different types of presentation

How to Create a Mind Map to Organize and Remember your Presentation

Clarity when communicating is one of the essential characteristics of a good oratory. Well-organized speech inspires, informs, convinces, persuades. 

It is, therefore, necessary to find resources to organize your content, create a logical order between the information and convey a powerful and impactful message. 

Mind mapping is one of the most efficient content organization techniques. It is a practical guide to be used in the preparation stages and an essential ally in speech exposure situations, such as interviews, presentations, and meetings. 

Keep reading until the end and see how to use the mind map in practical steps!

What is Mind Map? 

Mind maps are visual representations built from ideas, concepts, information, or problems to be solved, expanding them concerning a central point and creating branches. They can be applied to information management, boost content absorption, or even solve complex problems.

This tool turns a topic and offshoots into a clear visual dashboard based on keywords and concepts. They can be enriched with diagrams, text balloons, colors, images, and whatever your creativity allows. 

The objective is to maximize the flow of reasoning and see points that may have been lost or obscured at first. 

The technique allows for several formats, from the simplest to the most sophisticated, and can be done by hand on paper or with the help of digital tools available for computers, cell phones, and tablets. 

A mind map is different from an infographic. While infographics often use images and text to convey information vertically and linearly, mind maps expand horizontally in branches concerning a central topic.

How to Create a Mind Map to Organize and Remember Your Presentation 

1. Set the central theme 

The mind map title should be written in large letters in the middle of the paper. When writing it, consider: what will the mind map be about? What is your goal in assembling it? 

As an example, we put together an elementary mind map on cooking traditional white rice. With it, we want to show how practically anything can be memorized through it.

2. List the main subtopics 

What are the most critical points of your theme? What can’t be forgotten? Raise what these points are and summarize each one in one or a few words. 

Write each subtopic on the sides of the paper in a different color and pull an arrow from the title pointing to them. Colors help memory retain groups of information that are related through the same colors. When writing, use a letter smaller than the letter of the title to exemplify the hierarchy of each subject.

3. Write the topics related to each subtopic 

Note the information related to each subtopic using other subtopics with keywords, as in the previous step. Follow the colors used in the main subtopics, write smaller letters and pull arrows from the related subtopic. There is no limit to the number of words drawn or subtopics from subtopics.

4. Make a simple drawing on each main keyword 

Once you’ve raised and hierarchically grouped all the points in your theme, it’s time to memorize them. A great way to store groupings, subtopics, and how you’ve laid them out on paper is to make a simple drawing next to each main word. These drawings do not need to elaborate, and their relationship with the terms should make sense to you, not others.

5. Sequence the order of the groupings 

Finally, after assembling the entire map, place a sequence of numbers to represent the sequence of information that must be memorized. 

Numerically ordering the groups of information helps (a lot!) to organize the sequence of ideas that you will have to develop. This step is even more essential for those putting together a mind map to write an essay or long text.

In short: 

To make your mind map more organized and help your studies even more, consider: 

  • Write clear and short topics to memorize the information through a few words; 
  • Work on the color changes to visualize the groupings; 
  • The organization, words, and drawings should make sense to you, not to other people.
Qualities of Memorable and Effective Public Speakers

Mind Map

7 Main Benefits of making Mind Maps 

1. Organize your ideas 

The hierarchy of ideas is ideally identified with the “branches .”In addition, you can make the groups from a brainstorming (from secondary to main ideas), or vice versa, starting from the main ideas to determine the secondary ones.

2. Avoid having a blank 

Creating a mind map is like calibrating a compass that you can refer to if you lose your way during a presentation. The mere fact of building it is already helping you relationally memorize the concepts. Then, as our memory relies heavily on images, it will be easier to remember the content of the speech.

3. Optimize your time 

Creating a mental map is relatively fast; you write down ideas and concepts without developing them.

4. Regulate your time during the presentation 

When you use it in your presentation, you can “time” your mind map. That is to say, write down under each idea how much time it has appraised within the exhibition. It is a very efficient way to time your presentation. If you get ahead or behind, you can easily adjust your pace to go on time.

5. Free your thought from overload 

Your mind is freed; this is similar to what happens when you have a plan. You don’t have to remember every appointment or every date. Just write it down and take care of placing the essentials. The memory may fail, but what is written remains.

6. Stimulate your creativity 

Placing your ideas in an interconnected and “non-linear” way allows you to give space to new ideas. The open scheme makes it easy for one thought to lead to another in a fluid and easy to incorporate way.

7. Reorganize content easily 

Have you adjusted the time of your presentation? Have you decided to change the order of the sections? It is easy and fast to make these changes with a good mind map.

Conclusion 

Mind mapping is a technique for organizing and memorizing logical thoughts and ideas spread by the English psychologist Tony Buzan.

 Today, the most used model was developed to enhance the brain’s ability to store knowledge and elaborate logical reasoning, and therefore it is widely used by students.  

Using the mind map in presentations facilitates the review, highlighting keywords and indicating the relationships between these words so students can easily recall what they have learned.

References and Further Reading 

Mind Mapping Techniques To Improve Your Presentations.

How to Use a Mind Map to Organize Your Ideas

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