How we think

Without examining neuroscience in any detail, I’d like to explain briefly how people actually think. This provides you with a better understanding of why Mind Mapping works so well. I highlight three points in this regard. Our thinking is:

check.png Unpredictable

check.png Led by association

check.png Orientated towards key concepts

Not sequentially but in leaps and bounds

Do you remember the last meeting you attended? Was there an agenda with points arranged ‘one, two and three’? If so, was this agenda adhered to?

If the agenda is adhered to and all points are addressed, then this hardly ever happens in precisely the intended order. Sometimes all it takes is for a keyword to crop up or a colleague to say ‘regarding project XY, it seems to me that…’, then the agenda is abandoned and you jump to a different place. That’s actually quite normal, since people don’t think in terms of ‘one, two, three’, but allow their thought processes to move freely between a number of concepts. This frequently erratic generation of thoughts is due in large part to the way in which people connect information.

Associations – lemon fragrance and . . . ?

In psychology, association is the linking of concepts which evoke each ...

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