The following blog is the 10th blog of our ongoing series. The author of this blog is Mr. Mohsin Alizai, Supervisor Taxation and Corporate Advisory Services. Mr. Mohsin has joined KCO in Mid December 2017. He is extremely committed individual with continuous strive to learn more. He is a soft spoken person with refreshing sense of humor. Please read the following blog to get to know more about the skills of Mohsin Sahib.

Document Your Understanding Through Mind-Maps

It is often experienced that when we study something from textbooks, we often find it hard to remember everything. The reason behind this difficulty is not that our brain is not working well but our books are not written in the way our brain works.

  • Our brain likes colors, while our books are written in black and white. I still remember, when I was doing CA inter, our books were totally colorless and written in such a boring manner that one could easily use them as sleeping pill.
  • Just as the language of computer is not English and it has to decode all instructions given to it from English to binary language (0,1) , the language of our brain is also not English, Urdu or any other language. Human brain thinks in terms of images and associations by linking various concepts e.g. when you think about an apple, the image of apple appears in your mind and then you can link taste of various kinds of apples.
  • Our brain thinks and grows like a tree. Just as a tree has one stem and then branches all-around, our brain starts thinking from one basic concept and then explores every aspect of it.
  • It also takes a lot of time to revise from book before exams with short revision time and time pressure.

The above problems can be resolved it we use mind-maps to document our understanding after studying from textbooks. To summarize the whole discussion, mind-maps provide us with a powerful tool;

  • To document our understanding in a colorful way and make our study life colorful.
  • Use images and associations to boost thinking process by linking various concepts.
  • Mapping our understanding in the way our brain thinks, from one basic concept to the most complex one.
  • Revise though the whole course quickly and effectively.

So this is all about sharpening the axe. If you have 10 hours to cut a tree, spend 9 hours sharpening the axe and the tree will be down in one hour.

MOHSIN ALIZAI