My Goal Setting Tool 23 Years On

I still vividly remember finding a Tony Buzan mind mapping book in a second hand bookshop in the early 1980s. I was sufficiently curious of the book's premises to test mind maps while I was a physics teacher in the UK. This article reviews the goal setting lessons I learned while mind mapping in the classroom.nn1 - Use What Works: Students struggling with a demanding academic workload were well used to taking lots of notes. Especially since most teachers (myself included) implicitly praised and valued the power of note taking as an essential study aid. Naturally enough, my classes couldn't quite get what was the rationale for this mental detour! For the greenho mappers we were back then, mind mapping had to be introduced gradually alongside the familiar linear note taking world. nnGoal Setting Lesson: Pick a topic and explore it using mind mapping. Then add in any necessary and supporting details (on a different page) in the form of notes.nn2- Spoon Feeding The Addiction: While taking pages and pages of notes certainly requires time and attention, it can also lead to the development of lazy habits such as mindlessly copying verbatim chunks of information from a textbook or blackboard. Sadly, my classes loved to be spoon fed notes, either as a homework exercise, or directly from my writing on the board or overhead projector. nnGoal Setting Lesson: Find a well known bestseller on goals and read about 5 pages. Then put the book down and reduce the chapter title to a single word on a blank piece of paper. For a few minutes, allow your imagination to soar over the map title and then attach up to five keyword branches to your map. Don't rush this.nn3 - Patience: Beginning mind mappers often get frustrated with their limited ability to recall keywords from the material they have recently read. The important point here is 'patience' - that is, an awareness of the time and effort required to learn and improve at a new skill such as mind mapping. nnGoal Setting Lesson: Drill your new mapping skills on written material close to your heart. Allow the ideas to come to mind as you focus on the goal and add them in the form of keywords to the map with a pencil. For my teenage students this was a big request because we grownup educationalists had taught them over many years to believe that extensive note taking was a prerequisite for success.nn4- One Word: This is perhaps the hardest task of all! It is a lot easier to write a sentence or two than condensing the meaning into just one word. Of course there are some unique challenges when applying the keyword approach to topics such as mathematical proofs or scientific formula. These don't easily lend themselves to traditional mapping techniques - hence my advice around using what works.nnGoal Setting Lesson: Pick out the optimal summary keyword and start with that, leaving the nested sub-branches and supporting linear notes to take care of the details as and when they come to you.nn5 - Review: Looks like homework! Not exactly. Many mind maps on goal setting are "under construction" and will therefore need regular review to remain up to date. A quarter of a century ago this was a real pain in the neck (and fingers!) to do using pencil and eraser - my classes especially detested it! These days there are fantastic mind mapping software applications which can be used as a goal setting tool. nnGoal Setting Lesson: Review the features of commercial and freeware software packages with respect to using them as a goal setting tool. A lot of software packages have free "try before you buy" capability. Take advantage of that. Mark McClure is a change-the-game coach and business owner.