Improve Your Memory with Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping

Memory can lead to the accomplishments of many astonishing feats. Take for example the story of Mozart visiting Rome in 1770, when he was 14, and listened to Allegri's Miserere in the Sistine Chapel. The half-hour long piece of music was considered so special that the Vatican forbade its publication, but after the concert Mozart wrote down the entire piece of music from memory. Or more recently, memory champions have been setting world records which seem nothing short of miraculous to ordinary people. It is often assumed that such people must have extraordinary brains or are amazingly clever.

In 2002 scientists put this assumption to the test and performed a range of tests on highly ranked memorizers at the World Memory Championships held annually. The tests revealed that the memory champions' brains showed no differences to that of ordinary people. However, it was discovered that nine out of the ten memory champions were simply using a technique called 'the method of Loci', which dated back to ancient Greece. This method is based on location and imagination. It was therefore concluded that a good memory is simply a skill, and a skill that can be learned - at any age.

The main principle of memory technique is linking the thing to be remembered to some other idea - this is known as association. When your memory has meaning, your brain gives it a tag that makes it much easier to retrieve. A similar process is achieved when you see something in context or linked to some other idea which provides a tag for the idea. If you imagine your memory as a library, it is clearly much easier to find a particular memory if it has a tag attached to it. You will be amazed how dramatically you can improve your ability to remember things if you use combinations of association, vibrancy and imagination.

The best technique that encourages you to use association and imagination is Mind Mapping. Mind Mapping was invented by Tony Buzan in the 1960s, although the learning principles of Mind Mapping have been around for hundreds of years and have been used by some of the world's greatest thinkers. Tony Buzan states that it is the ultimate thinking tool - a creative and effective means of thinking that literally 'maps out' your brain. Mind Maps are an ideal tool to use as a memory improvement tool, not only is it extremely simple but it can have an immediate impact on memory, creativity and your ability to concentrate. Mind Maps have a natural structure that radiates from the centre and uses lines, symbols, words, and images according to a set of natural and brain-friendly rules. A long list of boring information can be turned into colorful, memorable, highly organized diagrams that reflect the brains natural way of thinking and encourages synergetic thinking.

Imagination and association are the two main principles that make Mind Mapping so effective. By developing creative skills you are not only improving your ability to come up with innovative ideas you are also, by default, enhancing your ability to remember things. This is because creativity and memory are vertically identical mental processes - they both work best when you are using imagination and association.