The best way of dealing with the text

What’s the best way of dealing with the text? Many people suggest the following:

1. Read through the text once in full.

2. Mark the important words.

3. Then generate the Mind Map.

This approach is perhaps still practical for a one-page text. But I guarantee that you won’t generate a Mind Map from a whole book by using this procedure. You’d first have to read through the entire book, then mark the important places and finally take notes. Most people wouldn’t bother with taking notes after all that, it’s just too much effort.

I advise the following approach:

1. Skim-read the text. This means that you don’t read it in detail but just scan the pages. The aim is to get a basic impression of the structure and organisation of the text and, for example, notice any subheadings and lists of items that can help you to navigate through it.

2. Read the text in detail and generate a Mind Map at the same time. Whenever you reach an important point, enter it in your Mind Map. When you’ve reached the end of the text, your Mind Map will also be complete.

You can always revise your Mind Map later on and that the first version doesn’t have to be perfect.

Take about 20 to 25 minutes to prepare and generate the Mind Map.

Good luck with your first note taking with Mind Mapping. Very likely you won’t find it so easy on the first occasion and it’ll take quite a while. However, it gets quicker and easier each time you try. After a couple of attempts you’ll quickly get used to the technique.

Maybe your Mind Map will look something like the one in Figure 6-9, my own notes on the text.

Figure 6-9 displays the content of the text clockwise almost in chronological order:

‘Today’: Here I’ve merged the introduction and preamble.

‘Tool’: This contains a definition of the technique and some of its features.

‘Creation’: This branch subdivides into the rules – symbolised by the paragraph symbol – and the ‘how’ branch. I’ve dealt with the last part of the text here. This was about differentiating traditional Mind Mapping with a pen and paper from Mind Mapping with software.

‘Advantages’ and ‘Usage’: Contain the relevant items from the lists concerned.

As you can see from this example of a Mind Map, the Mind Map doesn’t have to reflect the sequence of content in the text. It’s up to you where textual content is located within the Mind Map. Structuring your Mind Map may mean that you organise textual content differently from the original arrangement.

If you take notes with a pen and paper, you should ensure that the Mind Map doesn’t get too large. Instead, it’s better to generate several Mind Maps on the same book and then number them accordingly.

Now you can summarise whole books on just one or a few pages and recall their content to mind in seconds by glancing at the Mind Maps concerned. If you need to work frequently with the content of textbooks, for example because you are a student or need such content for work, this technique is definitely for you.

In addition to a digital or scanned version of my Mind Mapping notes I always keep a copy at the front of the textbook concerned, so that my Mind Map is always to hand.