Accelerate learning with mind maps - Simplicity is the key

Learning is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere. I always liked that quote since it is true and not disputable. The problem with conventual learning however is, unlike you have a photographical memory, that we forget most of what we read after just one week. 

How often have you been in a situation where you tried to find a quote, a word or general information you read once but  can't recall it from your memory. It happens to me all the time. 

On the other hand, imagine a situation where you would be able to access all the information that are important to you  instantly and whenever you need them, would that not be awesome!

There are various techniques out there that promise better learning results but the tool most valuable to me for remembering and recalling information is mind maps.

If you think about it, what is actual the reason whywe forget what we learned when reading a book so quickly? The answer is simply because we haven't made any connections or associations with that information in our brain. 

You might know this already but the memory artists you see on television who are able to memorise and repeat hundreds of digits in the exact same order. These people are bright for sure but this awesome memory mainly the result of regular training and most important because they use a way to associate each number with a symbol, letter or anything else and form a recallable story out of it.

I am sure most of you remember stories that your parent read to you when you where little. The reason you remember them all your live basically is because this information (the story) have a strong emotional binding with you.

If you feed your brain information in a way that is structured  the way your brain thinks, than it will be much easier for you to access that information.

Above picture is a mind map I created a few days before an interview. I structured the information in such a way I knew I could remember and easily access. This absolutely helped me to respond quickly and with confidence.

So to summarise, just reading through a book will not give you much because there no chance your brain will be able to make a connection to everything you read and build associations to it. If you want to get the most of your reading you need to structure the information that is important to you in a way that makes sense to you.

Confucius got it right when he said "“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”