Mind Mapping For Lawyers

The Mind Maping Laws

As mentioned in previous posts, the genius who codified the concept of mind mapping was Dr Tony Buzan.  

After some tweaking and improvement over time, Dr Buzan has created a set of rules for mind mapping that he deems to be the most effective way of communicating with your brain. I must admit, I can’t disagree with him … for the most part.  

Now let me be totally frank here. I said “for the most part” but you do need to take into account that Dr Buzan is the true genius behind mind mapping … so I strongly recommend that you Read the rest of this entry »

Professor Randy Pausch

This is a re-post of a post I previously wrote on my private blog back in February 2008, however, it will never age in its relevance to each one of us. It has been amended as necessary to reflect its new post date in January 2010: 

It has often been said, “you can not truly live life until you conquer your fear of death”. 

One professor who knew exactly what that statement means was Professor Randy Pausch. 

Professor Pausch gave a lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA on 18 September 2007. It was part the “Last Lecture” series. 

The “Last Lecture” concept is Read the rest of this entry »

Mind mapping: Increased productivity

Dr Buzan lists twelve (12) distinct advantages of mind mapping in his book, The Mind Map Book[1], but I list here the five (5) advantages that I believe are the most valuable for lawyers and law students:

1. you save time by noting only relevant words – ie, a saving of approximately 50-90% of the time normally spent absorbing the material. Imagine that! … saving up to 90% of the time you’ve spent in the past to do that same task;
2. you save time when reviewing your mind maps by only reviewing the relevant Read the rest of this entry »

We think in pictures?!

Books for teaching visually

On average, 70% of human beings predominantly use their visual (as opposed to auditory or kinesthetic) modality to comprehend whatever messages they are receiving. What this means is that 70% of human beings have their brains wired up in such a way that they better understand messages that are visually represented or that are described in such a way that more readily generates images in the mind of the receiver.

So if we already now this (I mean, neuro linguistic programming is now a commonly accepted science), why don’t we use this knowledge to assist ourselves when it comes to Read the rest of this entry »

New Years Resolutions

The new year is on our “door step”. Have you written out your new years resolutions yet?

Last 12 months – how did you go?

As each year ends it is customary to start the new year afresh with renewed vigour and

focus. I find that it helps to start the process by looking at what I’ve managed to achieve in the last 12 months, particularly as compared with my last years resolutions.

When you go through this process, make sure Read the rest of this entry »