key word or phrase The key words/phrases you take either directly from the story or make up yourself because they summarise particularly well Imagine further that your ten thousandth story is Kusa-Hibari by Lafcadio Hearne, and that you have prepared the title-andauthor card Now read the story on page 73, and for the purpose of this exercise enter a key recall word or phrase for both the main and secondary idea for the first five paragraphs only, in the space provided on page 76 72 NOTING Kusa-Hibari Lafcadio Hearne His cage is exactly two Japanese inches high and one inch and a half wide: its tiny wooden door, turning upon a pivot, will scarcely admit the tip of my little finger But he has plenty of room in that cage - room to walk, and jump, and fly, for he is so small that you must look very carefully through the brown-gauze sides of it in order to catch a glimpse of him I have always to turn the cage round and round, several times, in a good light, before I can discover his whereabouts, and then I usually find him resting in one of the upper corners - clinging, upside down, to his ceiling of gauze Imagine a cricket about the size of an ordinary mosquito with a pair of antennae much longer than his own body, and so fine that you can distinguish them only against the light Kusa-Hibari, or 'Grass-Lark' is the Japanese name of him; and he is worth in the market exactly twelve cents: that is to say, very much more than his weight in gold Twelve cents for such a gnat-like thing! By day he sleeps or meditates, except while occupied with the slice of fresh egg-plant or cucumber which must be poked into his cage every morning to keep him clean and well fed is somewhat troublesome: could you see him, you would think it absurd to take any pains for the sake of a creature so ridiculously small But always at sunset the infinitesimal soul of him awakens: then the room begins to fill with a delicate and ghostly music of indescribable sweetness - a thin, silvery rippling and trilling as of tiniest electric bells As the darkness deepens, the sound becomes sweeter - sometimes swelling till the whole house seems to vibrate with the elfish resonance - sometimes thinning down into the faintest imaginable thread of a voice But loud or low, it keeps a penetrating quality that is weird All night the atomy thus sings: he ceases only when the temple bell proclaims the hour of dawn Now this tiny song is a song of love - vague love of the unseen and unknown It is quite impossible that he should ever have seen or known, in this present existence of his Not even his ancestors, for many generations back, could have known anything of the night-life of the fields, or the amorous Value of song 73 ... Outlining On page 109 is a Mind Map summarising a three-day Brain Training and Mind Mapping Course The Mind Map was made by a father who was also a company director He used the same Mind Map to... words or phrases for main and secondary ideas from Kusa-Hibari main secondary paragraph paragraph paragraph paragraph paragraph Below you will find sample key words and phrases from the notes of... preferable If you practise Key-Word note- taking effectively you will be amazed at how much more information you can get into a given space The Mind Map — A New Dimension in Note- Taking A Mind Map