So, how does being able to read faster add to your creativity? Speed reading dovetails into Mind Mapping and memory in that once you have acquired the skills to absorb information more quickly, you are even more able to identify the critical issues and to make connections between ideas and concepts. Once again, this system involves using imagination and association, which generates ever more creativity.
Some people might worry that greater speed is gained at the cost of full compre- hension. This is not the case. Because of the way your eye–brain system works, the astonishing fact is that the faster you read, the better your comprehension. The whole process means that you speed up in allaspects of your reading ability.
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ᔡ 42 IDEAS ANDINNOVATION ____________________________________________
Quick start: speed reading
Reading is the individual’s total interrelationship with symbolic information and is a process that takes place on many different levels at the same time. The following is an interesting exercise, which shows that you have the innate capacity to read using your peripheral vision as well as your central vision. By this means, you use all 260 million of your eye’s light receivers to communicate with and illuminate your brain. Now, select a page of text and place your finger under a word in the centre of the page.
Keep your eyes focused on this word and, without moving them:
1. See how many words you can observe to either side of the central word.
2. See how many words you can make out clearly above and below the word you are pointing at.
3. See if you can tell whether there is a number at the top or the bottom of the page and, if so, what that number is.
4. See whether you can count the number of paragraphs on the page.
5. See whether you can count the number of paragraphs on the opposite page.
6. Can you see a diagram on either of the pages?
7. If there is a diagram, can you determine clearly or roughly what it is illustrating?
By learning the speed reading techniques, you will be able to harness this peripheral vision and read with your brain and not just your eyes.
Everybusiness needs to work creatively, and it is this creative edge that will deliver innovative ideas, products and concepts that give you the upper hand. I hope my quick-start introductions have given you practical insights into how this can be achieved.
Tony Buzan is best known as the inventor of Mind Maps. He has worked with:
corporate entities and businesses all over the world (eg Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, HSBC, McLarens, BP, Xerox, STABILO, BBC etc); academic institutions;
Olympic athletes; children of all ages; governments (China, Singapore, Mexico, UK etc); and high-profile individuals, in teaching them how to maximize the use of their brain power.
A prolific author, he has written more than 98 books, with sales in over 150 countries; his books have been translated into 33 languages. Details of his recent publications can be found at www.buzanbooks.com.
Mind Map techniques have now been applied to language learning. Harper Collins have this year published The Collins Language Revolution series, offer- ing beginner-level French, Italian or Spanish. Each pack includes two CDs, a book and access to an interactive website, which aims to test and reinforce the learning.
Tony Buzan is a well-known name on radio and TV, both in the United Kingdom and globally, with a long list of credits. His name is synonymous with
all things cerebral and his knowledge is widely sought after by a media and public perennially eager to learn practical advice on how to improve brain function.
He has also found time in his busy schedule to create the World Memory Championships and is a prize-winning poet and athlete. Tony is living proof that his theories really work. He is a passionate advocate of healthy eating combined with mind and body exercise to achieve the most out of life, and is often to be seen expertly sculling in the early morning mists on the River Thames.
If you would like Tony to deliver presentations to your company, please contact Buzan Training Ltd, Harleyford Estate, Henley Road, Marlow, Bucks SL7 2SL Tel: 01628 482765
E-mail: [email protected] www.buzanworld.com
For details of Buzan Training’s full range of training courses please go to www.buzantraining.com
_______________________________________________ CREATIVEBEHAVIOUR 43 ᔡ
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