How Mind Mapping Works

A mind map is a type of (radial) diagram that contains words, ideas or tasks that are linked around a central idea or keyword. A mind map can be drawn by hand or by means of a computer, before a particular lesson, while attending the class or even after the lecture has finished.

Popular Usage

Solving problems
Brainstorming
Note taking
Resolutions
Planning

Benefits

Gives you a good overview of important points and keywords (such as dates, facts or figures).
Organizes your topic in a way that let's you write less and understand more. Thus making your studies more effecient.

Methodology

Always start out by placing your main idea or keyword in the center and then start pondering about anything that might relate to that keyword. List all the things you came up with on a piece of paper (not on the actual mind map) and then write them all down on the mind map by interlinking each idea to an appropriate category.

Remember that each line should carry only one keyword or one image and they should be of the same length as the keyword or image.

Obviously, there's more than one way of mind mapping since the technique itself is very subjective. So even though I mention ways to form your mind map in this article, you should only take them as guidelines and nothing more. It's more important that you develop your own style in order to fit your specific needs.

I recommend emphasizing certain elements in your mind map such as using different colors to make the mind map more vivid and easier to digest. The image below shows a mind map, illustrating the guidelines of mind mapping (click on the image to enlarge):

Let your ideas flow

Make sure that you don't kill any of your ideas at the beginning. It's a common problem that people try to edit their ideas before they've done collecting them. You can remove, edit and add as much as you'd like after you've finished listing them all.

Keep it clean

Another common mistake is to scramble in as much information as possible without keeping the format. If your mind map looks like clutter, you wont be able to understand it (maybe at the present moment but certainly not in the future). Finally, mind mapping is something you do to help yourself. Make sure that you can understand and interpret your own thoughts even if no one else understands it. 

Related resources

Free Mind - A free mind mapping software
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