Travel to London? No… we’re in Manchester!
The UK’s leading provider of thinking skills training on your doorstep.
A choice of exceptional courses in Manchester this year.

Advanced Information Management Skills (AIMS™):
The complete workshop to master information using Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Memory Techniques.
Compact 1 day workshop: 18 September 2008
Find out more www.illumine.co.uk/aims
 
Effective Speed Reading™:
Designed exclusively for […]

See Clive Lewis (World expert in Mind Mapping for Business Advantage) live at the Illumine Business Mapping Seminars:

Friday 29th August 2008 (Central London)
Thursday 4th September 2008 (Manchester)

These seminars are not sit and listen, they are practical events that will give you the techniques you require to be able to Mind Map for Business Advantage. Find out […]

The experts claim that we can all be more creative. See some quotes from the Creativity special issue of New Scientist magazine (October 2005).
“Merge two previously separate concepts that are in conflict with one another. For example, combinations such as ‘friendly enemy’ and ‘healthful illness. The more discrepant the concepts, the more likely they are […]

How do we spend most of our time communicating? The amount of time we spend communicating prepared presentations in a formal setting to groups of people is tiny compared to the amount of time we spend in informal, impromptu one to one discussions. The diagram below shows this graphically - most of our time is […]

A series of tips and hints on energy and well-being taken from a new pocket book written by Gillian Burn, one of our expert trainers and a specialist in health and well-being.
KEEPING HYDRATED

The body loses two and a half litres of fluid in normal body functions daily. This needs replacing.
Try and drink 8-10 glasses […]

Most creativity techniques are concerned with forcing us out of our usual ways of looking at things.
The lateral thinking techniques of Edward de Bono are typical. De Bono is renowned for his highly effective systematic approaches to generate alternative points of view. However, while the term that De Bono popularised, ‘lateral thinking’ is often used […]

3 Steps For Making Writing Easier
Planning - professional writers often spend twice the amount of time planning comparted to non-professional writers. It is key - it helps the writer gather all their ideas and information and it helps stimulate creative thinking. Mind Map your ideas - allows you to put all your various associated thoughts […]

The Pyramid of Learning
Learning is a complex process. We all have different preferred ways of taking information in. We each respond differently to different teachers, teaching methods, books etc.. However, there is one basic truth, the realisation of which makes a major difference to effective learning. This is that INTEREST is of paramount importance. If […]

Types of Memory
There are a number of distinct types of memory and a process by which long term memories are generated:
Sensory Memory

Information is gathered by our senses and sent to a sensory store
Sensory store is distributed between different regions of the brain
Data lasts for a fraction of a second
Auditory data lasts a little longer than […]

Most of us start learning to read when we are very young. We also stop learning to read when we are very young! Which is fine if your lessons taught you how to read quickly and assimilate information efficiently. It is fine if your lessons got you into the habit of setting out your objectives […]