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After 5000 Hours of Mind Mapping, Here's What I've Learned... — Transcript

by Justin Sung · 4,522 words · 624 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I've made over 300 mind maps here's one
0:03of my first mind maps which is about
0:05half a Page worth of normal linear notes
0:07and here's a more recent one that I made
0:08for my masters which is equivalent to
0:11almost 100 pages of notes in this video
0:13I'm going to give you four secrets of
0:15effective mind mapping that took me over
0:17a decade to figure out and make sure to
0:19stick around to the end of the video
0:20because I'll explain how you can
0:21integrate the famous Fineman technique
0:24into your mind mapping to make it the
0:26most powerful learning tool you have in
0:28your aome so secret number one turn your
0:32mind maps into a mind mirror let me
0:35explain when I first started mind
0:37mapping I used to just treat it like
0:39normal note taking I read some stuff I
0:42listen to some stuff and then I just try
0:43to put it down onto my map I'm
0:45simplifying a few words I'm paraphrasing
0:48I'm shortening and abbreviating I'm
0:49adding some lines and arrows and places
0:51where I think things are connected and I
0:53thought that was pretty much it to my
0:55mapping pretty easy pretty useless I
0:58honestly didn't find find it very
1:00effective so I actually kind of stopped
1:02my mapping for a few years and then when
1:04I entered into medical school one of my
1:06friends in a lecture I noticed that they
1:09were mapping during a lecture and they
1:11said that they were finding it really
1:12effective and really useful and at this
1:13point I was like falling asleep in
1:15pretty much every lecture anyway so I
1:16was willing to give anything a go and
1:18this is also the point at which I was
1:20like really really heavily into just
1:21doing like lots and lots of flash cards
1:23and I was really seeing to start how
1:25overwhelming it can be and I was like
1:27trapped in this never ending flash card
1:29cycle so in the next lecture I decided
1:31to just try mapping it out instead so no
1:34more lecture slides that I'm annotating
1:36on no more ever note or one note or just
1:40like typing things out as I went it was
1:42kind of weird because I felt almost like
1:44naked it was just me my brain the
1:48lecture and a blank piece of paper it
1:51felt like all my my gear all my tools
1:53were like Stripped Away From Me and in
1:56the hindsight I think this really helped
1:58me because i' be sitting sitting there
2:00in the lecture and I'd be trying to
2:01create this myet but because the
2:03lecturer didn't really make it a
2:06priority to make the lecture more easily
2:09understandable I just didn't have time
2:12to write down absolutely everything like
2:15I was kind of more used to so I started
2:16cutting down the words that I was using
2:18to just the key words and I spent more
2:21time thinking about what is actually
2:23worth writing down and what is important
2:26enough that I want to write it down in
2:27the way that is the most efficient way
2:30possible and that's when I realized
2:31first of all how powerful a simple arrow
2:34can be at representing actually quite a
2:37complex relationship and also how with
2:40my previous notes a lot of the words I
2:42was writing weren't really helping my
2:45learning of it anyway in fact with less
2:47words it was getting easier because
2:49there were less things on the page for
2:51my brain to try to process through it
2:54meant that I could spend more time
2:55actually thinking about the ideas and
2:57how they connect together and less time
2:59just trying to read everything on the
3:01page and so even though it was actually
3:03a lot harder initially it got much much
3:07easier doing it this way than with my
3:08old technique and I would leave the
3:10lecture feeling like okay I actually
3:13understood most of the things they were
3:15explaining and for the first time I had
3:17you know like more questions I was able
3:19to think about a lot more deeply when I
3:21went to study I kind of had an
3:24understanding about which parts I needed
3:25to revise more versus which parts you
3:27know were relatively strong I had more
3:29of a clear Direction whereas before I
3:31would leave the lecture just being like
3:33well I'm going to have to study all of
3:34that all over again like pretty much all
3:36I did is attend the lecture and I would
3:39be you know like even more overwhelmed
3:41after the lecture than beforehand and
3:42also just like really tired despite the
3:44fact that I spent half the lecture
3:46sleeping so what does this all have to
3:47do with this concept of like a mind
3:49mirror well one of the things that I
3:51started realizing very early on was that
3:53because I was thinking so much about how
3:55to write it down in a way that actually
3:57makes sense the notes that I would was
4:00producing reflected my mind much more
4:04closely and so I could start visually
4:07seeing where there were gaps in my
4:09knowledge and where I struggled with if
4:12there was a problem on the map there was
4:14a corresponding problem in my mind in my
4:17own memory if it looked really messy and
4:21chaotic then that meant that it was also
4:23pretty messy in my brain too for example
4:25if you have a look at this map that I
4:27did relatively early on you can see that
4:29there are these parts here which look
4:31really really messy and yes all these
4:33ideas are connected to each other but if
4:35someone actually ask me to explain it
4:37and navigate those connections in a
4:39coherent way I'd get overwhelmed and I
4:41wouldn't know where to start whereas on
4:43the other hand if you have a look at
4:45this part of the same map where it just
4:47happened to look more clean and more
4:49organized and I remember I thought about
4:52it a little bit more to try to get it
4:53clean and organized then I was able to
4:56talk about this part and answer problems
4:58related to these things much more easily
5:02and it didn't matter what someone asked
5:05me about this I had a confidence with
5:07the topic that I could hit it from any
5:09angle and navigate it in any direction
5:11and as I slowly started to make my mind
5:14maps more clean and more organized and
5:17look at the messy things and then use
5:19that as an opportunity to clean that
5:20part up I started entering into exams
5:23where you'd have these curveball
5:24questions that used to make me think
5:27holy crap I've never seen this before
5:29before I've never thought about it this
5:30way before they never taught me this I
5:33started thinking of it like hm that's an
5:36interesting angle to explore I can make
5:39that work and I'd never been able to
5:41think about these types of questions
5:43with that mentality before but it really
5:44took years to embrace that part where I
5:48was willing to put down something on my
5:50mind map that wasn't that organized that
5:54wasn't that good I had this feeling that
5:56when I write it on my map it should be
5:59as perfect as possible so if you have a
6:01look at this m map that I did really
6:03really early on you can see that it
6:05looks really clean but it's clean
6:08because I just didn't put all the
6:10information on it because I knew that as
6:11soon as I tried to add more stuff it was
6:13going to get messy so it's not that it
6:15was more organized in my brain it's like
6:17I literally just avoided the part that
6:19made it more confusing which like I
6:22needed all of that knowledge anyway so
6:24the secret is don't do that if it's
6:26messy put it down use your map like a
6:30mirror put down what you're thinking add
6:32all the connections add all the arrows
6:34let it be messy and then when it's on
6:37paper you can look at it you can see the
6:39mistakes and the gaps for what it is and
6:42then you can start to progressively try
6:44to clean it up and reorganize it and
6:47when you don't avoid that when you look
6:49for the parts that are messy and you
6:51recognize that that means that that
6:53structure is not quite clear in your
6:55head it creates a really high yield
6:58focused area for your revision any area
7:01of a map that looks
7:03disorganized messy arrows or lines
7:06flying around everywhere or literally
7:09just like a whole Gap like there's just
7:10literally nothing there even though you
7:12know there should be something there
7:14maybe you just like missed that part of
7:16the topic these are areas that you
7:19should work on and being able to
7:21visually see it makes things so much
7:25more easy than trying to find your gaps
7:28through just like going over the same
7:30thing again and again hoping to find
7:32something that you missed or like just
7:33testing yourself with like 10,000
7:35practice questions which directly
7:37relates to secret number two never get
7:40it right on your first try you know how
7:43I said that if it's messy just put it
7:44down on paper and then try to organize
7:46it afterwards well I really mean it you
7:48see because of my type a typical like
7:51mid student personality and I had this
7:54perfectionism and I wanted to create the
7:56best mind map first try and you might
7:59have had this experience yourself but
8:01this is really really hard in fact I
8:04actually wonder if it's humanly possible
8:07for most topics I realized that there
8:09are usually so many Concepts and
8:11keywords and potential relationships
8:13that you can overload your brain within
8:16like minutes of thinking about it I
8:18can't even imagine trying to think about
8:21every single connection and pattern and
8:23every concept and create this like
8:25perfect knowledge schema of an entire
8:27topic first try without making any
8:30mistakes I actually don't think the
8:32human brain is capable of that level of
8:35processing what is infinitely more
8:38efficient and way easier is to just put
8:41your ideas down as hypotheses and just
8:44work and build on them as you go put
8:47down some words draw a few lines think
8:50maybe I could organize it like this or
8:53wonder if that makes sense or maybe I
8:55could do it like this wonder if that
8:56makes sense I don't know let me come
8:58back to it later read a little bit more
9:01add a few more words add a few more
9:03lines think does it make sense I don't
9:06know come back to it later like if you
9:08use your mapping as a cognitive offload
9:12so that it stops things from getting
9:14overwhelming and you can literally look
9:16at the ideas that you were thinking of
9:18and then refine them and when you think
9:21about it as everything you write down in
9:23the first go it's all going to be wrong
9:25like nothing in there is going to be
9:27perfect you're using it like a
9:29whiteboard like a scratch Pad so that on
9:31the fifth or sixth or seventh iteration
9:35of organization and thinking about it
9:37you can get it to a point where it's
9:38like accurate and really really good and
9:40flows and it's like super organized then
9:43that will be a win you're going to
9:44notice that you are way more engaged
9:46while you're reading or listening you're
9:48going to find that you're aware of
9:50knowledge gaps much earlier on you'll
9:53find that your memory is much deeper
9:55you'll find that your depth of
9:57understanding is more nuanced and for
9:58the same amount of time spent studying
10:01you will end up with a much more robust
10:04set of knowledge in the early days I
10:06used to try to get it right the first
10:08time and I used to think like maybe just
10:11by continuing to push to get it right
10:13the first time it's going to train my
10:15brain's ability to like process and
10:17think about it and then one day if I
10:19keep pushing at it I will get to a point
10:21where like my first my map first go is
10:23just like Immaculate so my first attempt
10:26is a lot better than I would have been
10:27able to do 10 years ago it is still
10:30impossible to get it right the first
10:32time and trying to do that always leads
10:35to something that is lower quality and
10:39just more time consuming it is a
10:41complete lose lose situation and I want
10:44you to compare that with something that
10:45is completely
10:47winwin for example liking this video
10:51when you like this video I win because
10:53this video reaches more people and you
10:55win because it means that I keep making
10:57videos for free every week you could
11:00even turn it into a triple win by
11:03subscribing anyway speaking of winning
11:05moves uh we've got secret number three
11:07which is never ever ever start
11:13organizing your ideas the same way it is
11:17presented to you now this is kind of a
11:19tricky one so listen carefully there's
11:21this cognitive bias called framing bias
11:24framing bias is basically your brain's
11:26tendency to judge later in information
11:30based on how it was presented or framed
11:33to you this is talked about a lot in
11:36fields like medicine where you know you
11:38could have a junior doctor say hey uh
11:40boss can you have a look at this patient
11:41they've got gastritis you know a bit of
11:43heartburn uh they coming in with you
11:46know pain you know like right here like
11:48above their stomach and they get this
11:50kind of like acid sensation in the back
11:52of their throat it's like a burning
11:53feeling coming up it's worse after they
11:55eat then that way of presenting the
11:59patient makes someone think okay yeah
12:01they've said hey boss I've got someone
12:04with heartburn and then they describe
12:06these things that sound like heartburn
12:09but it might not be it might be a heart
12:10attack it might be like an atypical
12:13presentation of a heart attack but you
12:15don't want to bias yourself into
12:17thinking yep it's heartburn and
12:18therefore miss the heart attack and this
12:21is the same thing when it comes to
12:22studying a lot of the time when you're
12:24taught something in lecture slides or
12:26like a textbook there are headings and
12:28sub headings and there's a certain
12:30organizational hierarchy that someone
12:32thought this is a logical way of
12:35teaching it to someone else every now
12:37and again you get lectures where you
12:38wonder like did they ever even think
12:40about what would be a logical way of
12:41teaching this to us but regardless you
12:44can't avoid the fact that when you're
12:45learning something you are consuming
12:48that information in someone else's frame
12:52and that's going to bias the way you
12:53think about it now the problem is that
12:56the way that it makes sense for you and
12:58the way way that you should organize it
13:00that makes the most sense for your brain
13:02is not always the same that's why you
13:05could have an expert teacher explain
13:08something to you but then when your
13:09friend explains it to you it actually
13:11clicks and makes sense a lot more easily
13:13it's more intuitive or you could read
13:14two books about the same topic but one
13:16book just explains it in a way that just
13:18feels so much more intuitive for you but
13:21maybe for another person they prefer the
13:23other book and it's not about how
13:25they're going to test or examine or how
13:28you need to use your knowledge either
13:30and that's a common thought you can
13:32learn something in a frame in an
13:35organizational structure that's not the
13:37same as how they're going to test you
13:39but if that's the way that makes more
13:40sense for your brain it's going to be
13:42easier for your brain to encode that
13:44information keep it in your memory and
13:46reinforce the pathways and once that
13:48knowledge is there you can then use that
13:50knowledge in whatever Direction and
13:52angle that you want you can make the
13:54knowledge fit how you need to apply it
13:57it's much less effective to try to force
14:00your brain to understand it in the way
14:03you need to apply it or how you're going
14:05to be tested if that's not a way that
14:07makes sense for your brain you're now
14:10going to be fighting against how your
14:11brain wants to learn it for the sake of
14:14meeting some marking criteria when it
14:16would actually be much faster to learn
14:18it the way your brain wants to that
14:20makes the most sense for your brain and
14:22then just manipulate that information
14:24more freely once you have legitimately
14:26better expertise and in some cases you
14:28can find an angle that hits both it is
14:31both better for the way you need to use
14:33your knowledge and it makes more sense
14:34for your brain a great example of this
14:36is one time when I was working in the
14:38emergency department as a student and I
14:41remember my senior pulled me aside and
14:43he was like okay tell me everything that
14:45you know about shock now shock in
14:47medical speak is basically when your
14:48body is like shutting down it's like a
14:50crisis mode and so I said okay well you
14:52know like a medical student I was like
14:53okay well there's five different types
14:55of shock and you know here are all the
14:57different you know types and there are
14:59these different examples for every
15:00single different type and then these are
15:02the different symptoms and the you know
15:04mechanisms for each of those subtypes
15:05and examples and then he was like okay
15:07okay that's enough like this too slow
15:09you don't have 5 10 minutes for every
15:11patient you see for you to like work
15:13through this checklist and then he pulls
15:15out a little piece of paper and he draws
15:17on it in like 45 seconds a very simple
15:21diagram of the human body and he was
15:23like think of the body like a pump tubes
15:27and organs and he showed me how all of
15:30the different examples that I was
15:32talking about before really cleanly can
15:35just be fit into this new framework of
15:39thinking about shock and after about a
15:42minute I started thinking this way of
15:45thinking about shock is so much easier
15:49than the way that I've been trying to
15:50learn it before which is how it was
15:51taught to me in my lectures and in my
15:53textbooks and it's not like it was some
15:55ridiculously like technical you know
15:58Advanced way way of thinking about it I
16:00could totally have just myself thought
16:03of a different way to repackage that
16:05material in a way that made more sense
16:07for me and I probably would have arrived
16:09at that same framework I just never
16:13bothered to I didn't realize it would
16:15help me and when I started thinking
16:16about it in this way my retention was
16:18bter I was able to use that information
16:20more freely like I could recall it much
16:22more quickly it just felt much more
16:24intuitive it was bitter in every way and
16:26I didn't have to just memorize
16:28everything like I was doing before it
16:29was the same amount of information just
16:33filed away in a different way and so
16:35here's the learning point if we start by
16:38assuming that the way something is
16:40presented to us is the right way to
16:44learn it and that's going to affect the
16:46way that we can organize the information
16:48and it's going to stop us from seeing
16:50potentially other Frameworks a lot of
16:52the time people will say well this
16:55method that they have taught me is
16:56really really logical it makes sense
16:59already how could there be any other way
17:02of learning it all I have to do is just
17:04take this and then memorize it but
17:06here's the thing if you need to memorize
17:09it in order for you to remember it it
17:12probably means it's not that intuitive
17:15it might be logical but there could be
17:18another way of thinking about it that is
17:21just as logical but more intuitive and
17:24you're never going to know until you
17:26deliberately look for it and I found
17:28that for most topics there is usually
17:31more often than not a way of repackaging
17:35the information to make it more optimal
17:37for your brain and for your memory so
17:39just for my personal experience or
17:40experience working with students here's
17:42a few examples of ways that things have
17:44traditionally been packaged and then how
17:47students have been able to repackage it
17:49in ways that made more sense for them so
17:51for something like history or historical
17:53events often things have been presented
17:55to them in a way that's like before
17:58during during and after but an
18:00alternative grouping might be something
18:02like drivers mechanisms and consequences
18:06which is again also very logical but
18:08potentially more intuitive depending on
18:10the topic for subject like medicine or
18:13Dentistry often things are presented
18:14like history examination investigation
18:18and management now the problem with this
18:20is that like every disease is presented
18:22in this way and so what becomes
18:24problematic is that because every single
18:26thing is like categorized the exact same
18:29way that categorization doesn't actually
18:31help you to remember the information
18:33like the the categories become
18:35meaningless because everything is
18:36categorized that way but in some cases
18:38for some diseases it might actually make
18:40more sense to divide it into something
18:41that's more like mechanisms or
18:45pathophysiology and then severity and
18:48then the management comes off as an
18:50example of how you treat anything that
18:53has that kind of mechanism and that
18:56level of severity and again these are
18:57just a couple of examples there's
18:59literally hundreds of different ways
19:01that you can package information and I
19:04think it is a pretty characteristic sign
19:07of a highlevel learner to be able to
19:09find a way of organizing information in
19:12a way that feels more intuitive for them
19:14and I'm not saying that you can't ever
19:16organize it in the same way that it was
19:18taught to you but I'm saying that if you
19:19do end up organizing it in the same way
19:21that should be an independent conclusion
19:23that you arrive at after you have really
19:26thought about it and have thought about
19:27Alternatives and as a quick TST if you
19:29look at how you've organized and grouped
19:30your information and you think I don't
19:33even know any other way to arrange this
19:35it probably means that you can think
19:37about it a little bit more after all you
19:39can't decide that something is the best
19:41way if you don't even know of any other
19:43ways and trust me there's always some
19:45other way now next up is our final
19:47secret but first a word from our sponsor
19:50yes that is again me most of the stuff
19:53that I talk about in all of my videos
19:55has been in my guided program for years
19:57it is a distillation of over a decade of
20:00my experience helping Learners become
20:02Ultra efficient in a stepbystep guided
20:05program we only need to spend like 20 30
20:07minutes every 2 or 3 days to take in
20:09some new Theory and techniques you then
20:11practice them throughout the week and
20:13you can get feedback within our
20:14community and our team of coaches making
20:16the program the best it can be is where
20:18the majority of my time and focus goes
20:21if you're interested you can check it
20:22out at i.com I'll put a link in the
20:23description and so finally secret number
20:26four which is to integrate the Fineman
20:29technique now the fan technique
20:30basically says that if you want to learn
20:31something you should try to explain it
20:33to a 10-year-old and there's a little
20:35bit more to it than that but this
20:36mindset complements mind mapping
20:39perfectly and the reason is because
20:41especially when we learn a new topic
20:43there's often a lot of new terminology
20:46and
20:47terminology is like vanilla Essence let
20:50me explain if you've ever opened up a
20:52bottle of vanilla Essence before you
20:55know that that stuff is potent you you
20:58know you literally put like a like a
20:59tiny little teaspoon of vanilla Essence
21:01to like vanilla flavor an entire Cake
21:04The Humble vanilla bean has been
21:07ruthlessly concentrated and extracted so
21:10that for just like a few drops of this
21:14Villar Ence you are getting like a
21:16concentrated bomb of flavor and that is
21:18exactly what terminology is when we
21:21learn a new piece of terminology it's
21:24not just a word or a couple of words it
21:26is an entire net work of ideas and
21:29relationships that were so complicated
21:31that someone decided we need a whole
21:33word just for it and so when we
21:35introduce new terminology into our mind
21:38maps or our notes it can overload our
21:40brain very easily and so one way that we
21:42can supercharge our mind maps is to
21:44deliberately use non-technical words
21:47that a 10-year-old could understand so
21:49for example let's say you're studying
21:50cell division and there's a phase and
21:52there it's called anaphase instead of
21:53writing anaphase you can just write away
21:56which is basically what happens in that
21:57phase and you can still have your
21:58terminology under it so you don't forget
22:00it you just have it in Brackets
22:02underneath but by taking a moment to
22:04turn that terminology into a simpler
22:06word not only do we deepen our
22:08understanding of that word by turning
22:10into something that we feel we're able
22:12to understand more intuitively which is
22:14like making a mini analogy we're also
22:16able to speed up our review of that
22:19information because our brain can spend
22:21more time thinking about the ideas and
22:23less time reading each piece of
22:25terminology and spending 10 15 seconds
22:27trying unpack exactly what that word
22:29meant and the reason this is secret
22:31number four is that if you actually just
22:32try to do this you'll realize that it's
22:34kind of impossible to do it properly
22:36without doing Secrets number one two and
22:38three first now I've told people to do
22:39mind maps with these methods for years
22:43and if you've tried mind mapping before
22:44and it wasn't really that good then try
22:46it again with these tips and I guarantee
22:48you you're going to have a completely
22:49different experience it will feel more
22:51challenging but that is your brain
22:53trying to figure things out that is your
22:55brain being active in the learning
22:56process and that's going to result than
22:58you having a better memory and a better
22:59depth of understanding challenging is
23:02good so give these tips a go I'm sure
23:03they're going to help thanks for
23:05watching and I'll see you next
23:06[Music]
23:08time

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This page contains the full transcript of After 5000 Hours of Mind Mapping, Here's What I've Learned... by Justin Sung, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,522 words across 624 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

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