Anatomy of a mind map
Centre, branches, keywords, colours, images: the five components and their rules.
1. The centre
Always in the middle of the page, in landscape format. Portrait will leave you short of room on the right before you finish.
The centre holds the subject, in one to three words, with an image. The central image is not decoration: it is the first retrieval cue, the one that brings back the whole map.
Size: about five centimetres. A centre that is too small produces branches that clump together.
2. The main branches
Five to seven maximum. This is the most important constraint and the one most often broken.
Beyond seven you have not built a hierarchy: you have made a list arranged in a circle. If you have twelve main ideas, two or three levels have been mixed together. Group them.
Characteristics.
- Thick at the base, thin at the tip. Thickness encodes importance and guides the eye.
- Curved, not straight. A curved line is more easily distinguished and remembered, and it fills the space better.
- One colour per main branch, kept across all its sub-branches. Colour becomes a filing system.
- Radiating from the centre clockwise, starting at one o'clock. That order gives a reading sequence, which many maps lack.
3. The keywords
One word per branch. This is the rule that makes all the difference, and the one that takes the most discipline.
Why a single word: it forces you to identify the concept rather than transcribe a sentence; it leaves room for later associations, because a sentence is closed whereas a word is open; and it makes the map readable at a glance.
Favour nouns and verbs, and remove articles, prepositions and adjectives unless they carry the meaning.
Write in capitals and on the line, not above or below it. The word should be the same length as the branch carrying it.
4. The colours
Three minimum, five to seven ideally. Each main branch has its own.
Complementary uses: red for actions and anything urgent, green for decisions taken, blue for data and figures, a highlighter for whatever will need revising.
Rule: a colour code that is constant from one map to the next. A code that changes every time codes nothing.
5. Images and pictograms
A pictogram is worth ten words and is remembered ten times better. You do not need to be able to draw: thirty simple symbols are enough, and that is what lesson 4.2 covers.
Put at least three per map, on the most important elements.
The universal skeleton
When you do not know how to structure a subject, start from the question branches: WHY, WHAT, HOW, WHO, WHEN, HOW MUCH, RISKS.
They work for the great majority of professional subjects, and they stop you staring at a blank page.
End-of-map checklist
Before you put a map away, check. Is the centre identifiable in one second? Can I read the map in a clear order? Are the main branches at the same logical level? Are there at least three pictograms? Are the actions to take findable by a dedicated colour or symbol?
Thirty seconds of checking that make the map readable again in six months.
The five components, in the order you lay them down
- 1The centreIn the middle, landscape, 5 cm, an image is compulsory.
- 2Five to seven branchesCurved, thick at the base, one colour each, clockwise.
- 3One word per branchIn capitals, on the line, the same length as it.
- 4The colour codeConstant from one map to the next, otherwise it codes nothing.
- 5Three pictogramsOn the most important elements.
Exercises2
Understanding produces no change. These exercises are what makes the difference: each one has a measurable success criterion.
Your first map: the week ahead
Produce a map that follows the five rules, on a subject that is immediately useful.
Equipment : One A4 sheet in landscape, at least five colours.
- 1.Centre: the week ahead, with an image, five centimetres.
- 2.Five to six main branches: the broad areas of your life, work, personal, health, projects, admin.
- 3.One keyword per branch, in capitals, on the line.
- 4.One colour per main branch, kept across its offshoots.
- 5.Add three pictograms on the most important elements.
- 6.Run the end-of-map checklist.
Success looks like : The map fits on one page, follows the five rules, and passes all five points of the checklist.
The classic mistake : Writing sentences on the branches. It is the most common mistake, and it cancels half the benefit of the method.
Going further : Do the same map again using the universal skeleton: why, what, how, who, when, risks.
Fixing a failed map
Learn to diagnose an unreadable map, which teaches you more than getting one right.
- 1.Deliberately make a map with twelve main branches on a subject you know well.
- 2.Identify the five broad categories that would let you group them.
- 3.Redo the map with those five branches, the twelve elements becoming sub-branches.
- 4.Compare the two: reading time, clarity, how easily the actions stand out.
Success looks like : The second map reads in under thirty seconds, the first does not.
The classic mistake : Concluding that the subject was too broad. Twelve branches almost always signal a missing level of hierarchy, not a subject that is too wide.
This lesson is part of Mind Mapping & Note-Taking
15 lessons, 4 resources and the complete protocol to install the method in 30 days.