The Mind Map Book: Unlock Your Creativity, Boost Your Memory, Change Your Life

Tony Buzan's book (I read the 2010 BBC Active edition) has been a very actionable book for me. I was feeling at an impasse with committing my plans and thoughts into paper and couldn't place why it took me so long to write so little and why I couldn't remember or get excited for taking notes, even for projects I liked. The book pointed out, correctly in my case, that linear, text-heavy notes don't stimulate a lot of areas in the brain and thus require more repetition to stick. In contrast, less wordy maps that incorporate visual cues (graphics, arrows, font change, colors ...) activate a lot more brain regions and so stick better. As a bonus, adding aesthetics to a map (doodling and embellishing the branches, keywords...) makes it memorable and stimulates further associations, not to mention actually making it fun. And I am no artist by any stretch. Buzan amply provides up to date reputable research from cognitive psychology to highlight what works for the brain in cognitive tasks such as remembering, keeping flow and analysing. The mind map, he constantly reminds, is supposed to somewhat mirror what the brain is doing when it associates, remembers... Also, the book practices what he preaches and is filled with colors, both in the text and with colorful and picture rich mind maps. His guidelines are well illustrated. The book also gives light in-chapter exercises so that the point is brought home then and there. It is easy to digest with chapters seldom topping 10 pages. Here and there, Buzan plugs his iMindmap software but the plugs are localized to that chapter for the most part and not very intrusive. For me chapters 8, on techniques, and 13 on the note taking process as a whole, including how to attack a book in waves and factoring time IN ADVANCE, were gold mines of good ideas. I wish I had this stuff when I was in school. Would have extracted more from those big textbooks. Buzan reminds us that notes are really conversations between us (what we associate with the material) and the author (what he or she associates). Remembering the material is just one goal of note taking, and analysis (which comes from the structure of the map, for instance) and creativity (in adding our associations to the ideas as well as the author's) also play a role while taking notes. It's a perspective I've seldom heard and which makes sense to me. The book is filled with those insights and not just in the abstract; there are examples everywhere. My first few mind maps were, as expected, uneven and not following all guidelines but with each one and reskimming paragraphs in those two chapters, the maps improved and got better. Revising existing maps allowed me to commit them better to memory and further pin down what the main ideas I'm building around are. All in all, I highly recommend this book for people stuck in text land and feeling something missing in how they understand the subject matter they are working with.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has definitely help me to unlock my creativity,it has given a real boost to my memory and it has definitely changed my life for the better!

fan of buzan's book about memory...it really works. so i'm working on this one now. it seems to be a product extension, if you know what I mean. Not sure I would have bought it without reading his earlier work.

this was wonderful, I had read Mind Mapping for Dummies and was using mind maps but this book gave me a fuller understanding of why mind maps work and insight into how I can better use mind maps and teach them to other people.

The buzan Signature !

Great condition

Work WITH your brain and not AGAINST it. Our poor old brains aren't very good at remembering lists of stuff, basically. The great thing about Buzan's techniques is that they build on the way that the brain ACTUALLY WORKS i.e. making connections, creating pictures, making use of our imagination. Even the process of converting boring lists of information into visual form forces us to think about the material in a different way, and so helps us to understand it better. Buzan's techniques are an important part of an approach that is likely to bring success come exam time.

Anyone can write a book I guess

Avevo chiesto un consiglio a un mio amico per memorizzare molti argomenti per un esame. Mi ha prestato il libro delle mappe mentali in italiano. Appena ho iniziato a leggerlo ho deciso di comprare questa copia in inglese. È un argomento molto utile in vari campi illustrato chiaramente dal suo principale ideatore e sostenitore. Utile per creare, lavorare e studiare. Principi applicabili anche per i bambini. Da leggere. Assolutamente.

Awesome book thank you

El libro está muy bien. Probablemente sea el mejor libro de MindMaps que he leido. Pero pienso realmente que para poder entender bien los mapas mentales hace falta un curso como el que he realizado recientemente en EMOWE.

Très beau livre en quadrichromie, papier épais, belles reproductions de mind maps. Mise en page bien aérée, en grosse police. Je passe rapidement les chapitres introductifs sur la structure arborescente du cerveau pour en arriver au concret : comment faire, pour quelles applications. Les chapitres sont plutôt succincts, émaillés de de reproductions de maps dont la valeur est une fois sur deux artistique. Bref, arrivé à la moitié de l'ouvrage, sa substantifique moelle n'est guère plus conséquente que les informations que j'avais déjà glanées sur l'internet. La fin n'ayant pas l'air plus prometteuse, je regrette cet achat.

I made it part of the way through and made many mindmaps. I didn't really experience any revolutionary improvements to my studying, though I think it has a lot of potential as an organizational tool. I think the book overhypes and overpromises on the benefits of mindmapping. I would recommend giving mind-mapping a serious go if you're interested, but don't get carried away by the hype.