The smartest way to learning and remembering – Mindmapping

Memory is an important aspect of any learning. Without remembering what we learnt, the whole exercise becomes wasteful. Memory is a crucial element of our life and therefore learning techniques that could enhance our memory will have practical and lasting value for us at all times.

1. Learning to connect any new learning with acquired information is one of the strongest methods for retaining information. The relations between different elements and the connecting thread among them will serve to trigger a great deal of insight, imagination and creativity. It is a powerful way for absorbing information.

2. Using whole-brain thinking deepens your knowledge and improves understanding. When we analyze information through logic, sequencing, etc., which are left-brain activities, along with the right brain-attributes of imagination, daydreaming, spatial awareness, etc., we are looking at an issue from different perspectives and this adds to gaining a wider dimension of the information.

3. Giving full attention to learning or listening.

4. Building the information into an imaginative picture, with running images lends vividness and clarity and increases understanding and recollection.

5. You can spin a story out of the information so you have a chain of events, which convey the essence of the information in a story-like format.

6. You can use acronyms, where the first word of a set of words forming meaningful information is taken and this set of joined words will then stand for the word and the meaning behind them. For e.g. try to use acronyms for learning Newton’s laws.

7. Chunking large information into facile units of memory is another common technique adopted. Breaking long running numbers into smaller units, for e.g., breaking 20 digit numbers into 4 units of 5 each. Or gain grouping under common concepts such as fruits, vegetables, games, animals, etc.

However, another highly powerful technique that combines all these elements of memory into one, is the mindmapping method. It is a simple and effective technique that employs the functioning principles of our brain. This makes mindmapping a very strong and potent tool for learning and memory.

Mindmapping uses non-linear texts, wherein long, running sentences are replaced by just few words to convey the essence of information. It uses parallel processing, and colors, images, symbols and crunching to bring out the core points. This saves a great amount of time, while enhancing learning and memory. Reading, learning, reviewing and recalling are made easy when information is conveying in mindmapping format. Its full value can be realized only through actual application.