I recently enrolled for a course on Advanced Mindmapping. I was interested in this skill for long and while I learnt the basics of it from Dr Manu Mathew a few years ago, I did not get deeper into it. Recently when I stumbled upon an online course, on this topic, I enrolled for it.
It has been great learning, and it has been fun applying the learning too. Learning to use a Mindmapping software is not rocket science. A little bit of trial and error and you are ready to go. It is the application that makes the difference. The course gave us several opportunities to apply mindmapping in various contexts and also encouraged participants to share mindmaps for enhanced learning.
Where did I apply my learning?
- Planning meetings – The agenda, the intended outcomes, the questions to ask – we included all these in a mindmap, ensuring that the meeting was meaningful
- Internal brainstorming – We learnt how “listing ideas” was less effective than putting them down in a mindmap. Not just for current planning, but even if we look back at the mindmap later, it is much easier to recall the discussions.
- Many other events / contexts at work and in my personal life
The best application so far:
We are adding a summary of one of our short courses in www.qmedcourses.in in a Mindmap format. We plan to get feedback on the same, and then provide more mindmaps as quick reference / revision tools for the other courses. Here is a snapshot of what we will be uploading on our courses site very soon.
As I write this post, I cannot help remembering Dr KG Nair, an eminent Cardiologist who was also my boss cum mentor, when I was the Librarian of the PD Hinduja National Hospital & Medical Research Centre, in the 1990s. He would regularly share snippets of what he felt was important. One such nugget was “Learn something new every year”. I may have not done so every year, but I am happy that I do it pretty often. And my learning this skill and applying it in an important offering of ours, would have definitely made him give me a compliment! I hope he is showering one from above…
