We all lead busy lives, and our daily schedules are hectic. You may have an assignment due tomorrow, another exam this weekend, or your boss may ask you to work an extra shift this week. Everything is a priority; it is important to keep an active mind when you have a lot on the plate. We are not talking about well-designed colourful to-do lists. But a small, powerful method, i.e., mind map tool.
What is Mind Mapping?
Every object or colour, or any situation in your life is associated with various memories in your mind. For instance, when you look at your handbag, what does it remind you? If you ask me, I would say, umbrella. Every day when I grab my blue hand bag and step out to work, the bag reminds me to check if my umbrella is in it. Living in Vancouver where it rains very often, I have mind mapped my bag to my umbrella. My handbag’s light blue colour reminds me to carry my umbrella. But when I pick my clutch for a dinner, my mind does not really map to the umbrella. This is called mind mapping.
Practicing mind mapping will help you to remember things and keep you organized in your studies and work. A mind map is a tool that helps you to think, collect knowledge, remember, and create ideas. It is a graphical representation of your thoughts, ideas, and concepts that reinforce your memory.
How to use the Mind Map tool?
Start – Draw the idea that you want to develop in the middle of a paper. In this case, I inserted a picture of my handbag.
Develop – Develop subtopics related to your centre image/topic. In the above example, I developed subimages of my wallet, a couple of cosmetics, an umbrella, and an Ipad.
Repeat – Create another lower-layer of subtopics/subimages that connects to your subtopics. In this example, I want to keep some cash and credit cards in my wallet.
If you notice, I used different colours (in the mind mapping image above) to connect each subtopic so that it is easy for me to associate those colours with those objects. I used this graphical representation to reinforce the concept in my mind. This is a good way for analyzing, comprehending, synthesizing, recalling, or generating new ideas.
Benefits of Mind Mapping tools
When can you use mind mapping tools?
- While making notes at school or work
- While brainstorming with your teammates or colleagues
- While studying and memorizing (strongly suggested)
- While presenting information either at school or at work
Let us learn how to create a mind map for an essay plan!
Top 5 free online mind mapping tools
Traditionally, mind mapping was done on a piece of paper. But, nowadays, there are many free online tools. Below-mentioned are some of the free mind mapping tools that you can explore.
- Coggle
- MindMeister
- MindMaster
- Xmind
- Wisemapping
Mind mapping is a fascinating concept, and if you start learning things using a mind map tool, it is going to be a great help for you to memorize!
Good luck!
One Comment
Interesting article!!! Complicated tasks in life is easily depicted by simple colors and objects to make it interesting and keep up with your day tasks. I’ll surely try out the MindMap concept.