Re-wire Your Brain to Combat Information Overwhelm
Information overwhelm is a growing problem. People are struggling to cope with all the information that’s overloading them today, making mistakes, forgetting things and losing sight of what’s important.
Information overwhelm is when the quantity of information we receive exceeds our capacity to deal effectively with it. This situation arises most obviously when people are trying to fit formal learning of any sort (diplomas, professional qualifications, MBA’s etc) into already full schedules. However, it also affects many of us day to day: too many emails, reports and briefing papers; insufficient time to undertake background reading; books bought but not read etc. Very often, when people are overloaded, they start to view information negatively and find that time for thinking, managing, creativity, coaching others, leadership etc are squeezed out, leading to a dramatic loss of effectiveness…
…is it time to challenge the way we do things?
There are a number of techniques that can be used to address the route cause of these problems by giving people effective tools with which to deal with the ever increasing volumes of information. Then all we need to do is challenge the way we do things and embrace different ways of working that we may have overlooked in the past like:
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Techniques to improve note-taking, note-making and planning;
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Improving your reading speed without losing comprehension;
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Using your memory to it’s full potential;
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Making lifelong learning acceptable and,
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Effective lifelong learning.
Techniques to improve note-taking, note-making and planning
Mind Maps® are good choice because having learned how to use them properly, they are a uniquely effective tool. As well as being used for all aspects of learning, they are an invaluable aid to creativity, invaluable for note-taking and making in meetings and interviews; great for planning presentations; reports and projects; and, a superb aid to problem solving and decision making. In fact wherever you would normally make or take a note, Mind Maps are effective.
Mind Maps have been around for over 30 years and are used in every country in the world. Their originator, Tony Buzan, is renowned as one of the world’s foremost experts on the brain and how to use it better. Mind Maps have an important role to play in helping people to assimilate new information and remember it. People with heavy workloads and busy schedules do not want to waste their time with ineffective studying; they want strategies that will help them to learn effectively and enjoyably.
So why are Mind Maps so effective? The short answer is that they are designed to mirror the structure of the brain and its most basic building block, the brain cell. Drawing on the research into how the brain is structured and how it works, Buzan created a system which he describes as the external manifestation of the internal workings of the brain.
Using Mind Maps allows us to tap into the huge latent potential which we all possess. The work of Sperry & Ornstein on the differences between the right and left sides of the brain is well known. Most systems of note making and note taking are predominantly left brain systems; they use lists, words, numbers and a simple chronological order. Mind Maps add to these left brain functions the use of colour, patterns, space, imagination, a global perspective and a hierarchical logic. In fact the whole brain is used together in a synergistic way.
…80% of the detail digested one day, is forgotten within 24 to 48 hours…
The other key aspect regarding how the brain works is the importance of association. The role of association in both creativity and memory cannot be over stated. Association is the key process by which thoughts are organised and information retained. Again, Mind Maps are designed to accentuate associations through their unique line structure. By clarifying associations of ideas, which are expressed as single words or pictures, Mind Maps help us to put information into our brains in a way that makes it easy for us to access it. Retention is not usually a problem; recall very often is.
For learning and development, the advantages of using Mind Maps should be obvious. Synergistically using skills from both sides of the brain and making associations which would otherwise be weak or unclear, have tremendous advantages. We can add to these the ability to work intuitively and to establish personal styles that suit us best. All of these help us to assimilate information easily and enjoyably. Learning is no longer the chore it all too often seems; it is as it should be, a satisfying, pleasurable and creative experience.
» Find out more about Mind Mapping for business executives and trainers
» Read about the top ten uses of Mind Maps
» Mind Mapping training (classroom, in-house, courses, workshops and online)
» Examples of Mind Maps on our official Mind Mapping website
» Download our FREE guide to Mind Mapping
Improving your reading speed without losing comprehension
For people who want to assimilate and remember information either for formal learning, or simply to keep abreast of the ever-increasing volumes of information with which we are bombarded, there are other tools which are also invaluable. Many people are hampered by low reading speeds. Average reading speeds of between 200 and 240 words per minute are simply insufficient to allow people to take advantage of the almost limitless supply of information in books, journals, reports and computers. Trebling reading speeds is perfectly feasible with the right training.
How can speed reading help you? – The most common reason that drives business professionals towards speed reading is their desire to find better ways to manage and cope with information overwhelm and overload. We are all having to absorb and recall more information than ever and, of course, most of this data arrives in written form – through minutes, reports, proposals, brochures, texts and emails. That’s just during the working day! If you’ve decided to take a professional qualification you will be reading a lot more.
Speed reading should not be seen simply as a reactive technology. Many participants on our courses report that one of the main drivers for them is to be able to find a way to read those books that have been sitting on their shelf for too long or those magazines that come every week and which they never seem to have time to open. They recognise that knowledge is the fuel of career success and in this respect speed-reading is a step forward in efficiency, providing people with a real edge in today’s competitive world.
So, in brief, here are the benefits of speed reading. It:
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Massively reduces the time it takes you to get through your workload or study materials.
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Enables you to learn faster.
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Gives you a competitive edge.
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Ensures you have read all the information required to make informed decisions.
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Provides you with more free time/thinking time.
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Reduces your stress levels.
On top of this it also aids comprehension and recall. The logic for this last detail is important. Most people when reading continually find their attention wandering. As a result they have to reread paragraphs or whole pages and this disrupts the flow and sense of what the writer is trying to communicate. More than this, researchers have found that most of this back skipping is completely unnecessary i.e. it doesn’t improve our understanding of what we are reading.
In contrast to this, speed reading forces us, the reader, to maintain momentum and keep reading. In doing this we gather large chunks of information and we fill in much of the detail because, typically, we know some of the background to the subject anyway.
» Find out how Speed Reading can help you save a day a week in this article
» More information about Speed Reading courses and workshops
» Test your reading speed
» Download our FREE ‘Reading Faster’ guide to Speed Reading
Using your memory to its full potential
The other major concern for people is their memory – and with good reason. 80% of the detail learned one day, is forgotten within 24 to 48 hours… unless effective strategies are put in place to avoid that happening. Again, the good news is that an understanding of how the memory works and application of basic memory principles can prevent this information leakage, and make learning effective and enjoyable.
» Find out more about Mastering Your Memory at http://www.illumine.co.uk/blog/2010/03/memory-mastery/
» See our some great memory improvement tips at http://www.illumine.co.uk/resources/memory.html
Making lifelong learning acceptable
Unfortunately, what many organisations and individuals fail to do is address the woefully low levels of understanding about how the brain works and how it can be made to work so much better. Failure to address this is akin to giving someone the most powerful computer in the world and not showing them how to turn it on!
In short, many people do not know how to learn effectively; they do not know how to assimilate new information and remember confidently and their ability to embrace this new paradigm is severely limited as a result.
Learning should be an enjoyable challenge that enriches people’s personal and professional lives. It should allow people to explore their own creativity, gain new insights and build their personal knowledge and skill base. In order for the learning to be effective, it needs to be memorable. In order for anyone to remain motivated to learn, the experience must be both positive and enjoyable.
Effective Lifelong Learning
The need for lifelong learning is here to stay. The business world is going to continue to change; complexity will increase, volumes of information will continue to grow, competition will continue to become increasingly global. The old relationship between employers and employees is changed forever.
Against this backdrop, companies cannot afford to under-utilise their most valuable asset. Unleashing the creativity, thinking capacity and learning potential of a company’s people must be the best investment they can make. For many organisations, the choices appear to be stark; they can choose to continue to treat training as an expensive overhead or they can commit to helping their people to develop by giving them the knowledge and skills that will turn them into lifelong learners and achievers.
There are many excellent courses available for companies who want to develop their staff; leadership, team building, motivation, presentation skills… the list is long and varied and most of the training will have its place in a company’s portfolio. However all of this training is of limited value if employees, from the Chairman down, are not first taught how to learn effectively and how to use the magnificent potential of their brains in everything they do.
As individuals we can choose to embrace this new paradigm, or we can cross our fingers and hope that we will be OK; that our skills will not need to be refreshed and that our first career decision will be the only one we need to make.
…they make learning fun and rapidly help us to become efficient and effective learners…
If we decide to commit to lifelong learning, either formally or informally, then it makes sense to equip ourselves with skills that make it a positive and enriching experience. Mind Maps are, by some distance, the most effective tool I have come across in helping to achieve that. They make learning fun, and rapidly help us to become efficient and effective learners. When Mind Maps are used in conjunction with some of the other skills touched on in this article, studying ceases to be a chore, which only a lucky few find easy; it becomes a skill which improves each time you use it. As one executive put it after a two-day course covering Mind Maps, Speed Reading and Memory, ‘I’m excited about learning for the first time in my life, and confident that I’ll remember whatever I learn’. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all felt that way?
We offer a range of of courses and workshops to help you learn about Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Memory techniques at www.illumine.co.uk/assimilate.
Mind Map® and Mind Maps® are registered trademarks of the Buzan organization
Tags: Improve Your Memory (Training), improved comprehension, information overload, information overwhelm, memory techniques, mind mapping, speed reading
