Category Archives: Mind Mapping®

Mind Map Master – Tony Buzan passes

Sad news for us was that Tony Buzan died on 13 April 2019.

Vicki and I met him in 1981 in Johannesburg. A friend had set up a workshop from Tony called “Use Your Head.” She invited us to the session in Braamfontein because they were short of registrants! It was a freebie for us.

Tony was the leading authority on the brain who created the mind map technique. It has no peer for note-taking, creative thinking, presenting and much besides. He claims it has 250 million followers.

Sign up for –  FREE – How To Learn 200% Faster Secrets.

I’ll mail you a free “Business Writing that Works” textbook by Sharon Pywell if you are one of the first 5 to respond

* indicates required




The technique is like a Swiss army knife for the brain. As you well know, it encourages creative thinking and improves  memory.

Tony said he first noticed at school that some were intelligent – yet did not do well in traditional exams.

He first began to develop his ideas about memory and learning at the University of British Columbia. He was studying psychology, English and mathematics.  He noticed that the students who did well did not always have the neatest notes. In fact their notes tended to be messy and covered with doodles, scribbles and key words.

“The great thinkers, including Da Vinci and Montessori, always drew images and arrows and lines in their notes,” he said, according to The Herald of Scotland. “When I started using keyword notes, bigger letters, with colour and arrows, it allowed my brain to speak to myself with a lot less clutter. It was as if I’d been driving all my life with my windscreen caked in mud, and suddenly I could see clearly.”

After graduating from UBC in 1964, Buzan worked for a time as editor of the journal of Mensa, the high IQ society. A 1973 BBC series Use Your Head made him famous. He also published several books with the BBC which sold more than three million copies.

Tony was prolific- writing some 80 books in over 40 different languages.

He also established the World Memory Championships in 1991; the latest event will take place in Wuhan in China in December.

Speaking about his work, Buzan said his ideal was a world in which everybody was aware of their extraordinary potential. “And they use that for their own personal self development and to help others.”

His latest project was collaborating on Mind Maps for Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi’s new book Exam Warriors.

He had the greatest love of learning of anyone I ever met.

After the Braamfontein Use Your Head seminar we got to work with Tony and the Learning Methods Group. We gained new respect for ways to better ourselves – things like the importance of meditation, exercise, hobbies, music and culture.  We later set up Thinking Skills Training in SA. And then in Australia when my mom emigrated there.

I have now got great responsibilities in a non-profit organisation. But  sharing Tony’s gifts continues. Find out how to transform yourself here.

Sign up for –  FREE – How To Learn 200% Faster Secrets.

I’ll mail you a free “Business Writing that Works” textbook by Sharon Pywell if you are one of the first 5 to respond

* indicates required



Learn to Learn

Learn to learn…

if you you want to do great things with your life.

Think about it. We were taught how to tie shoelaces as a kid – now we take it fore-granted. And is it not ridiculous that we know more about how to work a toaster – or iPad – than how to work our brain? And how do we learn quickly and effectively?

Dr Grace Saw decided to find out in Brisbane recently. Here she talks about what she discovered …

She talks about her experience learning how to do Mind Mapping and Power Learning.

Sign up for –  FREE – How To Learn 200% Faster Secrets.

I’ll mail you a free “Business Writing that Works” textbook by Sharon Pywell if you are one of the first 5 to respond

* indicates required



Right now have you a book that’s been gathering dust since you bought it before getting on the plane last year?

Try this:

  1. Spend two minutes reading the dust cover and chapter contents.
  2. Take a blank pice of paper and dump everything you ever knew about the topic without looking at the book again.
  3. Grab a little post-it note pad and flick through the book for just four minutes – time it. DON’T read anything that looks interesting, but DO pause just long enough to put a post-it note on it. In other words, flag anything that looks worth returning to later.
  4. Set yourself three study objectives – things you want to achieve with the book in the next hour.
  5. Write a study plan for the next hour on a piece of paper – just list a start time, a stop time, a break time and when will you review what you gleaned in the hour.
  6. Now start your study hour. First re-read the entire book in five minutes! Superficial? Yes! but just do it.
  7. Now start all over again and read the book for the third time in the next 35 minutes. Pace yourself – this time focus on the first and last paragrapgh of each chapter – or, if the book is well-summarised – go read the summaries. Highlight about 60 keywords during this time.
  8. Now STOP after the 35 minutes. Take a break for two minutes. Then make a mind map of what you highlighted. Take just 15 minutes for this. DONT cover any new material.
  9. Finally, take five minutes to dive back into the most important lesson you gleaned in the time so far, and read it slowly. Update your mind map, and you’re done.

Try it. You’ll be amazed.

Sign up for –  FREE – How To Learn 200% Faster Secrets.

I’ll mail you a free “Business Writing that Works” textbook by Sharon Pywell if you are one of the first 5 to respond

* indicates required



learn to learn

How Mind Mapping helps you with Motivation and Goal Setting

mind mappingThe world has changed. Things are hectic and everyone is in a rush to finish work-so your motivation for big-picture items like “get that MBA” suffers…

Mind Maps are a great help with motivation. They get the ball rolling and keep you focussed. Mind mapping helps you organise your ideas during the process of goal setting and then helps keep them in front of you–so you achieve more.

Here’s how to weave mind mapping into your goal setting to boost your motivation and achievement.

Write Down your Feelings and Accomplishments – How do you feel about your accomplishments?  Mind map them. You will have a number of accomplishments in your life. Mapping keeps them visible and memorable.

Set Personal Goals – Having goals is more than important. Knowing what your goals are is even more crucial. Map those goals. It helps you with the process of goal setting.  It helps you follow them, because they are more memorable. As you track your progress, cross the old goals off one by one. You will feel a sense of accomplishment.

Know your Reasons – What is your reason for wanting to accomplish this goal? What exactly is on your mind? Mapping is a splendid way to unlock your inner reasons.

Take Breaks –  Doing this helps to reduce your level of stress, and it harnesses your inner creativity. Research shows that taking breaks actually SAVES time. It saves more time than it uses!

Mind maps are a great way to boost your motivation, get going with your goal setting and speed the achievement of your personal goals.

Join our free newsletter. Learn 10X faster

* required

facebooklike

Mindmapping Mastery at Home or Work

LEARN MINDMAPPING – WHAT YOU WILL GAIN

Thinking Skills Mind Mapping Starter Kit
You’ll receive this new Mind Mapping Starter Kit
  • Learn new material quickly and effectively using mindmapping and power learning strategies
  • Solve problems more creatively
  • See the “big picture” – make better decisions
  • Improve your critical thinking
  • Remember names
  • Concentrate while in meetings, presentations or during study
  • Keep meetings focussed – for example during a strat planning session
  • Make better presentations – better prepared and better delivered
  • Improve idea generation, for example during a brainstorm
  • Read faster
  • Handle masses of information – in presentations, meetings or study.

“Excellent approach which has provided me with so much confidence in moving forward especially in my studies for masters.”    J.B., Perth

 

WHO WOULD LOVE IT

  • Those who need to gather huge amounts of information, both verbal and written (e.g. training course material, legislation, product and system specifications, software manuals, etc).,
  • Consultants, Managers and personnel undergoing training,
  • those who are on registered learnerships,
  • those who need better short term memory to remember key things and key people,
  • officers whose jobs require a degree of problem solving, creativity, information memorisation and recall, or where they act as change agents. This includes
  • staff of technology areas and other project environments,
  • project staff and change agents in line administration areas,
  • those identified for “fast track”,
  • members of graduate programmes,
  • systems analysts, business analysts, programmers, software specialists, systems programmers, analyst programmers, application programmers, project leaders, network consultants, support specialists,
  • junior, middle and senior managers, section managers, and
  • anyone doing any kind of thinking, brainstorming, or attending meetings or presentations.

It is not aimed directly at staff whose jobs are more routine, exercising the role of control and management of existing processes and procedures, unless their jobs specifically require:

  • processing large amounts of written material and
  • solving problems of a strategic or tactical nature,
  • or where radical change requires that their job roles, attitudes to work priorities and thinking styles need to change substantially to cope with change.

Thinking Skills helps learners to see the big picture. It has a wonderful impact on morale. Therefore any groups whose individual learners need “opening up” would benefit.

“This will assist in implementing the right structures and disciplines to significantly grow my personal effectiveness both professionally and personally. Thank you Richard, I have already identified some of my team that I will be recommending this to. And I learnt to juggle!”    T.H.,  Australia

Join our free weekly newsletter

* required


 

HOW  GET MORE INFO?

Email us at think@icon.co.za and we’ll do the rest

or call 011 483 0685

Mind Mapping for Problem Solving and More

Mind Mapping is for Problem Solving and lots more

Mind mapping from Tony Buzan is one of the coolest techniques you will ever learn for problem solving, note taking, learning and organizing your thoughts.

Search the internet and you will find millions of pages about it. Mind mapping is useful for almost any information-related task you care to name. Want to solve a problem? Record a lecture? Try a mind map. Want to prepare a presentation on the run in minimum time – use mind mapping and commit the result to Power Point. Need to plan a meeting? Track a meeting? Summarise a textbook or report?

Here is how to do it: its as easy as one-two-three …

You’ll need a writing space (pad, sheet, whiteboard, whatever), and a handful of colored markers. It works just as well using a free mindmapping tool like Freemind. I generally prefer paper and pens.

1. Topic goes in the centre – best is to embroider it with an image or even just a few colours to help turn on the right brain.

2. Then radiate your ideas from the centre – printing on lines. This is important. Why? – because it works.

3. Once you are done, you can add links, images, highlights – whatever is necessary to make the information come alive for you. If you are using mind mapping for study notes you will want to add images and colours to help make the written information more memorable.

You are using hierarchical thinking – much better for many tasks than traditional linear top-left-to-bottom-right notes.

It turns out that this is the way the brain works. The brain seems not to be optimized for traditional linear notes.

And the proof is in the pudding. Try it – you’ll see. I have been teaching mindmapping and problem solving for over twenty years, and my students never fail to be amazed at their results with this great tool.

Richard Broome has been teaching Thinking Skills workshops for many years in South Africa and Australia. There are sessions upcoming in Perth and Joburg.

For more info fill out the contact form top right.

Advanced Power Learning for Teens

Powerlearning for Teens in Houghton
Getting ready to Fly at a PowerLearning session

Would you like to have 4 hours of intensive coaching in Power Learning for your teenagers with Richard and Lulama?

ITS FOR TEENS …  That is:  13 – 19 years old

They desperately need to know what I wish I had known when I was at school and Varsity, i.e.:

* How to study
* how to concentrate
* How to remember
* Tips on Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping®, dumping, exam planning, and much more!

A seriously cool and fun session. Typical feedback is: “I actually learned a lot!”

I’m offering the session mainly as added value for parents who have attended the Thinking Skills workshop previously.

As you know, we believe learning should and can be fun. So we will have a lively conversation with those attending.  We’ll show them how to get through masses of textbooks in the shortest possible time so the have more time for the important things in life.

We’ll also cover: (Run this past the family at supper tonight!)

• How to take better notes and become teachers pet for the quality of your projects.

• How to manage study and homework time better.

• How to organise your thoughts onto paper better.

• Learn how your memory works – be noted for your brain power.

• Practice mnemonic techniques to recall names and lists.

• How to boost recall of a study session to find more time for life.

• How to turn on the mind/body chemistry of the “Aha!” response with meditation.

• Be inspired by your brain function and latent power.

• How to improve your success by use of breaks.

Venue:  Houghton TM Centre –  Sat 16 June
Cost:    R697 pp inc VAT.

HOW TO BOOK: Its easy! Just use the contact form above right

If you have already attended one of these courses with Richard, we’d love to hear of your successes!  Use the “message” field of the contact form top right.

Thinking Skills mindmap testimonial videos

Thinking skills teaches mindmaps for brainstorming and learning as a core business skill. A mind map is a great way to keep meetings tight and a great way to maximise creativity in a brainstorming session.

Mindmaps are also useful for accelerated learning. Workshop delegates typically study 10-30 times faster after the thinking skills workshop.

Doctor Grace Saw is information services director at Bond University in Australia. She recently attended a session I ran in Brisbane. Grace is an enthusiast and like all of us is operating in the thick of information overload, too little time, too much to do and unbelievable changes in the work and even our home environment.

And we bring to our lives a genetic inheritance which is judging by recent estimates somewhere between 50,000 and 2.4 million years old.

What I’m trying to say is that we’re all human. And anything we can do to cope with our circumstances we’re going to take on board. See what Grace had to say about her workshop here (in only 90 seconds). Grace describes her Thinking Skills workshop

Here is a second video clip running just three minutes. Three delegates discuss a thinking skills workshop at the Australian Institute of Management in Perth, WA. Julian, Lisa and Ian say how they plan to use mindmaps in their businesses. Lisa runs a rapidly expanding hire firm with an inventory of over 700 vehicles. Ian has responsibilities covering hundreds of staff. All three are concerned by the need to maximise creativity at work. Brainstorming is one thing they do a lot.

Finally, here is another short (80 seconds) clip of a Perth group discussing the workshop on the last day, last October. They had fun!

For more information on upcoming workshops, and lots more short videos, visit our Thinking Skills brochure page.

CONTACT US TO REGISTER, FOR INFO, OR TO ASK A QUESTION. USE THE FORM TOP RIGHT.