Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind.

Because of various benefits which one can reap from Mind Maps, it will help you succeed in academia, or in the workplace. They allow you to bridge the gap between the thought and the capture, thus improving retention.

The Importance of Mind Maps

Mind maps are a visual representation of information, with branches representing subtopics from a common idea.

What are Mind Maps?

The slash mind map utilizes slashes in favor of classic notes. You can have branches which cover more specific information.

The Slash Mind Map

It will save you significant amounts of time if you omit specific facts from a lecture. Instead, cover broad topics with each node. You can always search things up.

No facts - Just concepts

<ol><li>Start with your main idea</li><li>Add branches to this idea</li><li>Add images/colors</li><li>Continue branching</li></ol>

The Guide

Make a node in your mind map, generally the title of the lecture, or the main idea of the current slide.Remember - stay as general as possible.

The Main Idea

The initial branches should still be general. As you branch out further, and the radial tree gets more complex, the nodes become more specific in scope.Don't jot facts here. This should just be a title of the subtopic, or concept.

Branching out

If you are a visual learner, and find joy in aesthetic colors/images, you can supplement the mind map structure with auxiliary images.Try to do this after the lecture is over.

Images/Colors

I have started to use mind maps more often, and I love them. They force you to take what the lecturer says, and summarize it as simply as possible. Further, you have to break that summary into logical, coherent parts. I can take a glance at my lesson summaries, and see the general flow of the lecture. If I need to see a specific topic, I can search the tree formation by subtopic, or use Google if necessary.

Final Thoughts

I recently wrote an article on my blog, EdEfficiency, on the topic of Mind Maps. I started implementing them in my Biology lectures, and saw miraculous results. I was able to remember more content, and had easy notes to reference later on.

Active recall allows the user to study much more efficiently. It prompts 
you to recall the term from your memory, instead of trying to embed it 
there through re-reading. This article teaches you active recall techniques 
that you can implement right away.

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Personal Development

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Reading & Writing

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Learning & Education

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Creativity

Active Recall: The path to mastery. | EdEfficiency

Despite the vehement push of our contemporary culture to despise laziness, and champion discipline, laziness can actually be utilized to your advantage.

Inherent Laziness

In essence, if you make something easier to begin, you will be more likely to make substantive progress on that activity. This applies to habit building as well - you are more likely to ingrain a habit that is easier to start and perform.

Easier = Better

You can accomplish this in a myriad of ways:<ol><li>Have a dedicated area for studying.</li><li>Put your study paraphernalia in places of easy access. </li><li>Have similar items together (pens in a jar, books on a bookshelf, etc.)</li><li>Try to stay organized as best as possible.</li></ol>

Making it 'easier'

The converse of this idea is that: If you make something harder to begin/access, you will make little/no progress on that activity. This is an important notion for removing unnecessary elements from our studying lives.

The Converse

If you are distracted by Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, or any other social media app, we can use this method to remove them, and be less distracted whilst studying.

Applications for this idea

As you can probably guess, we accomplish this by making these things harder to access.<ol><li>Put your phone into another room - you will have to walk over to the other room in order to access it.</li><li>Silence notifications</li><li>If applicable, use a website blocker to temporarily prevent you from accessing distracting websites.</li></ol>

How to accomplish this

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”

If we can make something as easy as possible, 'just getting started' will seem like a breeze, and you will see an immediate improvement in your life, wherever you apply it.

If you want to study well, you need to make studying as easy as possible. 
The answer to this lies in our inherent human characteristics, and, if used 
correctly, can prevent procrastination, and make studying easier to begin.

Active Recall: The path to mastery. | EdEfficiency

How to make Studying Easier. | EdEfficiency

Jeremy Kamber