Power Up Your Mind: Learn faster, work smarter

The individual who has done more than anyone to promote an

understanding of how your memory works is British expert Tony

Buzan. In books like the bestselling Use Your Head, Buzan provides

many practical activities to help you develop your memory. He has

also invented a way of visualizing thoughts, the mind map™.

To make a mind map, turn a piece of paper through 90

degrees so that its shortest side is vertical. Put the title of your map

or a picture in the center and draw an oblong around it. Pick out

the main topics or headings of whatever you are mapping. Draw

lines out from your central oblong toward the edge of the page and

label the line as you do it. Then draw smaller lines, like branches of

the trunk of a tree, from each of your main lines. You can also create

twigs off the branches if you think of something else that is part of

a branch. Once the basic shape of the map is taking place, you can

add connecting lines to link different branches. You can also anno-

tate the map with colors, question marks, underlining—anything

that helps you make connections.

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"Our memory for images

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Tony Buzan