Mind-mapping is beneficial for productivity in your daily tasks, but it’s also a technique that is widely used for studying. A mind map isn’t just a diagram that lays out tasks, but a visualization of how ideas connect to one another. Once you see the core concepts represented with shapes and their connections represented with lines, you can better understand your material overall, especially if you’re more of a visual learner. Here’s what you need to know when using a mind map for studying and how to make the creation of one a lot easier.
What is the benefit of a mind map for studying?
A mind map helps you generate ideas based on their association to other concepts, plus better retain information. You start by placing your central idea in the center of the page, then drawing branches for other ideas. For instance, if you have to write an essay about the Civil War, you’d write that in the center, then add branches like “causes,” “participants,” and “outcomes.”
Each of those related concepts can and should have its own branches. From “participants,” you might draw two lines branching out to “the Union” and “the Confederacy.” Under those, you can list the states that were on each side. Obviously, these maps can get big pretty fast, so while I normally recommend using a pencil and paper for your studies, as it helps you retain more information, a mind map is an example of an exception to the rule. Apps and digital templates are better because you won’t run out of space or waste time erasing and crossing things out to make room.
You can prepare for this endeavor by taking your notes carefully in class and writing down the most important keywords; you can even use mapping as a standalone note-taking technique, branching related ideas and words off of one another as you hear them. Again, this could get convoluted quickly, so only try it if you’re relatively familiar with the material already or are prepared to revise and redo a map quickly in real time.
When mind-mapping, keep expanding outward. For instance, in the example above, “causes” would include slavery, of course, but also differing economic policies, cultural values, and opinions on how far the federal government’s reach should go. Use different kinds of lines to connect all related ideas, too; all three of those were related to slavery in some way, as well, so they can be connected not only to “causes,” but to “slavery,” which helps make it even clearer, visually, that the Civil War was fought primarily over slavery. In that case, you might want to use dotted lines to represent ideas that are connected to more than one core component of the material. The way you set it up is dependent on your preferences; just make sure you put a key somewhere so you remember what dotted, squiggly, straight, or any other kind of line means. Don’t forget to mess with shapes, either. Facts can be squares, dates triangles, etc. Stick it all in your key.
The goal of this is to stimulate your creative thinking and help you make connections between ideas, plus visualize main themes, which is useful for grasping subjects or outlining an essay.
Studying use cases
Like I said, you can try doing this while you take notes in class. Depending on your capacity for quickness and your overall artistic ability, it might be a solid note-taking approach for you. But there are other ways to incorporate mind maps into your studies. Some reading comprehension techniques call for you to summarize your reading periodically, for instance. Creating a mind map here, instead of writing out a paragraph of a summary, can be a good way to reframe how you’re thinking.
Another example is a technique like 2357, which asks you to revise and review your materials on the second, third, fifth, and seventh day after first studying them. Mixing up your revision styles helps you come at the content from all angles, so one of those days should include a mind-mapping session. You can also make a mind map while dual coding, or practicing using audio and visual cues to stick something in your memory twice as well. You can make a mind map while listening to a lecture or speaking your content out loud for that one-two punch.
The best mind-mapping templates
You can do this on a piece of paper or in Microsoft Word or similar software, using different kinds of lines and shapes to connect and outline your ideas. You know what’s even easier, though? Using pre-made templates. Here are my favorites:
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Lucidchart is an online software that allows you to create three editable charts with its free version, but you can buy an individual subscription for $9 per month if you want unlimited documents. The free version also only allows you to have 60 shapes on a given document, but it does come with 100 templates. The paid version allows unlimited objects and comes with premium shapes and templates, too.
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Miro is free to use and extremely collaborative, so this is a great option if you’re working on a group project. It’s easy to use, comes with a variety of templates, and works well across devices, so you can change your map on your phone if you’re on the go. There are 5,000 templates in the free version and, like Lucidchart, you can make three boards, but to unlock unlimited boards, the option to export in higher definition, and the ability to sort boards into folders, it’ll cost you $8 per month.
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Of course, Canva, the free online graphics software, is always an option for mind-mapping or any other visual tasks. The site has over 1,000 pre-made templates available for you to use and is extremely easy to navigate. I had a professor in grad school who loved assigning mind maps and, cheap as I am, this was the option I always went with. There are a little over 4,000 built-in mind map templates here, which I didn’t actually know in school, so if you use those, you’ll already be smarter than I am because I was making these things by hand, dragging and dropping shapes all over my Canvas.
My favorite: Xmind
There are apps available that work seamlessly across not only your computer, but your phone. I’m partial to Xmind, which allows you to use drag-and-drop templates that come color-coded and ready to fill in. It’s excellent for group project, as it allows multiple people to access and edit the same map, and most of its functionality is totally free.
For no cost, you can access a three-day version history cache to see previous edits and map versions, plus unlimited topics and maps, which is rare in the mind-mapping space. Xmind Premium is $10 per month and a Pro tier is $15, but annual subscriptions are much cheaper: $59 for Pro and $99 for Premium. Pro gives you more color and slide options, plus the ability to add equations, topic links, numbering, tasks, and attachments to maps, so if you’re studying materials that rely on those, you might need to upgrade. You’ll also net custom themes and more export formats. Premium adds AI-generated to-do lists to the package, alongside a 30-day version history cache, unlimited storage space, and unlimited collaboration.