How to Accelerate Your Learning: Using Advanced Mind Mapping Techniques

Click on the image for a larger view.

The mind map above as well as the text below come from http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/08/18/how-to-accelerate-your-learning-using-advanced-mind-mapping-techniques/

Note: This is a guest post by Adam Sincinski of The Study Matrix blog. To assist you with understanding the concepts, techniques and strategies outlined within this article, please download the free Study Matrix 101 pdf and utilize it as a visual reference tool to help guide you through this process.

• Do you ever find yourself becoming easily overwhelmed with trying to remember and manage large amounts of information?
• Do you struggle to remember key concepts and pieces of information that are critical to your academic, business and career success?
• Do you ever envy those who just seem to remember and recall information with the greatest amount of ease and without any effort?
• Have you ever wondered about your potential to develop a photographic memory?
• Have you ever considered that Mind Mapping might actually be the solution you have been searching for all this time?

The concept of Mind Mapping has been floating around the education sector for quite some time now. First popularized by Tony Buzan several decades ago, it has since grown in stature mainly within academic circles. Originally utilized as a means of making sense of large fragments of information, it has since been adapted and applied into many industries and fields of endeavor.
This article will provide you with a quick introduction to an advanced process of Mind Mapping that will help you accelerate your learning ability by improving and enhancing your photographic memory and recall of information. The instructions and guidelines presented here will essentially take you through the step-by-step process of creation and learning that goes into a concept known as a Study Matrix.

What is a Study Matrix?
A Study Matrix is essentially a combination of 3 key mapping techniques that have been utilized throughout the academic and business world in a variety of ways to manage and make sense of processes and large fragments of information. These 3 techniques include:

Mind Mapping – is a diagram with a central topic or image that branches out from its middle into related concepts and ideas that break the topic down into its smaller parts. It is essentially used to structure, classify, visualize, and generate ideas for organization, problem solving, decision making and for study purposes.

Concept Mapping – is a diagram that shows the interlocking relationships between a variety of different concepts and ideas utilizing intersecting arrows and labels.

Flowcharting – is essentially a schematic representation of a process.
What are the Benefits of Learning from a Study Matrix?
The Study Matrix technique of accelerated learning is very organic in nature and naturally mimics our brain’s capacity to think, remember and recall information. By teaching yourself how to design your own Study Matrix’s will provide you with the ability to create vivid learning aids that will dramatically improve your methods and strategies of managing large fragments of information.

Here is a look at some other benefits you will derive from taking the time to effectively incorporate this technique into your daily information management habits:

• It summarizes the most important information clearly and concisely making it easy to reference and learn from.
• It summarizes only the most critical, important and relevant facts that are applicable to the topic under study.
• It naturally helps to create links and associations within the brain to related concepts and ideas that are necessary and required to master the subject you are learning.
• It can accelerate your speed of learning, thusly reducing the amount of time you spend on your studies.
• It can accelerate your recall of information during examinations by up to 500%.
• It encourages ease of learning and the creative flow of new ideas and insights.
• It makes learning more fun and entertaining.
• It encourages the development of photographic memory and recall of key concepts and ideas presented within the Study Matrix.
• It improves focus, concentration and encourages us to learn information in manageable chunks.

Next, we will begin breaking down each of the parts that go into the formation of a Study Matrix. Every component that will be discussed is an essential piece of the Study Matrix that is critical to the entire structure - just as much as a kidney is essential to the balance and health of a body.

Pathways – The Branches that Interlock the Disconnected Parts
Pathways are the organic-like lines and arrows that interlock and connect all the different segments of a Study Matrix. Their purpose is to link concepts, words, phrases and ideas in an associative manner that improves memory and recall of information. They are organic in nature (smooth branch like structures) because this naturally mimics the brain’s neurological tendencies and processes of thinking. They are also purposefully “unbroken” in their design, thusly allowing your eyes to glide smoothly from one piece of information to another as you read the Study Matrix.
A Study Matrix utilizes 3 alternating pathway structures for different purposes:

• Lines – Connect words and phrases within a hierarchical tree branch, synaptic, and organic-like structure. This essentially means that as you move out from the central image of the Study Matrix, that the pathways naturally become thinner.
• Arrows – Help to identify the directional flow of a pathway.
• Colors – At times different colors are utilized to represent seemingly unrelated crisscrossing pathways. These colors can either signify a change in direction, change in time, in place, or an alternative intersecting idea. To simplify things, when reading a Study Matrix it is important to follow along with the pathway color you are reading until you reach an ending.

Colors – The Memory Enhancing Separation Tool
Colors are an important and critical component of a Study Matrix helping to boost memory, recall and ease of learning. They are effectively used for a number of key purposes:

• To distinguish segments, topics and specific events that take place among fragments of information presented within the Study Matrix.
• Because they help distinguish key pieces of information, they effectively provide greater clarity, thusly opening up the channels to accelerated learning.
• At times they are used as a means of changing the time or place of key interlinking fragments of information within a Study Matrix.
• Finally, they can also represent different perspectives or points of view to further help distinguish the variety of information presented within a Study Matrix.

Pictures – The Strategic Associative Tool that Builds Photographic Memory
Pictures are great memory building tools because they are much easier to remember than words alone. In fact, if you take a moment to close your eyes and think about what you did yesterday, you will quickly realize that all your thoughts actually come through an interlocking associative collection of picture fragments that lay down the foundations of memory. Through a similar means within a Study Matrix, pictures make interlocking associative connections with words, ideas and concepts helping to boost the memory and recall of information we are learning.

• Pictures make powerful and lasting associations with the issues, themes, phrases, symbols, and words scattered throughout a Study Matrix.
• Pictures assist with improving the memorization and recall of key concepts and pieces of information.
• Pictures naturally stimulate the visual learning process making learning fun, entertaining and enjoyable.
• Pictures are connected and associated with words in 5 common ways:
• Pictures can literally “word-for-word” represent the words they are associated with.
• Pictures can metaphorically represent the words they are linked to.
• Pictures can symbolically represent the words they are linked to.
• Pictures can sound-like the words and phrases they are connected with.
• In other instances, pictures can simply replace words altogether.

Symbols – Expanding Our Awareness and Understanding
Symbols play an important part in helping you to pinpoint key concepts and ideas presented within your Study Matrix. They are essentially a tool that will help you to expand your understanding and awareness about the information you are learning.

• Symbols will help you segment critical facts and pieces of information making them discernible to the naked eye.
• Symbols will organize and categorize your information into easy and manageable learning chunks.
• Symbols will support the key insights, themes, issues and ideas within your Study Matrix, thusly making them easier to remember and recall.
• Symbols can also be utilized to highlight the relevance and importance of certain pieces of information.

The type of symbols that can be utilized within a Study Matrix depends on the structure of your information and the purpose of your learning. To get you started, here are some common symbols that can be utilized within a Study Matrix to help identify key concepts and ideas in quick succession (please refer to the Study Matrix 101 diagram for a visual overview of these symbols):

• NO Assumptions – This symbol can alert you to key words or phrases within your Study Matrix that can be easily misunderstood or misconstrued in some way.
• Major Themes – This symbol can be utilized to quickly identify major themes and issues that are relevant and important to your understanding about the topic you are learning.
• Key Points / Ideas – This symbol can draw your attention to key ideas that are most important to remember. These ideas may in some way build upon the foundations of other concepts within your Study Matrix.
• Seek More Information – A Study Matrix represents only key concepts and ideas about a specific topic or subject. However, at times there will be important pieces of information that you may like to expand upon throughout the learning process. In such cases, simply create a symbol that you can utilize to pinpoint areas within your Study Matrix where further research is required.
• Study Questions – This symbol is utilized to identify key questions that help you expand on certain concepts and ideas within your Study Matrix.
• Stop & Reflect – This symbol is used to highlight important concepts or ideas that require some thought and reflection.
• Setting or Location – This symbol is utilized to identify a key setting or location that you would like to highlight within your Study Matrix.
• Time or Period – This symbol is utilized to identify key dates or periods that are important to remember.

Once inserted into the Study Matrix, these symbols will help you to immediately recognize key pieces of information that are essential to your learning of the material you are studying.

Content Pieces – Representing the Foundational Structure of Your Learning

The Content Pieces of the Study Matrix are the distinguishing elements that help to improve the readability of the information you are learning. You will notice in the Study Matrix 101 diagram that different Content Pieces effectively represent alternative distinguishing concepts and ideas within the Study Matrix.

As such, they each have their own unique look and style in order to assist the human eye in breaking through the clutter of not being able to distinguish between different fragments and pieces of information. Hence, when you are creating your Study Matrix it is critical that you take the time to distinguish specific Content Pieces from all others. This will help you to better recognize them throughout the learning process.

Another critical component of the Study Matrix extends from the Connector Words that smooth the transition between the Content Pieces. The primary purpose of the Connector Words is to improve comprehension and understanding of the material.

Pure Mind Maps do not utilize Connector Words, making it difficult for other people reading your mind maps to comprehend the information you represented in a consistent fashion. However, by utilizing Connector Words you essentially open the doors of comprehension and understanding that make your Study Matrix’s easier to remember and recall.

Other Bits – Bringing Everything Full Circle
In order to further enhance the readability of a Study Matrix, it is important to incorporate a few more essential components into your design:

• Font Differentiation – The size and style of the font utilized within a Study Matrix differentiates the relative importance of key concepts and ideas. As a general rule, the further the Study Matrix pathways extend out from the center of the Matrix, the smaller the font becomes. This thusly helps improve readability.
• Hierarchical Structure of Pathways & Pieces – In a similar fashion, the pathways and pieces are also effectively miniaturized the further the Study Matrix expands from its central location.
• Numerical Sequences – Numbers are utilized in order to highlight numerical sequences of events or pieces of information that are important in helping us expand our understanding of the topic we are learning.
• Pathway Stoppers – These are RED Dots that represent punctuation “full stops” along theStudy Matrix pathways. Whenever you come across one of these, just take a breath and continue reading a new sentence.
  

Study Matrix Accelerated Learning Study Plan
The following points present you with a quick strategy that will help you to develop a photographic memory of the Study Matrix you are learning from. Feel free to adjust this strategy any way you wish in order to fit your ideal learning style and preferences.

Day 1

• Peruse the Study Matrix identifying key symbols, headings, colors, pictures, words, patterns and other landmarks.
• Focus on the Study Matrix’s organic structure, the sequences of numbers and the white space surrounding the information. Your goal is to effectively create a mental snapshot of the entire Study Matrix.
• Divide the Study Matrix into efficient learning chunks based on color.
• Begin reading the Study Matrix one color chunk at a time from the central image moving outwards - all the while chunking the information into even smaller bits and pieces (progress in a clockwise direction). As you are processing this information be sure to utilize the pictures and symbols to help improve your memory and recall.
• As you read gently guide your eyes over the dark pathway lines and arrows, much like following directions along a street map.
• Follow the 3R+T Process of learning by firstly Reading the color chunk aloud as you create mental pictures of the material. Secondly, close your eyes and Recall the color chunk from memory. Thirdly, return to the Study Matrix color chunk and Review your memory and recall of this information by reading through it once again. Finally, Test yourself by physically sketching that color chunk of the Study Matrix onto a piece of paper. Continue moving through the 3R+T Process until you complete all the color chunks successfully.
• Next, take yourself through the 3R+T process (Reading, Recalling, Reviewing, and Testing) for the Study Matrix as a whole. This will help to assimilate the entire Study Matrix into your long-term memory.
  

Day 2

• Reverse the 3R+T Process and move through the color chunks of the Study Matrix in an anti-clockwise direction on the second day of learning.

Day 3

• Peruse the Study Matrix as a whole and sketch it out on paper for a third time. If you are unable to remember some parts, than go back to these segments of the Study Matrix, review them and sketch in the relevant details accordingly.

Day 4 to 7

• Finalize your understanding of the material by testing yourself with a set of questions - you personally prepared in advance - related to the content you are learning presented within the Study Matrix. Before answering these questions be sure to quickly overview the Study Matrix as a whole paying particular attention to bits and pieces that were difficult to remember during Day 3.
• This 7 Day accelerated learning study plan should help you to build almost 100% recall of the information you are learning. Test this process by utilizing the Study Matrix 101 download as an experimental tool. In conclusion, please set challenging yet doable time limits for each step of this process. The better you are at sticking with these time frames, the more efficient your learning will become.

How do I go about creating such a Study Matrix?
You effectively have 2 options. You can either draw them out on paper or you can utilize a Mind Mapping software package. Here is a list of recommended Mind Mapping software tools:

• Mindjet MindManager – Free 30 Day Trial – ideal for brainstorming and creating large mind maps.
• Tony Buzan’s iMindMap – Free 7 Day Free Trial – the most graphically pleasant software package.
• 3D Topicscape – Free 30 Day Trial – 3D mind mapping software package.
• NovaMind – Free 30 Day Trial – ideal for brainstorming and creating large mind maps.
• FreeMind – great Free flexible mind mapping package.

Feel free to visit the List of Mind Mapping Software Wikipedia page for further information and suggestions.

If you are interested in learning more about Mind Mapping than visit some of the following helpful resources

• Mappio Mind Maps – A website showcasing a large variety of Mind Maps.
• Topicscape Mind Maps – A website showcasing almost 1,000 Mind Maps.
• Mind Map Search – A website with the largest collection of Mind Mapping resources and links.

Adam Sincinski is active over at the The Study Matrix blog. If you haven’t done so already, please feel free to download the full pdf version of Study Matrix 101 here.

16 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in School

This list is from:

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/04/02/16-things-i-wish-they-had-taught-me-in-school/

Pretty provocative, I think:

1. The 80/20 rule.
This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The 80/20 rule – also known as The Pareto Principle – basically says that 80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of your activities.
So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to do as you may think.
You can just drop – or vastly decrease the time you spend on – a whole bunch of things.
And if you do that you will have more time and energy to spend on those things that really brings your value, happiness, fulfilment and so on.

2. Parkinson’s Law.
You can do things quicker than you think. This law says that a task will expand in time and seeming complexity depending on the time you set aside for it. For instance, if you say to yourself that you’ll come up with a solution within a week then the problem will seem to grow more difficult and you’ll spend more and more time trying to come up with a solution.
So focus your time on finding solutions. Then just give yourself an hour (instead of the whole day) or the day (instead of the whole week) to solve the problem. This will force your mind to focus on solutions and action.
The result may not be exactly as perfect as if you had spent a week on the task, but as mentioned in the previous point, 80 percent of the value will come from 20 percent of the activities anyway. Or you may wind up with a better result because you haven’t overcomplicated or overpolished things. This will help you to get things done faster, to improve your ability to focus and give you more free time where you can totally focus on what’s in front of you instead of having some looming task creating stress in the back of your mind.

3. Batching.
Boring or routine tasks can create a lot of procrastination and low-level anxiety. One good way to get these things done quickly is to batch them. This means that you do them all in row. You will be able to do them quicker because there is less “start-up time” compared to if you spread them out. And when you are batching you become fully engaged in the tasks and more focused.
A batch of things to do in an hour today may look like this: Clean your desk / answer today’s emails / do the dishes / make three calls / write a grocery shopping list for tomorrow.

4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
This is a bit of a counter-intuitive thing. There is often an idea that someone should give us something or do something for us before we give back. The problem is just that a lot of people think that way. And so far less than possible is given either way.
If you want to increase the value you receive (money, love, kindness, opportunities etc.) you have to increase the value you give. Because over time you pretty much get what you give. It would perhaps be nice to get something for nothing. But that seldom happens.

5. Be proactive. Not reactive.
This one ties into the last point. If everyone is reactive then very little will get done. You could sit and wait and hope for someone else to do something. And that happens pretty often, but it can take a lot of time before it happens.
A more useful and beneficial way is to be proactive, to simply be the one to take the first practical action and get the ball rolling. This not only saves you a lot of waiting, but is also more pleasurable since you feel like you have the power over your life. Instead of feeling like you are run by a bunch of random outside forces.

6. Mistakes and failures are good.
When you are young you just try things and fail until you learn. As you grow a bit older, you learn from - for example - school to not make mistakes. And you try less and less things.
This may cause you to stop being proactive and to fall into a habit of being reactive, of waiting for someone else to do something. I mean, what if you actually tried something and failed? Perhaps people would laugh at you?
Perhaps they would. But when you experience that you soon realize that it is seldom the end of the world. And a lot of the time people don’t care that much. They have their own challenges and lives to worry about.
And success in life often comes from not giving up despite mistakes and failure. It comes from being persistent.
When you first learn to ride your bike you may fall over and over. Bruise a knee and cry a bit. But you get up, brush yourself off and get on the saddle again. And eventually you learn how to ride a bike. If you can just reconnect to your 5 year old self and do things that way - instead of giving up after a try/failure or two as grown-ups often do – you would probably experience a lot more interesting things, learn valuable lessons and have quite a bit more success.

7. Don’t beat yourself up.
Why do people give up after just few mistakes or failures? Well, I think one big reason is because they beat themselves up way too much. But it’s a kinda pointless habit. It only creates additional and unnecessary pain inside you and wastes your precious time. It’s best to try to drop this habit as much as you can.

8. Assume rapport.
Meeting new people is fun. But it can also induce nervousness. We all want to make a good first impression and not get stuck in an awkward conversation.
The best way to do this that I have found so far is to assume rapport. This means that you simply pretend that you are meeting one of your best friends. Then you start the interaction in that frame of mind instead of the nervous one.
This works surprisingly well. You can read more about it in How to Have Less Awkward Conversations: Assuming Rapport.

9. Use your reticular activation system to your advantage.
I learned about the organs and the inner workings of the body in class but nobody told me about the reticular activation system. And that’s a shame, because this is one of the most powerful things you can learn about. What this focus system, this R.A.S, in your mind does is to allow you to see in your surroundings what you focus your thoughts on. It pretty much always helps you to find what you are looking for.
So you really need to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. And keep that focus steady.
Setting goals and reviewing them frequently is one way to keep your focus on what’s important and to help you take action that will move your closer to toward where you want to go. Another way is just to use external reminders such as pieces of paper where you can, for instance, write down a few things from this post like “Give value” or “Assume rapport”. And then you can put those pieces of paper on your fridge, bathroom mirror etc.

10. Your attitude changes your reality.
We have all heard that you should keep a positive attitude or perhaps that “you need to change your attitude!”. That is a nice piece of advice I suppose, but without any more reasons to do it is very easy to just brush such suggestions off and continue using your old attitude.
But the thing that I’ve discovered the last few years is that if you change your attitude, you actually change your reality. When you for instance use a positive attitude instead of a negative one you start to see things and viewpoints that were invisible to you before. You may think to yourself “why haven’t I thought about things this way before?”.
When you change you attitude you change what you focus on. And all things in your world can now be seen in a different light.
This is of course very similar to the previous tip but I wanted to give this one some space. Because changing your attitude can create an insane change in your world. It might not look like it if you just think about it though. Pessimism might seem like realism. But that is mostly because your R.A.S is tuned into seeing all the negative things you want to see. And that makes you “right” a lot of the time. And perhaps that is what you want. On the other hand, there are more fun things than being right all the time.
If you try changing your attitude for real – instead of analysing such a concept in your mind - you’ll be surprised.
You may want to read more about this topic in Take the Positivity Challenge!

11. Gratitude is a simple way to make yourself feel happy.
Sure, I was probably told that I should be grateful. Perhaps because it was the right thing to do or just something I should do. But if someone had said that feeling grateful about things for minute or two is a great way to turn a negative mood into a happy one I would probably have practised gratitude more. It is also a good tool for keeping your attitude up and focusing on the right things. And to make other people happy. Which tends to make you even happier, since emotions are contagious.

12. Don’t compare yourself to others.
The ego wants to compare. It wants to find reasons for you to feel good about yourself (“I’ve got a new bike!”). But by doing that it also becomes very hard to not compare yourself to others who have more than you (“Oh no, Bill has bought an even nicer bike!”). And so you don’t feel so good about yourself once again. If you compare yourself to others you let the world around control how you feel about yourself. It always becomes a rollercoaster of emotions.
A more useful way is to compare yourself to yourself. To look at how far you have come, what you have accomplished and how you have grown. It may not sound like that much fun but in the long run it brings a lot more inner stillness, personal power and positive feelings.

13. 80-90% of what you fear will happen never really come into reality.
This is a big one. Most things you fear will happen never happen. They are just monsters in your own mind. And if they happen then they will most often not be as painful or bad as you expected. Worrying is most often just a waste of time.
This is of course easy to say. But if you remind yourself of how little of what you feared throughout your life that has actually happened you can start to release more and more of that worry from your thoughts.

14. Don’t take things too seriously.
It’s very easy to get wrapped up in things. But most of the things you worry about never come into reality. And what may seem like a big problem right now you may not even remember in three years.
Taking yourself, your thoughts and your emotions too seriously often just seems to lead to more unnecessary suffering. So relax a little more and lighten up a bit. It can do wonders for your mood and as an extension of that; your life.

15. Write everything down.
If your memory is anything like mine then it’s like a leaking bucket. Many of your good or great ideas may be lost forever if you don’t make a habit of writing things down. This is also a good way to keep your focus on what you want. Read more about it in Why You Should Write Things Down.

16. There are opportunities in just about every experience.
In pretty much any experience there are always things that you can learn from it and things within the experience that can help you to grow. Negative experiences, mistakes and failure can sometimes be even better than a success because it teaches you something totally new, something that another success could never teach you.
Whenever you have a “negative experience” ask yourself: where is the opportunity in this? What is good about this situation? One negative experience can – with time – help you create many very positive experiences.