MindMapSwitch

Why The Laws Of Mind Maps Are Important

The laws of mind mapping haven’t changed since the idea was popularised by Tony Buzan through his book, “The Mind Map Book”. Many mind mappers have these laws burned into the back of their skulls due to the number of mind maps they have created. It helps them create something that is not only functional but attractive too.

However, too many times I have seen mind maps that just don’t adhere to some or all of the laws and this is where people’s mind maps can go wrong.  You see the laws are there for a reason.  They help you the mind mapper create something that can communicate effectively with not only yourself, but other people as well.

In this article, we’re going to look at each aspect of the laws and why they’re important.

Use Emphasis

In a mind map everything is important.  That’s why each branch of a mind map uses some form of emphasising to convey its importance.

The central image in a mind map is where we always start and should straight away let us know what we’re dealing with.  Imagery isn’t only important as the central image of the mind map, but everywhere else too.  Where we use images instead of keywords, we can communicate an idea that is more than the image itself.  A picture is worth a thousand words isn’t it?

Other forms of emphasising include printed keywords, colour and spacing.  All these forms of emphasising should help communicate the ideas behind the mind map to the reader.

Keywords convey descriptions or summaries in the mind map, and if you links these keywords with their parent, sibling and child branches you get a very clear picture of what that branch of the mind map is trying to communicate.

Colours are often used in mind mapping to group related branches together, but they can also convey other information.  Look at traffic lights.  I often use green, red and amber in my maps to convey an ideas importance or priority.

Finally, spacing is something that is often unintentionally overlooked, but is still a form of emphasis.  How you space your branches indicates if they are closely or distantly related.

Use Association

Mind maps all have associations at their very core.  Each linked branch is associated with another, but what happens when ideas are related but are located on other sides of the map?  How do engineers links towns and cities?  Simply by building a transport link such as a road or railway.  If your ideas are far apart but related then draw an arrow to indicate their association.

Colour is also useful when associating ideas.  Like we mentioned for emphasis, colouring related branches indicate they’re association.

You can also use codes to indicate that some branches are associated together by placing a code near them.  I first saw this idea in mind mapping software and have since used it in my own hand drawn maps.  Like the symbols on a geographic map, codes can indicate associated ideas.

Be Clear

Being clear in your mind map is probably the most difficult of the laws to apply and it’s often over looked.  Being clear involves using single keywords per branch, printing your keywords, and using thicker branches for major branches related to the central image.

Keywords are important in mind mapping and it helps if they stand out more.  The laws of mind mapping indicate that we should used no more than one keyword per branch and that keyword should be printed in uppercase.  While this might seem a bit over the top, stop and have a think about it.  Too often people end up writing full sentences for each branch and before they know it, they have a mind map that reads more like a book!  We use single keywords to convey meaning in the mind map and more often than not a single keyword will suffice.  As an extra form of emphasis or definition, we print these keywords in order to attract the reader of the mind map.

Mind maps are an organic form of communication in that they grow from a central idea and spread out like branches of a tree.  What helps to convey these branches is by using thicker branches for the major ideas that come after the central image.

Develop a Personal Style

With all these laws you might not think that there is much scope left for you to make the mind map your own, but you’d be wrong!

You see with all these laws there is still plenty of scope in the mind map to develop your own personal style.  You see much like drawings, mind maps often take on a style that can easily identify the author of the mind map.  Maybe you’re the person who uses bubbles to associate ideas, or maybe you’re the person who always uses a single colour to associate whole branches of ideas.  It took me a few months of mind mapping to develop my own style, but even that changed a lot of the years as I found different ways of emphasising and associating in my mind maps.  Don’t be fustrated if your style doesn’t appear straight away.  Keep using mind maps and in time you will develop your own personal style.  Your personal style will actually help you mind map better and faster.

Related Articles:

1. What are The Essential Ingredients Of A Mind Map?
2. Mind Map Recipe: Taking Notes at a Meeting
3. Starting off with Mind Maps
4. 2 Awesome Alternatives To Mind Mapping

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