Organize Academic Schedules Using Mind Mapping Software
One of the biggest obstacles to successful academic performance for students is lack of organization. A student can often get bogged down in the maze of class schedules, homework assignments, and extra-curricular activities. Today there are an almost limitless number of computer software tools available to help one organize scheduled activities. However, few contain the advantages found in Mind Mapping software. With Mind Mapping software, you are able to organize multiple activities using a simple process of “mapping out” components in a spatial and creatively graphic format. Students therefore, can use a Mind Mapping software tool to create a schedule that is intuitive and visually stimulating, facilitating mental processing and recall.
What is Mind Mapping Software?
Mind Mapping software is any software that is used to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information.1 With Mind Maps, the key concept or main idea of the information being presented is represented by a central image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main topic are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central image, with subsequent themes of less importance attached by “twigs”. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information shown in a spatial, rather than linear, format. Moreover, along with the ideas shown on the map are colors, visual graphics, and images that the constructor of the “map” associates with each of the themes and ideas. Mapping out information in this manner is widely believed to allow the brain to process the information in manner more consistent with its natural functioning.
Using a Mind Map to Construct an Academic Schedule
On any given weekday, it would not be uncommon to find a student wandering the halls of an institution asking herself, “English or History class? Cheerleading squad or Swim practice? What am I supposed to do next?” In order to make what “to do next” easier to remember, she might consider organizing her schedule using a Mind Map. The student can begin by representing the purpose of the Mind Map, her academic schedule, in the center of the map. She can then divide the map into five sections, each representing a day of the week, using “branches” that are attached to the central topic. It is next that she can begin filling out her Mind Map with the specifics of her schedule using “child branches” attached to the corresponding weekday. She might use any graphics, images or colors she chooses to help make her map more intuitive. When she has finished with her Mind Map, it may resemble something like the attached Mind Map diagram of an academic schedule.
Using the Mind Map to Facilitate Recall
The student is now set. Having used a Mind Mapping software tool to construct a map, she has her entire academic schedule organized in way that makes it easier to remember. She has selected, and included, the pictures, words, and graphics shown in the map, and that make sense with the way she thinks about her schedule. She can also organize the information using colors that she associates with specific components of the map. For instance, she has used the color blue, the color of her cheerleading uniform, to represent Tuesday, because it reminds her that she has cheerleading squad practice on that day. Points of association such as these help jog her memory, and make it easy for her to visualize each day of the week and the various activities she has to do during them. The student no longer has to worry about what “to do next”.
- Farrand, Paul; Hussain, Fearzana and Hennessy, Enid (May 2002). “The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique”. Medical Education 36 (5): 426–431.
