The human brain is designed to think in pictures. That’s how we dream and how we remember things as young children. Yet we are trained to think in words — starting with the taking of copious written notes in school and college.

Instead, says Tony Buzan, we should be using mnemonics — using visual imagery to draw associations between ideas. That way our brain makes sense of information, making it easier for us to recall down the track. The MindMap is a useful tool for laying out these various elements in a form that makes it easier for us to comprehend.

Tony is the inventor of MindMaps and, in this edition of BTalk, he explains more about why this approach to remembering information is successful because it embraces the way the brain wants to remember things.

Visit ThinkBuzan for more about the concept behind MindMaps.

First published on CBS News