How to Take Notes So That You Never Have to Study (Mindmapping Guide)

this is a mind map I made the other day it covers the chapters of three entire topics all it took was 30 minutes to make and because of it I will remember what I learned forever my name is Zay oiv I am now a fourth year medical student and over the last six plus years I have been gradually consistently working and getting good at learning how to learn learning how to absorb information effectively and efficiently and that is why I can confidently say that mindmapping is the single most beneficial technique that I've learned over this

enti entire year because it's helped me process and remember huge amounts of information in such an effective way and that is what I want to teach you today by the way I've made an absolutely free detailed mindmap PDF guide for you guys to complement this video as well it is completely free all you have to do is click the link in my description below and I will send you a PDF directly that includes the entire mindmap method extra details to each step annotated mind maps of my own and answers to every one of your questions

that you guys have ask in the comments and the community posts again Linked In the description below enter your email and you will get the full PDF the way I've learned to build these mind maps is using the pro mind mapping method P priming relating and organizing and I'm going to go through every single step within each of these phases using a mind map that I made a few days ago but before I lose half the low attention spanners watching I'm going to quickly go through some frequently asked questions that I get about creating mind

maps in general number one why am I creating mind maps first things first we need to understand the reason we're creating these mind maps instead of just jumping and reading through our books the fastest way to learn is to First create a base of one or multiple related topics this base should link all the key Concepts and processes Within These topics on one page and the best way to do that is using these mind maps so that when you're revising the rest of the chapter afterwards you will be able to link everything that you're reading

there to these initial mind maps because even though most of you don't know this the way you learn things is by making links from this new knowledge that you're learning two pre-existing knowledge or experiences or other things to do with this topic and that is what this mind map can act as number two what information goes on these mind maps remember this is just the basic structure of the topics so obviously you only put down the basic to medium level information on these mind maps no nitty-gritty details no difficult Concepts that you won't understand cuz

that's a waste number three how much information goes on these mind maps the amount of topics and chapters you include in one mind map depends depends on the information you're learning and the exam that you're giving my exams test me on the clinical side of hundreds of diseases it makes way more sense for me to do multiple related diseases and put them on the same mind map cuz they all link to the same topic right that's way more sensible than putting just a singular disease on there but basically it depends on what you're doing you

have to be the judge now let's get started with the exact steps I'm going to break and simplify everything down as much as possible so try and follow along phase one the priming stage open up all of the lectures and chapters to do with those three related topics that you've selected and let's get started this is the preparation part of creating your mind map priming is essential for not just this but for any learning is basically you setting the stage for any revision that you're going to do step one figure out what your three related

topics are about for me I figure out what each disease is and how it generally affects our body it's a very simple step you don't need to spend more than a few minutes on it but you see straight away I'm thinking of these diseases together I'm reading their definitions one after the other with the goal of comparing them how are they different or similar from one another it's much more useful than learning each of them in isolation step two understand a the structure of the chapter and B the basics of the chapter now you try

and skim read all of the chapters of these topics together while reading through multiple ones think about how each individual chapter is laid out what is its structure what are the sections of these chapters divided up into and then compare between the chapters again how do these sections of chapter 1 and chapter 3 compare is a certain section of chapter 1 heavier compared to chapter 3 why why is there more emphasis on this bit than it is for that disease this is you just creating a big picture for all of the topics and comparing them

along the way as for understanding the basic information go through each of the chapters top to bottom multiple times if needed but the rule is you are only focusing on the basics you're not getting stuck for a single second on any of the details any of the complex Concepts on there just the basics top to bottom skim them all what skim reading means is that you read through the concepts what the processes are how they kind of work figure it out as you go along you look up words you watch a few visual videos you

obviously won't know anything at this point and that is completely fine I personally get bored if I'm reading too much all of a sudden so I like to mix up the chapters with the VD visual videos because it really helps clarify the basics very quickly basically the videos are just easier to understand and much more fun to watch than just reading through a bunch of textbooks or and especially skim reading they explain the topic in a simple and visual way with arrows and they kind of give you ideas for what you can use to put

on your mind map as well sometimes I look at these videos and I look at their diagrams and I see oh they show the picture of the joint for all of these three diseases maybe and that like you know helps me come up with what I'm going to put on the Mind map later on and by the way the final thing for this step is that while you skim read think about the big subheadings that you can divide this chapter all the information of this chapter up into most of the chapters can be divided up

into three to five groups each and remember these subheadings of the chapters I know there already some in there you don't need to use those exact ones those are the authors subheadings you need to come up with your own way to divide the information of the chapter up at times there's no harm with using the author's framework but just think about what is going to help you understand this chapter in the best way what is the best way that you're going to be able to think about this chapter 10 days from now step three write

down and group the key Concepts and ideas into subheadings and their key phrases and key wordss that you want to include on the Mind map remember all of this you're learning but it's in preparation to make that mind map that links all these three topics together That Base that links them together you should already have the subheadings or groups that you thought of from before so add them on and then under each subheading add on the key Concepts and the ideas or the or the words or the key phrases that you know you want to

include on the Mind map I know this kind of resembles not taking but remember this is just for the Mind map so make sure there's not too much useless information on there when you're putting information in this list of keywords of these categorized groups Etc think about what you want to include in your mind map cuz these groups are going on your mind map think about what is going to add to this mind map or what is going to help link the other topics together because if this information doesn't help the Mind map help your

basic understanding then it's just a useless piece of information on the corner of your page what I really want you to understand is that the process of grouping this information figuring it out okay how do I want to categorize all this information into subheadings and keywords Etc what's important to include what should I not include all of it number one promotes understanding and number two when you're revising later it's way easier to think of this information if it's categorized like yeah I'm just reading about this antibody test and it's just a test fine it helps

no when you're reading this antibody test you will think okay this antibody test is a first line investigation yeah to treat what to treat rheum arthritis and what is r arthritis it is a autoimmune disorder that affects the joints that link happens very quickly in your head when you're categorizing information especially when you're reading it so focus on categorizing it as you're reading it instead of just letting the information be going like yeah I guess I know that now now before we jump into the next part of the video where the Mind mapping process really

takes off a tool that has recently cut my studying time down to half is remote the kind sponsor of today's video I get it when there's a crap ton of notes huge lectures who's going to actually be bothered to create questions and then actively recall them and study them properly there's literally no time but picture this what if you had a tool that turned all of your notes automatically into flashcards as you were typing them out so that you could review them as you were studying well that's exactly what remot does all you have to

do is take your notes like usual and Remo works as magic with just a quick double equal to assign between the question and the answer you can create flashcards right inside of your notes it's literally like on noan and Anki had a baby this has sped up my process of creating recall questions a lot because I just started to do it on here and as you saw I also was creating these questions while I Was preparing for that mind my while I was making the notes for it on top of that it generates AI answers

as you write out those questions so no time is wasted there it has image occlusion PDF annotations a bunch of other useful tools but we'll save the Deep di for another time for now click the link in my description remote.com szan that's it remote.com z i n and you will get your first month completely for free so make sure to check it out support this Channel and speed up your own learning process now let's get back to the Mind mapping most of the questions I get asked about the priming and skimming stage is to do

with one of the following things number one how do you speed up the skimming and what do you actually do during it specifically I'm going to say this again when I say skim read yes you go through the all of the content but you don't read every single sentence you don't get hung up on specific information or things you don't understand right now when you read something you don't have to be like oh why am I not remembering this oh man I should be able to understand this why don't not understand this you are just

trying to think about what the the basics are what are the concepts and processes involved here what do they mean what do they do how are these three related diseases that I've chosen linked together this skimming isn't all of your studying it is just to develop an initial structure in your head and yes with some topics skimming is slow it depends on your energy levels and your focus levels it does take time but that's fine it's way better to do the priming of all of these chapters and and grouping them together into the the subheadings

and organizing the information in a way that you will understand to create that bigger picture at this stage that is what's important and you're not wasting time this is studying in one of the most important ways possible you're layering the topic level by level understanding fluidly making sense of how things work number two skimming actually isn't enough for me to create a good mind map what do I Do by the way I just wanted to clear something up very quickly while you're making that mind map you should still have all of these resources up you

should be learning while you make it so that you can make better links and understanding more deeply so this skimming that you're doing isn't really all of the reading that you'll get to do you're reading more you're understanding more you're watching more videos you're processing things throughout this entire process but the difference between this process of creating the mind maps is that when you're reading you're reading critically you're analyzing the structure of different topics you're comparing the different chapters then you're evaluating if all of what you just learned actually even makes sense if these groups

even make sense and eventually you'll be creating that mind map and by the way all of this is hitting those higher order levels of learning on the blooms taxonomy system but yeah that was just a bit of a ramble I wanted to clear those misconceptions phase two the relating stage now is the part where we got to come up with a way how how all of these topics and Concepts that we have organized are going to be related on a single page on that mind map what goes in the center what goes around it the

next few steps that I'm going be talking about I'm mainly the whole time I'm mainly very much actively thinking legit I sit down and I plan what goes on the Mind map I compare the diseases more I read and watch a bit more understand better I really try hard to think about what is a good way to relate them and this is a difficult process but I'm going to break it down let me explain properly step four find the one central idea that links all of these big topics together start with the center of the

Mind map rather than just having the topics the big topics name in the middle like oh bone diseases have a drawing a visual diagram that relates all the big topics together and by the way it relates all of these big topics on a very easy superficial level so it shouldn't be hard to figure out think about what makes these topics similar but also different their causes their effects how they work their parts the list is endless what visual thing in the middle can help us link everything else about these topics well for me to be

honest I always choose the some diseases that are related together so so I can put related diseases on the mind mind map and compare them like that it's not super hard for me to find some sort of central idea for this especially even though this is very obviously a joint diseases it took me like a few several minutes to figure out okay what am I going to put in the middle is it going to be the joint is it going to be something else you know what I mean another misconception I wanted to to quickly

touch on is that to come up with the central idea you do not need to understand everything deeply to come up with any of the relations you don't need to understand everything super super detailed if you already know what the topics mean if you've already grouped them into subheadings and Concepts and it's well organized and you've compared them throughout then it will be easy to come up with a central idea that links everything together on that mind map the things I think about are do they affect the same process or the same organ in a

similar but different way are they caused by the same thing are they treated similarly what is actually linking them just find the basic most basic link and by the way everything I've said so far everything I will be saying applies to every conceptual and factual subject that is out there as well as applies maths chemistry and physics I don't think I'll have enough time to explain how I create mindmaps for physics or chemistry cuz I think that will take a bit more time I'll dedicate a full video to that later on in this month however

I think I might include some details on how to do it in the mindmap PDF guide below again Linked In the video description check it out and by the way if you haven't subscribed so far a lot of you watching are not subscribed so please click the Subscribe button like the video comment down below just help support the channel as a whole anyways back to the step of finding that central idea on your mind map I'll give a few examples of the mind maps that I've included on this channel for rheumatoid Osteo septic reactive reactive

isn't on there but for those three types of arthritis I put a joint in the middle half of it is for Osteo when it's kind of worn down half of it is super inflamed for septic and rheumato that are like infection and autoimmune Related Disorders here I chose to relate these diseases based on their effect on the joint and then I built around that another one is that kushin K's Addison example that I showed I think I based the central idea on the Mind map around the causes of all three of them and that is

how I split their different types up for the types of shock that I included in my very first mind map on this channel I split them up in the types of ways that they affect the circulatory system and that is the big benefit by thinking of a good central idea of the Mind map by taking time to do that even a couple extra minutes to do that number one I'll be able to link everything all the concepts around a lot more easier and number two when I revise for example these arthritis diseases again I'll be

able to work from this memorable Central diagram and work out to each and every concept on my mind map a lot easier all of it in my head when I'm studying way later step five forming relations and connecting the concepts around the center once you've done the central idea now you can start to think about finding relations between the rest of the concepts how do we work that out this is where we decide how to structure the rest of the information that we've noted down in all of our keywords all the concepts that we want

to include how do we want to structure it on our mind map by far I think this is the thing that trips up most people the most and this is the thing that takes the longest skill to develop I'm still working on it myself the amount you include what specifically you include how you connect and Link things together it doesn't come naturally it is difficult to come up with the relations and force your brain to analyze all of this content is difficult learning but it is essential for your long-term learning the only way we learn

and remember things is if they're linked together remember so first think about how the big groups and the subhead that you've divided each of the chapters into how can they be related cross chapter how can they be related to each other and across chapters remember for every topic relations are just how two pieces of information are affecting each other the subheadings or groups in your chapters could have the same effect on something could have a different effect have the same cause be step one step two and step three in a chronological process write down all

of the relations that you can come up with from my experience especially for beginners that is the best way to do it otherwise we just get confused jump the gun and start drawing everything on the Mind map start randomly writing the keywords down making random arrows and connections that make no sense here let me show you what I noted down for the bone diseases literally I titled it relations and then wrote down both affect the hands in different ways um their treatments are almost the opposite of each other I know that I wanted to remember

what the x-rays and the joints were showing so I made a note that I would put that I would label them in the middle of the diagram again I'm relating these different things across the topics I did the same again with um gout and septic arthritis 2 until I realize I don't even want to include gout or on this mind map because it'd be too much overall understand that finding these actually takes a while and some extra reading and thinking remember the process of making this mind map is the real learning it's not really about

the end product and lastly once you have all of these written down now obviously choose what's important what do you want to include on your mind map how do you want to structure it and what do you think is the best way to visually organize it this as I said honestly depends on what your exams are and what you need to know for them for me including the entire pathophysiology every molecule involved in causing these conditions is is a waste of time I'm not assessed on those things I only want to emphasize the clinical process

that the patient has to go through on my mind map and compare those between different diseases so that that when a patient comes to me I can see what they have I can actually diagnose them so that's the majority of what I included on my mind map I mirrored the patient process of the osteoarthritis patient and the RO toid arthritis patient I drew them out and then I mirrored their process as they went along and I side by side linked them together as well through this mind map I can compare what they look like I

compared and linked their hands together I've linked what their hands would be looking like because again it is a common exam question and I know I have not done it the best way this is literally just processes for each of the diseases I know I probably could have linked it in a more intuitive way and again these are skills that I will develop as well I will learn to relate things better over time as well I know to create the mindmap it takes a bit of thinking and preparation but that's basically it once you planned

out the central idea once you know how you're going to structure the rest of the stuff around it now is the time when we actually get to make it this was a longer step to be honest because the majority of the comments that I got were to do with struggling with finding the relations struggling to make that central idea and what to actually put on the mindmap I've answered most of the questions already except for one I think someone said thinking about organizing it and grouping everything together feels passive and takes too long please please

I want to clarify you've been learning throughout all of this you've used pretty much all of the stages or the steps of the blooms taxonomy if you are learning the topics in such an effective way saving so much time because you're learning it this effectively that you barely ever have to go back and relearn anything then is that not worth it is the preparation for the Mind map not worth it anyways phase three organizing stage now is actually when we make the Mind map and organize all the subheadings and Concepts that we have on one

page create that one central idea then create the relations around it and actually create this base for that links all of these topics that we can use to remember for a very long time step six translate it all to a visual structure so when first drawing it out start with the central idea and then draw the main topics around it make the central diagram clear use colors and make sure that you use that Central diagram to differentiate between the big topics add memorable icons next to each big topic so that you can use them to

remember underline draw a box highlight the arrows to represent and put emphasis that these are Big topics then you plan visually where each of the main Concepts within each of the big topics will go and then start adding them around it I know it sounds simple and it looks simple when I show something my mind map to you as the finished product but actually planning it visually thinking about where things can go on the Mind map for me I was thinking about where these hands and like this diagram specifically it's not related to anything where

would it go on the Mind M how would it make sense I did a very simple way of doing it where I split the disease is up like in half usually I might not do this usually I might have a more integrated approach again it depends the two key factors that I'm thinking about are Clarity and flow here are my general tips for achieving good flow and making sure that the M mind map is as clear as possible to make it as memorable as possible number one make it 90% Visual and reduce the words on

there as much as possible instead of me writing out what each of these diseases affecting every single symptom and the way everyone looks in the presentation and all the signs that they come with every there just a huge list of things that I need to know for each disease what I did instead was I drew these horrible looking stick diagrams to represent what the patient is presenting it with what symptoms they have and they're much more memorable as well they represent the conditions this one having issues with only joints this one having issues with pretty

much everything because it's an autoimmune disease but I want you to notice that 20 or so facts here T each symptoms at least there's way more than actually we're condensed into two simple memorable diagrams that I can now also think and compare in my my head because these two diseases are very easy to confuse and good to compare and that is what you need to be doing with your specific topics as well use bright colors use icons use symbols make them as Visual and memorable as possible the facts can't be a list of facts might

as well have just made notes and yes this applies to every subject you can always find a visual way to represent facts Concepts processes actually it may even help with physics or chemistry more so because you want to represent these equations these big Topics in visual ways you want to make sure that you understand these topics so well that there's a clear flow of ideas and yes to maintain extreme levels of flow and Clarity Within These mind maps let's do these things add thicker arrows for more important connections and also add different types of arrows

for different types of connections you can see I could have done this much better of course but I've done thicker arrows for the main big topics I've done darker arrows here to show the process that the patients are going through starting right from when they present with the disease what they look like and then smaller arrows coming off showing and labeling the specific diagrams on there and also linking different concepts together next a very important thing that took me a while to realize and actually properly Implement is to make each group on the Mind map

as intuitive and easy to understand as possible the way the subtopics and concepts are laid out on the Mind map needs to make visual sense you need to be able to close your eyes and picture it almost perfectly and then if you can't do that if you can't actually remember and visualize this mind map then you haven't made it as easy to understand as possible it isn't intuitive you need to reorganize and find clearer relationships between the concepts anyways finishing off step seven learn while creating the Mind map this isn't a separate step but throughout

this entire process I'm thinking about these topics like a Lego set you got a whole bag of Lego you need to now group up the pieces and Link which ones go together but while I put it together I'm going back to the instruction manual I'm going back to the textbook the key phrases the words the video looking up ways to visualize something better honestly I'm not a very creative person half the ideas of how I visualize certain things on this m map including the picture of that joint including several icons on there have come from

visual videos like osmosis or Zer to finals but that's also what Active Learning looks like I'm using the resources to solidify and affirm how every single thing on this mind map is working or I'm fixing it have I missed something is something not connecting in the way it it should be if so move back of the steps let's do it again taking a step back does it make sense can I now use it to remember the rest of the topic a lot more effectively when I'm reading something when I look through details can I picture

this mind map and then fit these details on there as I draw this mind map out I am continuously evaluating how good it is and how usable it is and that is what makes this method so effective you're continuously challenging your brain and the way you've learned things and the way you think about things again and again in comparison isn't that so much better than you just reading off the textbook and then trying to memorize and make notes or or converting into flash cards that you're not really understanding are you this is like the epitome

of understanding something super well and that's pretty much it that is all I have to say about the main steps of the mindmapping pro method I'm going to include more of the details and the specific questions that people have asked in that mindmap PDF guide it would be too long to answer every single one I have now heavily bought into this idea that if one can learn how to create these mind maps they will be set for their education in ways that are unmatchable and that is why I think I'm going to make a lot

more of these mindmap videos let me know if that sounds good to you guys oh and also comment down below if you have any topics or specific subjects that you want me to make mind maps for and give me the information for them as well for example where am I going to find the content for those top for those specific topics I want to show you guys that it is very doable for different subjects and I want to give you the steps for them as well but yeah let me know please do subscribe if you

haven't already the majority of you are not subscribed subscribe support the channel like this video let me know if there's anything else any specific issues to do with the mind maps keep commenting them down below and I'll try my best to keep addressing them keep updating that mindmap PDF guide thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next one