What is Mind Mapping? (and How to Get Started Immediately) A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps structuring information, helping you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas. Just as in every great idea, its power lies in its simplicity. In a mind map, as opposed to traditional note taking or a linear text, information is structured in a way that resembles much more closely how your brain actually works. Since it is an activity that is both analytical and artistic, it engages your brain in a much, much richer way, helping in all its cognitive functions. And, best of all, it is fun! So, how does a mind map look like? (click for larger image) This is a mind map about – conveniently enough – mind mapping itself. Benefits and Uses I think I already gave away the benefits of mind mapping and why mind maps work. But what can we use mind maps for? How to Draw a Mind Map Drawing a mind map is as simple as 1-2-3: Some more recommendations: Final Thoughts
Real-Time News Curation - The Complete Guide Part 6: The Tools Universe Real-Time News Curation: Part 6 - The Tools and Technologies In this part of the guide you will find: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. "I've spent a good deal of time searching for a word other than "Curation" in part because of the connection to museums (which I feared sounded elitist and historic). 1) A Brief History of News Curation Tools The first news curation tools that I am aware of came out in late 2004 - early 2005, reflecting from the very beginning a growing need for both small publishers as well as for medium and large content publishers to be able to aggregate, filter and manually re-order and select the specific content items to be published in a news channel. MySyndicaat, whose parent company, Kipcast has now grown into a multi-faceted service providing advanced news aggregation and republishing widgets for online brands and media companies, has been the true pioneer of this space. With both tools the hard part is knowing "how to do" things. The new content curation tools a. gather, aggregate,
How 30 Minutes a Day Can Increase Your Intelligence If you ask me, where humans go wrong is with their lack of patience. That, and their recent acquired taste for instant gratification. The reality is that things take time. Richard Branson didn’t become a millionaire overnight. That said, it’s actually pretty easy to improve yourself. Because most people don’t bother. The majority of people don’t do a single thing to improve themselves. So I’ve come up with a new theory: The Half Hour Theory. I love it because it’s actually pretty easy to integrate into your life. This could take the form of half an hour’s reading every day. You may even want to improve the speed of your reading so you can learn faster. This theory could even rely on you taking a half an hour every day spending time on the Internet, researching into something that really interests you. Here’s how to implement The Half Hour Theory: (Note: If you’re not sure how to get started, here’s a handy list of 60 ways to improve yourself in the next 100 days.)
4 Promising Curation Tools That Help Make Sense of the Web Steven Rosenbaum is a curator, author, filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Magnify.net, a real-time video curation engine for publishers, brands, and websites. His book Curation Nation is slated to be published this spring by McGrawHill Business. As the volume of content swirling around the web continues to grow, we're finding ourselves drowning in a deluge of data. Where is the relevant material? Where are the best columns and content offerings? The solution on the horizon is curation. In the past 90 days alone, there has been an explosion of new software offerings that are the early leaders in the curation tools category. 1. Storify co-founder Burt Herman worked as a reporter for the Associated Press during a 12-year career, six of those in news management as a bureau chief and supervising correspondent. At the AP, editors sending messages to reporters asking them to do a story would regularly write, “Can u pls storify?” Storify is currently invite only. 2. 3. 4. Conclusion
Boost Your Brain Power: 7 Tips for Improving Your Memory Surely, constantly forgetting what you were doing in the middle of doing something and constantly looking for your misplaced house keys is not the ideal way to spend your golden years. Don't wait until it is too late to start thinking about improving your memory. If you are bad at remembering simple to-do tasks, other people's names, your girlfriend's birthday, and other relevant pieces of information, use some of the most useful mnemonic devices illustrated below to help you retain things more permanently in your brain space. More importantly, be sure to practice good physical and mental health habits on a regular basis to keep your memory and brain stamina high. Challenging your brain on a regular basis is also a must to constantly improve and maintain the strength of your memory. Got your own tips for improving your sense of memory? Click on image to enlarge.
The Four Essential Phases of Social Media Adoption When discussing social media with business executives, I'm frequently reminded of the fable of the elephant and the blind men. In the story, six blind men, hearing that an elephant has been brought to their village (and having no idea what an elephant is), go to the village square to investigate. One feels the elephant's side and proclaims that an elephant is like a wall. A second, feeling one of the elephant's legs, says it is like a pillar. A third, touching the tusk, describes the animal as being like a solid pipe. Although each man's description was accurate, each perceived only part of the elephant; none had a perspective of the entire beast. It's the same with many business executives and their views of social media: "Social media? Such statements reflect perceptions of "parts of the beast"—components (tools) of social media. Here is a four-phase adoption model designed to reveal the entire elephant that is social media. Phase I: Observation Phase II: Preparation Phase IV: Integration
How to Memorize Things Quickly People like to joke that the only thing you really “learn” in school is how to memorize. As it turns out, that’s not even the case for most of us. If you go around the room and ask a handful of people how to memorize things quickly, most of them will probably tell you repetition. That is so far from the truth, it’s running for office. If you want to memorize something quickly and thoroughly, repetition won’t cut it; however, recalling something will. The problem is that recalling something requires learning, and we all learn in different ways. Before we start, you need to establish something: are you an auditory, visual, or experiential learner? Step 1: Preparation To optimize your memorization session, pay close attention to which environment you choose. Next, start drinking some tea. As we get older, toxic chemicals will damage our neurons and synapses, leading to memory loss and even Alzheimer’s. Step 2: Record What You’re Memorizing Step 3: Write Everything Down Step 9: Take a break
Writing - Five Ways to Gain Attention the 'Write' Way Imagine this headline in an ad for a low-cost mobile phone targeted at low-income consumers: "65000-color display will make your life as colorful as a rainbow and new sound technology will ensure clear sound." Does it work? Or, consider this: a software product requirement document for adding new features reads, in part, "The users should be able to collaborate while using the product." Does that requirement specifically convey what needs to be developed? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is No. What is common in both examples is that they are part of a marketing effort for the respective products. Now, imagine this headline in the case of the first example: "Cool colors, clear calls!" Marketing, in simple terms, is communication about and among business, product, customer, and customer service. Now imagine the power of effective writing in such an important business function. Effective writing is a vital component of the following marketing-related tasks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential | Guest Blog The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. "One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts." —Albert Einstein While Einstein was not a neuroscientist, he sure knew what he was talking about in regards to the human capacity to achieve. Not so many years ago, I was told by a professor of mine that you didn’t have much control over your intelligence. Well, I disagreed. You see, before that point in my studies, I had begun working as a Behavior Therapist, training young children on the autism spectrum. One of my first clients was a little boy w/ PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Delays-Not Otherwise Specified), a mild form of autism. He wasn’t the only child I saw make vast improvements in the years I’ve been a therapist, either. Although the data from those early studies showed dismal results, I wasn’t discouraged. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3.
6 Social Media Measurement Questions You've Been Asking In yesterday’s Social Media Measurement webinar , we addressed the numbers as well as a range of questions submitted by our audience. In this blog post we highlighted the top six questions for those of you who won’t have time to watch the entire on-demand webinar : 1. “No,” said Jay Baer, “because it is not about how many things you are measuring. 2. “The goal is not to be good at social media,” Jay said. A singular data point, such as number of Facebook likes, is not contextual or demonstrative of success. 3. One way you can start evaluating the behavior of your prospects is by looking into all the touch points along the sales funnel. How to Learn Without Memorizing Photo by Edwin Stemp Rote memorization is an inefficient way to learn. Just retaining a single formula can mean pounding the same information into your skull dozens of times. If your computer hard drive had this accuracy, you’d probably throw it out. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with your brain. The good news is that you don’t need to learn by memorization. A few years ago, I noticed that smart people seemed to learn differently than most other people. While there are undoubtedly some genetic advantages that allow some people to learn effortlessly, I think part of this difference in success comes down to strategy. Is Your Brain a File Drawer or a Web of Ideas? A computer stores information as thousands of electrical 1s and 0s in a linear fashion. However, your brain isn’t a sequence of bits and bytes, so this approach doesn’t make sense. Other Forms of Learning There are lots of ways you can learn creatively: 1. Connect ideas together by relating them to something you already understand. 2.
How to Think Like a Genius Edit Article One Methods:Metaphorming: The Official "Think Like a Genius"® Method There are many ways to classify a genius. But if you look at the historical figures whom most people would consider geniuses, such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Beethoven, you can see one thing they all share in common: they were all able to think in a way different from the mainstream, and thus made connections that no one else did. Ad Steps <img alt="Think Like a Genius Step 1 Version 3.jpg" src=" width="670" height="503">1Love learning. <img alt="Think Like a Genius Step 6 Version 3.jpg" src=" width="670" height="503">6Think differently. We could really use your help! Can you tell us aboutgarage door repair? Can you help usrate articles?
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