This is a transcript of one of the videos in the plain language training course Writing well at work. There are references to slides and visual material that are only available by viewing the video.
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Natural thinking is not linear
Tony’s big idea there is that we naturally don’t think in a linear fashion. I mean, we can train our minds over time to do that, but naturally it’s not in a linear fashion where we think this thought, this thought, this thought.
The way that we naturally think is ideas pop from the left and from the right in an almost unpredictable way. That is the power of the mind map, because we’re able to capture that thinking very, very quickly and efficiently.
Well, let me just take you through how we build a mind map.
We’re going to start with something that you’re going to say is fairly trivial. What I’m going to do is I’m going to suggest that you start with a blank piece of paper, but turn your paper from portrait mode into landscape mode. Now in some ways that is a trivial thing, but if I keep my page in portrait mode, I’m more tempted to write a list down the page. Merely turning it sideways so that it’s in landscape will physically break that. And does make it easier to do this mind mapping exercise.
The second thing is you’ll add some words on the mind map and these words are not complete sentences. They’re words or phrases or diagrams, just enough to capture the idea so that when you look at the mind map, you know what that’s about. And they will be scattered around your mind map. You simply write those down as they come to mind?
Now the other thing you see on mine maps are lines. They are significant because they tell us that these ideas are connected in some way. It doesn’t tell us the nature of that connection. It just says that these ideas are connected and that’s helpful.
Now when you build a mind map, this is your thinking. You can do anything you like with it. You can use some colour coding. You can use some symbols, whatever it is that helps you think it through. That’s fine.
But what you should end up with is this sort of radiant structure that you see in a mind map with a central idea in the middle, and then all these other ideas to the left and to the right. And there’ll be some. Branches and sub branches from those. A collection of all the different ideas that you’ve thought about around this document that you are writing.
Mind maps can be messy
Now your mind map does not need to be neat. This is your personal thinking. So whatever works for you is fine. When I construct a mind map, it’s not neat. My handwriting is very fairly messy, but it doesn’t really matter that much. It’s all about a tool for you to think.
Now I know that there are some mind mapping softwares out there, different apps. I’ve tried a handful of those and I haven’t found them very useful. Now I’m not 100% sure why that is. One possibility is I’m an old bloke. I didn’t grow up with computers and so having this extra layer of interface just gets in the way for me. But I do think that there is something significant about what goes on between your hand and your mind as you are writing with pen and paper. So I think that’s another component to keep in mind.
Anyway you try it, figure out what works for you. What we’re trying to do is to get our ideas down as quickly as we possibly can.
Mind maps to discover ideas
One of the things that’s going on when we mind map is that I discover the things that I know. I’ll say that again, I discover the things that I know. You see everything that I put down on the mind map has actually come out of my head. So I do know it. But now when I see it on a piece of paper in front of me, I see all those ideas together. I’ve discovered the things that I know, that is really helpful.
Mind maps to connect ideas
The other thing that can happen when you mind map is that sometimes you can find new associations. So you map the ideas on your mind map and as you look at your map you’ll see an idea on the left side of the mind map – hey, that’s actually connected to an idea on the right side of the mind map. I wasn’t aware of that connection before and that can be really helpful to find some of these. New and novel connections.
Mind mapping is a powerful way of thinking about content.
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