Tweet

Learn and Improve Your Memory Using Mind Maps With Ridiculous Images

Guest post by: Dave Determan

Article Overview: You can improve your ability to learn new things using mind maps. To help you quickly remember details associate them with ridiculous images.

Learn and Improve Your Memory Using Mind Maps With Ridiculous Images

Some people seem to be blessed with the ability to effortlessly remember things. My wife has a fantastic memory. She can look at a table with a dozen random items on it for a couple of seconds and later tell you every item that was on the table. I’m not sure whether she developed this skill or whether she was born with it - the old nature-nurture question. I, on the other hand, don’t have it. I certainly wasn’t born with it and I have to work really hard at remembering anything. Luckily I‘ve discovered several techniques to help me. One trick I learned was to mentally place each item I want to remember into the various rooms of my home. This works fine when I want to quickly remember several random things for a short time. It doesn’t work so well when I want to learn something and retain it for a longer time. The trick that I use for this is a little unusual but it works great. I create a mind map of the information I want to learn. Then to help me remember particular nuggets like a name or date I’ll associate it with a really ridiculous and outrageous image. The more outrageous and ridiculous the image the better I can remember it. I’d been using mind maps to brainstorm, organize and do creative thinking for years. I began to mind map things just to understand them better and it became obvious just how powerful mind mapping is in helping me to remember.

If you’re not familiar with mind maps they’re easy to learn and understand. Just google “mind maps” and you’ll be creating your own maps in minutes. There are some good videos on YouTube. Creating a mind map of the stuff I wanted to learn has always been sort of a personal euphoric experience for me. The map is a reflection of me and how my brain works and how it wants to organize the information. No two brains are the same and no two mind maps will be the same. That’s the real beauty of it – it’s mine! I see the big picture at a glance and how all the stuff fits together. Once I’ve got everything in and organized I begin to make it pretty. I use different text styles to mean one thing, different sizes to mean another and different colors to mean something else. It all makes sense to me and just seems to help me. The map turns into my own little piece of visual creative art. Each little visual touch gives me an additional meaning and makes it easier for me to remember.

I first discovered the trick of associating an image with the thing I’m trying to remember while googling for tips on improving my memory. The first time I tried it I conjured up some image and began looking for it in the library of images on my computer. It was a waste of time. It took a long time and the image I finally found was not really what I was looking for. By the time I found it I had lost my focus and it took awhile for me to get back to what I was doing. Getting these conjured images from the web works much better. I simply do an image search in Google describing my outrageous and ridiculous image. I select an image and simply copy and paste it into my mind map. Voila! I’ve given my brain something to hook some information onto.

I have come to rely on this technique whenever I need to quickly climb the learning curve. I used it recently when I had an urgent need to become conversant with all things Harry Potter after I asked the question: “What’s a snape?” It became obvious that I had a major gap in my education and I immediately began creating my Harry Potter map. Of course that’s an exception and a little whimsical. You’ll probably use it to ramp up on things like your latest project -- players, products, market, competitors and financials. If you’re not yet into mind mapping give it a try. Reading about them just isn’t enough. Take the time to download a free version and actually start experiencing mind mapping by creating your own maps.

Related Articles
  How To Improve Your Memory To Help Your Business
  ••••••> 6 Tips to Optimize your Website for Google Images, ISEO
  Powerful Memory Enhancers That Boost, Energize and Improve Memory
  Staging Diva’s Top Photography Tips for Home Stagers: Part 1
  Can Concentration Really Improve Memory?
  New Tools Make it Easier to Book Sales Meetings
  How Can I Encode Information in the Brain to Improve Memory?
  Can Self-Talk Implement Success or Failure?
  How to Improve Your Memory
  Like to Double Your Memory - Permanently?
  Amazing Foods to Improve Your Memory and Basic Memory Mechanics
  Leadership with Mind Mapping
  Ways to Improve Your Memory
  Boost Your Branding With A Slogan
  Let Your Fantasy Be Your Reality
  Optimizing Websites with Heat Map Analytics
  What Is Accelerated Learning?
  Phenomenal Memory Vitamins to Increase Brain Encoding Methods
  How to Optimize Google Images And Increase Your Website Traffic
  The Power of Memory Supplements & the Basic Memory Mechanic A, B, C's

Article Tags: improve memory, learning tool, mind map, mind mapping



Related Forum Posts
Best Month For Getting Financed? - I would think that November and December would be bad, as most people are busy racking up debt in the holiday season... has there ever been a study on what are the most popular months for people getting loans? Although, with the current breakdown in banks, I suppose all the old paradigms are going to be trashed, and new ways of doing things will have to be learned. Quite a few large comapanies seem to be built on nothing but smoke and mirrors, with nothing to back them up... Much as I hate to see thousands of people thrown out of work just before Christmas, the Unions have way too sweet a deal wth the Big 3 Automakers. Laid off workers get paid 95% of their paycheck, indefinitely? Ridiculous!
Re: What I Enjoyed Reading This Week - Oct 14 - I really enjoyed the Improve your vision with an app article in the New Scientist. I don't wear glasses and think a lot of people cripple their vision by wearing specs from an early age instead of exercising their eyes... Nice to see someone has developed an ap that will help.
Re: New McDonalds McCafe concept... - When it comes to Japanese service and quality control, I tend to take it for granted... until I return to Britain! Mind you, when it comes to cafes... You can't beat a good old British tea shop!
Lisa Shepherd Story - Great story! I love the Earn - Learn - Equity - it's very relavent for new entrepreneurs.
Re: How to Use Twitter to Market Products? - Twitter is very useful for sales and marketing especially for the promotion of products and services. Do the following while active on Twitter:- 1. Follow the people having same interest 2. Post Unique and eye catching content 3. Post Images 4. Take your user name as your favorite product name or brand name. 5. Re tweet, replies and make favorite the posts 6. Create list of people interacting with you 7. Try to active at least 5 day a week.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Soda Vending Machine = Energy Hog

Are You Fulfilled

The True Cost of Employee Turnover

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.