Why do you need good notes? How does successful note taking help you?

Dr. Priyanga de Zoysa

For a student, good notes will make the difference between scoring high or low at exams. For a parent it will help to assist children's school work very easily and happily. For an executive it will help organizing speeches, taking down all the points during meetings, in one paper.

Close your eyes and think of a large movie screen. Imagine an apple on the screen. Where did you see the apple? If you are like most people, you may have seen an apple in the middle of the screen and in colour. Similarly your mind registers information from the centre, and in colour. Mental mapping works comfortably with your mind.

In the 70's, Tony Buzan originated mind maps, a way of note making starting from the centre of a paper and spreading out. Also in the 70's, developers of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Richard Bandler and John Grinder, described the concept of modalities and sub modalities. Accordingly, you remember and recall information through a combination of pictures, colours, shapes, sounds, feelings and sensations. Memory masters like Larry Lorayne showed that movement, colour, humour, emotion, and association help you to remember amazingly. Mental maps are built using all these techniques.

HOW TO MAKE A Mental MAP

1. Make Mental Maps horizontally. This gives you more space. Take a blank paper. Turn the paper horizontally. Always write the title of the main idea, or draw a picture or a symbol that will represent the main topic in the centre of the page. Surround it by drawing a square, a circle or any other shape. You may use any shape to surround the main idea. Make sure that you surround it completely.

2. Draw a branch starting from the centre for each principal idea. You may use a different colour for every branch. A main branch can be divided into more sub branches.

3. Write one or two key words which represent the main ideas above the lines of the main branches. A key word or key words is a word or words which represents the idea of a whole story, an entire chapter, or of a concept.

4. Use pictures, symbols, drawings. Develop a personal range of symbols. Write important ideas larger. Write important words in bold. Personalize your mental map. Make your Mental Map the way you want. Use colours and symbols you like. Be creative. Be brave. Construct mental maps that make you happy.

5. Recalling your Mental Map periodically, keep adding new ideas. Allow your Mental Map to grow. Help it to grow. Allow the mind map to form pictures in your mind. Allow your mental maps to become lively, growing, developing colourful, beautiful, joyful maps in your mind that keep continuously renewing. Stop reading . Find a book or magazine with something you want to remember. Start building a Mental Map. Start now.

A Mind Map on Mental Mapping Principles
(ADVICE: Change the Centre Topic of the above image to Mental Mapping Principles)
Dr. Priyanga de Zoysa Self Improvement Teacher and Best Selling Author www.BriliumHouse.com