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Free Mindmapping course

Free, right now

The first four chapters online, each with a worked example mind map and a knowledge check. Plus a pdf with a worksheet and cheat sheet.

You can read the lessons straight away. For the PDF, you leave your details.

Start with lesson 1

Prefer to have a trainer there with you?

The one-day Mindmapping course. You spend a day drawing mind maps for your own files, with a trainer looking over your shoulder while your pen is on the paper.

  • Amsterdam 26 November 2026 Enrol
  • Utrecht 23 August 2027 Enrol

€625,- excl. VAT

View the Mindmapping course All Personal effectiveness courses →

You come out of an hour-and-a-half meeting with three pages of notes. It is all there, and that is precisely why you can no longer find anything. A week later you read your own lines and no longer know which point belonged to which topic. The problem is not your memory: it is the form in which you wrote it down. A list from top to bottom shows nowhere what belongs together.

This free online course is the starter for our full Mindmapping. The first four chapters show you what a mind map is and when it works better than a list, why your brain responds to this form, which rules Tony Buzan attached to it, and how to draw your first mind map in five steps. Each chapter has a fully worked example mind map and ends with a short knowledge check, so you notice straight away whether it sticks.

The full course goes on to cover visual thinking and your own visual language, choosing keywords from running text, colour as coding, related methods such as the concept map and the fishbone diagram, digital mind mapping, brainstorming in a group, studying, taking minutes and the pitfalls that everyone comes across. Would you like to work through those chapters with a trainer present, and with your own files on the table? Then take a look at the Mindmapping course.

Mindmapping
Start Download PDF

Chapters 1 to 3 in a single PDF, with a worksheet and cheat sheet.

Contents:

  • 0.-

    Introduction
    How this free course is structured and what you learn in the four chapters.

  • 1.-

    What a mind map is and when it pays off
    The four building blocks of a mind map, the difference from a list, seven situations in which it wins and three in which it loses.

  • 2.-

    Why your brain responds to a mind map
    Your working memory holds on to four things, chunking makes that more, and dual coding and spaced repetition do the rest.

  • 3.-

    Buzan's rules
    Seven rules for a mind map you can still read a month from now, with the Basic Ordering Ideas as the load-bearing main branches.

  • 4.-

    Your first mind map in five steps
    From a sharp question to a central image, main branches, layers and a cleaned-up version that you keep.

  • 5.-

    The power of visual thinking
    Thinking in images, building up your own visual vocabulary and using the space on the paper as a memory aid.

  • 6.-

    Choosing keywords
    Taking from running text the one word that carries the meaning, verbs for actions and labelling cross-links.

  • 7.-

    Working with colour and imagery
    Colour as coding, adding emphasis, sketching in the mind map and keeping it legible.

  • 8.-

    Related visualisation methods
    Novak's concept map, clustering according to Rico, the Ishikawa fishbone diagram and sketchnoting, and when to choose which.

  • 9.-

    Digital mindmapping
    Paper versus screen, working on a map together and going from mind map to a document that others can read.

  • 10.-

    Brainstorming with mind maps
    Fanning out without judging, the group mind map on the wall and then converging towards choices.

  • 11.-

    Studying with mind maps
    From chapter to mind map, reproducing it without the source and repeating it on a schedule you can keep up.

  • 12.-

    Mindmapping at work
    The minute-taking mind map, from map to action list, and presenting from a mind map instead of from slides.

  • 13.-

    Pitfalls in mind mapping
    The overcrowded map, sentences instead of keywords, perfectionism and the route from course to daily routine.

What participants say about Learnit

4,6 105 reviews Springest 8,8/10 886 reviews
I found the 'Interview Techniques' course to be good. Nothing to fault. It was also good that Job called beforehand for a short preliminary discussion. You don't see that very often. A very worthwhile course. It also had a strong element of repetition. Plenty of variety, including between theory and practice. Learned a lot, and applied it straight away during the course. And I think these learnings will also help me further when conducting interviews.
Tjeerd J
We took the Outlook, Teams and OneNote course with Roy Nieuwenhuijzen. Good content, and a few days before the course he got in touch with me (coordinator of the course, head of the secretariat). Pleasant that you can fill in the day itself as needed. The booklet for reference is rather dated, but apparently there is little up-to-date material to be found.
Inge Brouwers
In May 2024 I took the WordPress course. As an IT enthusiast with broad but not necessarily deep knowledge, I wanted to know more about WordPress. How do you install everything and how do you start building a website. This course is extremely well suited to that. From the outset you learn in 3 days how to start a website and what to look out for. I now have a solid basis for getting to work with WordPress and I know my way around the various options. The course is recommended for anyone who wants to learn in three days what WordPress can do and how to apply it.
Igno Freriksen

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Our free courses and webinars

Your own motivation and commitment are essential if you want to master something new. You can get a long way with self-study. Learnit wants to contribute to this by offering valuable content such as free webinars and courses. This way you can get acquainted with new fields of learning. Once you have made a start, you may discover that there are also many advantages to taking a course at Learnit under the guidance of an experienced trainer.

  • You spend several days working dedicatedly on your learning objectives, which means you make progress more quickly
  • The trainer helps you over the bumps and spots your blind spot
  • the trainer can explore what your learning objectives are and show you the shortest learning route
  • You can practise real-life situations really well during the course
  • You get to know other participants with an interest in the same subject

In short, you achieve much more in less time.

The free courses are suitable for home study, as you can download them online as a PDF. The range of free courses consists of IT and Communication & Management courses. Would you like to learn more about these subjects, or is the subject you want to learn about not included? Then take a look at our courses.

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