mind map

A good Mind Map has three essential characteristics:

1. A central image 

that captures the main subject under consideration. For example, if you were using a Mind Map to plan a project, you could put a sketch of a folder in the centre. No special artistic skill is needed to create a good Mind Map.

2. Thick branches radiating out from the central image. 

These branches represent the key themes relating to the main subject, and each one is represented by a different colour. In turn, the main branches sprout subsidiary branches – twigs, if you like, in the form of second- and third-level branches – which relate to further associated themes.

3. A single key image or word is placed on each branch.

Step 1

Place the sheet of paper in front of you in landscape format (i.e. horizontally). Next, use at least three different colours to draw an image in the very centre of the paper that represents the subject you would like to consider, which in this example is the plays of William Shakespeare (1564–1616). If you don’t want to draw the Bard’s head, you could sketch a quill pen or some other simple symbol instead. The central image will activate your imagination and trigger associations in your thoughts. If you want a word at the centre, make it appear multidimensional and combine it with an image.

Step 2

Now pick a colour and draw a thick branch coming away from the central image, like the bough of a tree. You can do this by sketching two lines that radiate out from the centre and then connect them at the tip. Let the branch curve organically, as this will be visually engaging and therefore more interesting to the brain, making you more likely to memorize the information on the branch. Shade in the branch. Its thickness symbolizes the weight of this association in the hierarchy of your Mind Map. 

Step 3

Label the branch with a single word in capital letters. As this Mind Map is about Shakespeare’s plays, you might label this first branch “COMEDY”, or “TRAGEDY” or “HISTORY”. Alternatively, instead of writing a word, you might decide to draw a comedic mask, a dagger or a crown.





Step 4

Send out secondary-level shoots from the main branch. Then draw thirdlevel branches that spread out from these secondary-level shoots. Write keywords on all the branches or draw symbols, or a combination of both. Give each symbol its own branch. There’s no need to rush: leave some of the branches empty at first, as this will naturally inspire your brain to fill them in.

Step 5

Pick another colour and create your next main branch, working around the central image. (Many beginners find it easiest to work clockwise around the centre, but do whatever suits you best.) As before, draw secondary- and third-level branches from this new branch and label them. Keep adding main branches until you have about five or six of them to work with.

Step 6

Now you have your main branches, move freely around your Mind Map, leaping from branch to branch, filling in any gaps and adding new sub-branches as ideas and associations occur to you.



Step 7

If you wish, add arrows, curving lines and links between your main branches to reinforce the connections between them.

Et voilà! – you have created your first Mind Map.