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  • How to Use Your Head With Mind Mapping

  • Transcription of interview with Tony Buzan on June 13th 2011

  • Douglas Goldstein, CFPÆ, Financial Planner & Investment Advisor

  • Douglas Goldstein: We are talking with Tony Buzan, the worldís foremost expert on thinking

  • visually and leading lecturer on the brain and learning. Heís the inventor of Mind Maps,

  • which Iím sure many, many people use and if you donít, I think after this discussion,

  • you will certainly want to. He has been a mentor and teacher to many of my mentors and

  • teachers when I first started getting interested in memory from 20 years ago. Iím very honored

  • to have you on the show.

  • Tony Buzan: Doug, Iím glad to be on this.

  • Douglas Goldstein: So letís just start right away with mind mapping. You invented this

  • technique?

  • Tony Buzan: Yes I did. I invented it because I was at university and I found that my marks

  • were going down, my confidence was going down, and the amount of work I had to do was going

  • up. It didnít seem right. Again, I examined my notes, thinking that my notes were my savior

  • and the more notes I made, the better I would be but I found exactly the opposite. The more

  • notes I made, the worse I got. So I analyzed my notes and I began to realize that when

  • exams were looming, I would, in desperation, pull through my notes, underlining the keywords,

  • taking them out and putting them on the memory cards, and those memory cards were less than

  • 10% of the volume of my notes. So it struck me that I was wasting more than 90% of my

  • time making notes that were totally irrelevant to my memory.

  • Douglas Goldstein: When you say memory cards, do you mean flashcards with one side and another

  • that you flip over?

  • Tony Buzan: Yes. They were slightly large flashcards with a few keywords on each one

  • and then I realized that those keywords were isolated in space. So I began to draw lines

  • and I was filling them out of little codes and whatever and I found that those memory

  • cards of mine were 10 times more efficient than my normal linear wordy, not much monochromatic,

  • and boring notes. Then I closely added pictures worth a thousand words, and every society

  • knows what it means that a picture worth a thousand words in terms of memory and learning.

  • So I began to put little codes and little images and I found that suddenly in front

  • of me was this map of my thoughts. It was as if Iíd been driving through my life with

  • the windscreen totally caked with mud then suddenly the windshield wipers had wiped and

  • I could see. My map was just like that. It allowed me to think more clearly, to see the

  • detail of my thinking, to see the overview, and everyone wants to see both the trees and

  • the forest at the same time and the woods. It allowed me to overview. It allowed me to

  • strategize. It allowed me to remember way, way better than before and that was the invention

  • of Mind Map. It was a gift.

  • Douglas Goldstein: That certainly was a gift because so many people have now learned about

  • it from you and your books, and in a few words youíve described how it allowed you to see

  • clearly, gives you an overview, strategize, and remember. My day job is that Iím an investment

  • advisor here in Israel at Profile Investments and I do investing. I do financial planning

  • with people and the concepts youíre describing are so important, but how can people use the

  • Mind Map, letís say to become better investors?

  • Tony Buzan: Well, for example thereís a man called Johnson, who used to work with various

  • leading companies and he had a 10% compounding improvement in his investment portfolio for

  • 10 years. What he would do is take all his major advisors and say, ìAlright, give me

  • all the latest news that you think is relevant to investmentSo the top 10 people would

  • give him all the information. He would Mind Map each individualís information and then

  • he put that into a big Mind Map. He looked at the big Mind Map where the repetitions

  • were positive and repetitions were negative, but the overall pattern was looking like he

  • had his own thoughts or ideas from that previous week and then heíd make his decisions. And

  • he said, ìThe Mind Map allows me to see the whole picture clearly and especially in times

  • of crisis where now people panicThe thinking goes AWOL. They become unclear. They firefight

  • rather than looking at the entire situation. So the Mind Map gives you perspective. It

  • gives you more detail. It gives you a bigger overview. It gives you the whole picture and

  • you can, therefore, make a much more intelligent and probably successful decision. And Johnson

  • said, ìIím not correct every time because the percentage of my being correct has shot

  • up, as the 10% increase annually shows

  • Douglas Goldstein: Right. Certainly, I think if you have the ability to strategize and

  • you have all the information at your fingertips, this can only help. We are talking with Tony

  • Buzan, who is the worldís foremost expert on thinking visually and he is a leading lecturer

  • around the world. Heís lectured to diverse audiences ranging from large companies to

  • universities and governments. Weíve been talking so far about mind mapping, but another

  • area that I know you focused quite a bit on is speed reading. Now a lot of people claim

  • to be speed readers andve tried it myself and I just feel nothing really happens, but

  • what is it about reading that people can really, really improve?

  • Tony Buzan: Good question. That was actually one of the big eye openers and mind openers

  • in my life. When I was about 13, we were given a battery of tests and we didnít know what

  • they were. We didnít know weíre being tested. It was so designed, but one of the subtle

  • tests was speed reading. I came out at the age of 13 at the speed of 213 words a minute

  • and I thought, ìHey! Thatís pretty goodYou know 213 words in 60 seconds, so I was

  • pretty tough until I found out that the girl sitting next to me in class was reading 314

  • words a minute - over 100 words a minute faster than me. So I said to my teacher, ìI want

  • to learn how to improve my reading speedand he said, ìYou canít do that. Itís like

  • your IQ, itís like your height, itís like the color of your eyes, youíre born with

  • it and thatís the way it isNow being a rebellious teenager, I thought that I was

  • not going to stop with that. I had just started to work on my physical health, and I had begun

  • to see the changes in my muscles, so I thought, why not change my reading speed? So I studied

  • the way that the eyes perceive, the way in which the brain collection handles information

  • and data, and I managed over about four months of gentle efforts to double my reading speed.

  • I thought that was pretty good, and then I put it in lifelong terms. If I had been going

  • to read 2000 books, Iím now going to read 4000 books. If I had been able to read 2000

  • books for a certain amount of time, I can now read 2000 books in the same amount of

  • time and use the extra time to do whatever else I wanted. So it made a massive difference

  • in my life. For our listeners, what I recommend is buy books and scan the web, but just realize

  • that your eyes can be trained to perceive in different ways. In the same way that being

  • in an office trains your eyes, a gem stone expert trains the eyes, and a naturalist trains

  • the eyes, you can train your eyes to read faster with increased comprehension and understanding

  • with simple amount of training.

  • Douglas Goldstein: How does that connect with being a visual thinker, because reading seems

  • so unnatural to look at words and then to convert them to an image because, as youíve

  • noted, our mind is thinking images.

  • Tony Buzan: Yes, exactly. Now when youíre a good visual thinker and youíre a good reader,

  • what youíre doing is youíre following. Youíre reading primarily for the key ideas in the

  • context and youíre building in your head a picture or Mind Map of what the information

  • is all about, especially in studying and learning non-fiction books. So youíre not reading

  • for the words, youíre reading for the ideas, images, and interconnections. One of the great

  • stumbling blocks for a reader is the way that was taught of reading with ñ Iíll start

  • the phrase and see if you can finish it. The Teacher says ìAlright, children this is a

  • very important book, you got to take it home, understand it all and read it slowly and --î

  • Douglas Goldstein: Carefully.

  • Tony Buzan: Exactly, slowly and carefully. Now that sounds very intelligent doesnít

  • it? That if you want to understand something, you got to be careful about it but youíve

  • got to do it slowly until you can get it all in. But the brain doesnít work like that,

  • and I can give you a very simple example of why.

  • Douglas Goldstein: What if someone started to listen to the show now, and theyíre going

  • to say ìWho is this guest

  • Tony Buzan: ìWhoís that moron that Dougís got on the show todaySo slowly and carefully,

  • although it sounds wonderful, is disguised but is a total poison for good reading. The

  • brain factor is a good rhythmical, speedy intake of words rather than the slow, methodical,

  • word by word. So the fast reader automatically understands more comprehensibly more than

  • what is taught in a way that we thought was correct, but turns out to be actually incorrect,

  • and not only incorrect but the opposite of what we should be doing.

  • Douglas Goldstein: It is tragic. Weíre out of time now. However, Iíd like to continue

  • this discussion with you on a later show, so letís just tell listeners, because weíve

  • covered not only mind mapping but speed reading, which is all critical, how people can learn

  • more about the Tony Buzan method of Mind Maps and speed reading, and then weíll take a

  • break and come back at a different time to cover some of the other questions that we

  • have.

  • Tony Buzan: Yes, Iíd love to do that. For mind mapping and the new computer iMindMap,

  • they can go to my website www.thinkbuzan.com, where you can download Mind Mapping. Iím

  • giving video and DVD explanations on how to do it by hand and how to do it by computer.

  • In terms of books, there are two books that I would recommend. My original book, called

  • Use Your Head is about how to get your brain better with memory, speed reading and mind

  • mapping, etc., and then the Mind Map books and the Mind Map for business. All of these

  • books are published at the BBC, and this can give you a really good start.

  • Douglas Goldstein: Okay, Tony Buzan, thank you so much for joining us today.

  • Tony Buzan: Iíd love to come back.

  • Douglas Goldstein: Okay, take care.

  • Douglas Goldstein, CFPÆ, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host

  • of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 7:00 PM on www.israelnationalradio.com.

  • He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. Securities offered

  • through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, NFA, SIFMA. Accounts carried

  • by National Financial Services LLC. Member NYSE/SIPC, a Fidelity Investments company.

  • His book Building Wealth in Israel is available in bookstores, on the web, or can be ordered

  • at: www.profile-financial.com (02) 624-2788 or (03) 524-0942.

  • Disclaimer: This document is a transcription and/or an educational article. While it is

  • believed to be current and accurate, divergence from the original is to be expected. The original

  • podcast can be heard at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely

  • information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.

  • The opinions rendered herein are those of the guests, and not necessarily those of Douglas

  • Goldstein, Profile Investment Services, Ltd., or Israel National News. Readers should consult

  • with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Please see

  • the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/.

How to Use Your Head With Mind Mapping

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