Why I use Mind Maps
by Paul on July 27, 2008
in Creativity, Drawing Tips, Mind Map Info
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Our brain thinks in images
As you will discover from reading Tony Buzan Books, he explains that we think in pictures – our minds process in images. If you think of a chair or someone mentions the word “chair”- your mind immediately pictures a chair; even in a certain style, condition, colour and size etc….. you might even start to recall a time when you fell through a deckchair and an ice cream spilt all over your new shirt.
Lists are boring
A long list of text can send you (and your mind) to sleep.
Whilst huge detail can be useful and is often necessary, simplification aids memory and recall and helps improve learning. Pictures alone cannot always tell a story, so combining words and pictures is the perfect solution to making learning more enjoyable.
Often dozens of pages of words with no pictures can leave you wondering whether you are actually taking anything in at all. Anyone who has built a ready made piece of furniture and followed the instructions will know the importance of simple and easy to follow steps!
Putting up a tent is another example – if only they added numbers and colours to the poles; how much simpler it would be! (You could add your own)
As in the case of the chair above – your mind knew what a chair was instantly; it didn’t really need the mass of extra information…by the way, I forgot to mention mine is also a wobbly chair, light brown, approximately 95 years old and has a small spider living underneath the padded seat area, which is a light beige and burgundy check pattern (the padded seat, not the spider) and has a small tear to the left where a popper from an old pair of jeans caught it once and….zzzzzzz. Anyway – enough words.
Quick list coming up:
This is a pointless list – it just serves as an example so that I can demonstrate that your Mind prefers pictures because they are far more interesting…. here is the same “list” in picture form – notice how much easier it is for your brain to drink in the information:
So, after all that – and to cut a long story short; the reason I use Mind Maps in one word is that they are “fun” 
