Mind Mapping Mastery –> Effective Mind Maps -> Step by Step

This lecture is intended to allay any fears you may have about undertaking new learning. You can skip this lecture if you are already fully confident that you can succeed with the course

This short lecture reminds us that the first thing we need for effective learning is to be in the right frame of mind

This lecture shows a mind map being created. (apologies for the poor quality on video and audio for this lecture). The mind map is about the benefits of the technique. All the videos with mind maps are best viewed in full screen mode

This lecture focusses in more detail on one of the topics from the article 'Cultivating the Mind for Positive Health'. The focus is on four of the important processes required to achieve effective learning. These processes can be drawn as a simple cycle as described by Prof Phil Race

Test your understanding about Learning and the Brain

This lecture outlines the benefits you get from reading mind maps. Reading mind maps out loud also develops and uses your 'auditory' learning pathways.

When you read a Mind Map you utilise both sides of the brain. The right side of your brain is good with seeing the big picture, 'filling in' the missing spaces on the map and making connections with what you already know. The left side of the brain likes to see the individual parts of the map, loves hierarchical organisation of the information, and values 'trigger' words to help recall information

After each READING EXERCISE please PAUSE to REFLECT upon 'How easy or difficult' you found the exercise (and bear in mind the more you do these types of exercises the easier it becomes)

In Section 2 of the course, you saw a mind map about a holiday being created. In this lecture you have the opportunity to read for yourself about a holiday in Goa and to see how easy or difficult it is to 'decode' or 'reconstruct' the author's intended meaning. How easy is it to get the 'gist' of this holiday? You'll need to view this mind map in fullscreen mode to be able to see the text.(or print out the mind map from the supplementary material)

This lecture is a mind map of a book summary. The book is the Seven Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. How easy is it to get the gist of the book from the mind map?

See how much you have gleaned about the book

This short lecture gives us the third secret for effective learning that is to practice the easiest steps first

A short introduction to the copying step for learning effective mind mapping

This short lecture divulges the fourth secret for effective learning that is to get the feel of a new technique. 

Watch Barry Mapp speaking live to a group of management consultants about memory.

Barry shares a very simple model about how our memory works and then he carries out an experiential exercise to show that the memory does indeed seem to work in the way the model predicts. When you view this video follow the instructions given to the consultants, do the exercise alongside them and you will learn some new things about how YOUR memory works. This is Part One - the exercise concludes in part two.

The reason for including this video in this Mind Mapping Course is that it demonstrates (amongst other things) the power of key (or 'trigger') words to help the brain recall information. One way of looking at a Mind Map is that it is a network of closely associated keywords (arranged hierarchically) and this helps to quickly retain and then recall information.

This lecture summarises the key points about mind mapping that we have learnt so far on this course

This lecture divulges the fifth secret for effective learning and that is to start integrating the key principles before you get to the more tricky bits (as becoming competent in the key fundementals will help when you're faced with greater complexity).

BONUS: There is also now a downloadable pdf document (in RESOURCES) summarising important aspects of human memory and study skills together with a separate paper on keyword selection.

An overview of this section of the course showing you how you can use templates to 'kick-start' your first few mind maps. This lecture also emphasises that when it comes to mind mapping less is more. You only need a few trigger words on your mind map to help you recall a huge amount of information that appears to lie 'dormant' in your head.

In this lecture you are first shown a simple way to 'draw out' a central topic so it stands out on the page. Then how to create main branches.  FInally use the template constructed to set some goals using the mind mapping technique (you can copy the template or print it out to use)

A FEW OTHER TEMPLATES have been added - more suitable perhaps if you are still in school

As explained in this short video  your next task is to create a 'work related' mind map

This lecture divulges the seventh secret of effective learning that practice is important in order to develop competence and that its practice that makes permanent and so it must be correct practice in order to develop good habits and only you can do the practice (if someone else does it for you then they, not you, develop the competence).

Also for those students who are interested in integrating mind mapping into their own personal study programme, I've included here a document on Study Skills. This document is taken from a programme that was run by Birmingham University (where I was a visiting lecturer) back in 2004 and the project finished a couple of years ago. I produced the sections on Memory,Learning, Study and Mind Mapping. Much of the material on memory is already covered in the course - the material on study skills and mind mapping begins on page 10 of the document. Although the guidance was produced in 2004 it is all still very relevant today.

This lecture reviews the complete course (review is important for learning). Please note that the course was originally titled the 'Secrets of Effective Mind Mapping' but Udemy asked us to change this title just prior to course publication.The lecture starts with Barry creating the mind map at x3 speed - (so if you'd like to see if you can get the 'gist' of the map as it is created you'll need to slow it down or pause it.) After the colour is added to the map you can then hear Barry using the map to give a spoken review of the course so far. Please watch in full screen mode so you get to see the details.

Check these questions when you review your maps

Time to congratulated yourself  - very well done, you have now completed this very extensive Mastery course!

You have now completed the course (although there are more lectures to view if you wish in the bonus section). If you'd like to receive your course completion certificate without having to view the bonus lectures first follow the instructions here:

The certificate is presented by UDEMY automatically when all the lectures and quizzes have been 'ticked'. If you don't wish to view the bonus section yet, but would like to receive your completion certificate now you can MANUALLY tick all the bonus lectures as 'completed' and this should then generate your certificate

Whether you were a beginner or an experienced mind mapper I hope you have benefited from taking the course and it would be great if you could leave a written review of the course both here are (for business users) on my Linkedin Profile

In this talk Barry Mapp briefs a group of Civil Engineers about the many benefits of mind mapping for Project Managers. 

Part 1 of the workshop covers the benefit of Mind Mapping for Project Managers, the difference between circular lists and mind mapping, and how a mind map can summarise an engineering curriculum. Barry also shows how to summarise up to 21 points using fewer than 10 branches

In Part 2 of this workshop Barry covers the importance of clear communication for Project Managers, advises on the number of branches on a Mind Map and and talks about the usefulness of chunking up information in order to reduce the number of categories and therefore the number of main branches on the map. 

This lecture (and the other parts that follow) will improve your ability to assess other student mind maps for effectiveness and through this process help you to recognise possible improvements to your own technique.

This part One gives you the chance to test your personal skill in picking out where mind maps are adhering to the principles and those parts of the mind map that deviate from the principles (and 'deviations' show the areas where improvement could be made).

In Part 2 and 3, I go through each of the mind maps sharing my personal feedback

In this Part 2 we work through a series of student mind maps  (as shown in Part One) )and see how they stack up against the basic (level one) competences

In this Part 3 we work through some more student mind maps and see how they stack up against the basic (level one) competences

Here is how you can make a mind map 'make sense' to a non-mind mapper. I have created a mind map overview of a book on negotiation. As you've completed the course you would be able to make good sense of this mind map (and it would probably help you decide whether you wanted or needed the book in your collection. However for someone who hasn't learnt mind mapping they wouldn't know where or how to start. So a good way to help a non mind mapper to get a feel of the purpose and power of the technique is to read (reconstruct the meaning of) the mind map to them. This is what I do here I 'read through' the mind map to make it intelligible for non mind mappers. (N.B. This lecture is also included as a bonus in some of my other courses)

Making notes from a live lecture is one of the trickiest things to do with Mind Mapping as you really need to have embedded all the main principles of mind mapping as 'habit' in order to avoid your maps becoming just 'spaghetti diagrams'. This is why it is important to have mastered all the other aspects of mind mapping outlined in the course before attempting to use it for making notes. A key aspect to remember is that this is about making notes not simply 'taking notes'.

In this lecture Michael de Groot demonstrates creating a mind map (for a talk he gives on Storytelling one of his specialist subjects) using one of the free drawing apps available on the iPad (Michael is using Adobe Sketch in this example).

If you are a workshop leader or facilitator, or for example producing a podcast or webinar, it is very useful to have a 'bare bones' overview of a session you are about to run. Working in this way allows you to make best use of the knowledge in the room as well as your own knowledge. When I ran workshops at Morley College in London and at the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Birmingham University a simple mind map overview was all I required to run a successful session - after all if you are running a workshop the knowledge required is in your head (at least it should be) so all you need is a guide to appropriately 'navigate' through that knowledge and share it with the group at the appropriate times

Here I talk you through the overview of the workshop on creativity and innovation that I ran a few times on a Management Development course at Birmingham University. (If you are a Teacher or Trainer and want to go deeper into the topic of using Mind Mapping for lesson plans or preparing and delivering workshops I have a course (Mind Mapping for Teachers and Trainers) that delves into this area in much more detail)

This is a podcast interview about Mind Mapping for Medical Students that some of you may be interested in. The interview has been lightly edited and I've added a few slides (as this was a podcast so it was audio only)

This is a podcast where I was interviewed on Mind Mapping by an academic from America. It was recorded back in 2009 but all of the information is still relevant. I have added a few slides so the podcast is now a 'video'

In the Q&A a student asked some questions which I thought would be easy to answer as a video (which I am temporarily posting here in the course

This is an edited interview with a Project Manager (Jim Franklin, not my video but the interview is freely available on the internet though I have edited it for you so we can focus on his key points). Jim highlights how valuable he has found Mind Mapping to be with the scoping out of a project especially when preparing project proposals. I've added a few of my own comments as we go through the video. He shows how Mind Mapping is a great Time saver for Project Managers! (Jim uses Mind Mapping software but in my experience it is more effective to Map with pen and paper)

This is an edited version of the first part of an interview with Iain McGilchrist In it he explains why we shouldn't dismiss the Left/Right hemisphere model of the brain as a myth. We mustn't throw the baby out with the bath water! Iain was in conversation with Freddie Sayers at the UnHerd Club on 20th April 2023. The full 70 min recording can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4IeuIg9nGY