The term mind map was coined in the 70s by a television personality, Tony Buzan, but the existence of 13^th-century illustrations proves that the concept is much older. Mind maps are effective methods for visually representing a main idea or concept, but there is so much more.

Mind maps started to be used in classrooms to help teach students complicated topics, but they have since been incorporated into business settings to help with complicated team projects. There are many reasons why a mind map is considered so useful, and here are just a few of the main advantages.

Memory Recall

Our brains work by visual stimulation. We see a bump in the road, and our brain tells us to step over it carefully. The human brain is automatically drawn to images rather than words. This means that mind maps will work better for memory recall than reading the same information in a paragraph format. Research shows that by visualizing a clear color image of something, our brains are more likely to retain that information for longer.

Think about anytime you had to perform an oral presentation in class. You weren’t allowed to read from a piece of paper, but you were allowed to use cue cards with words or phrases that could help you remember what to say. Mind maps work similarly. By associating an important piece of information with a specific image that is easily visualized, the brain will remember everything that you learned about that topic.

Emphasizes New Learning Pathways

The mind works in many complicated ways. Science still hasn’t discovered everything there is to know about the human brain, but one thing is for sure. The brain is built to continuously learn and evolve. If the brain is not stimulated properly and often enough, neural pathways become lazy and incompetent. Mind maps can help to strengthen those pathways, to help someone learn a completely new topic or improve on something they battle with.

Learning doesn’t just mean reading and understanding words. It requires meaningful learning to truly understand a topic, and mind maps are incredibly beneficial in this regard. When a topic is too tough to work with, using a mind map can simplify the topic into smaller bite-sized portions. These are easier to understand within the overall topic and are very useful for studying for an exam or trying to be creative.

Improves Productivity

Many large projects seem too complicated if one tries to understand the topic as a whole. It can become overwhelming, which subsequently affects productivity. Because mind maps are meant to focus only on the most important concepts related to the main idea, only the critical parts of the project are addressed. By understanding the main topic better, you have more time to plan and organize how to carry out the important steps.

When working with visualizations, your brain also works much faster. It can retain information and process things more effectively. This is a major benefit in any project to ensure that high-priority tasks are handled efficiently.

Mind maps are useful in many different scenarios. This popular method of learning has been around for hundreds of years because mind maps work more effectively than with the human brain to organize and understand important concepts.