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Use Both Sides of Your Brain
Using the latest research on the workings of the human brain, Tony Buzan, one of the world's leading authorities on learning techniques, provides step-by-step exercises for discovering the powers of the right side of the brain and learning to use the left side more effectively. By increasing our understanding of how the mind works, he teaches us:
How to read faster and more effectively How to study more efficiently and increase overall memory How language and imagery can be used for recording, organizing, remembering, creative thinking and problem solving
How to read faster and more effectively How to study more efficiently and increase overall memory How language and imagery can be used for recording, organizing, remembering, creative thinking and problem solving
This completely updated Third Edition of a classic work provides a proven way of using our brains to their fullest potential and to our best advantage.
156 pages, Paperback
First published September 20, 1976
76 people are currently reading
1059 people want to read
About the author
Tony Buzan
290 books994 followersTony Buzan was an English author, educational consultant, and pioneer of the mind mapping technique, which he developed to enhance learning, creativity, and memory. Born in Middlesex in 1942, he studied psychology, English, mathematics, and science at the University of British Columbia and later became a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, where he served as the inaugural president of the student society. Buzan was a strong advocate for mental literacy and radiant thinking, drawing inspiration from figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein. He authored or co-authored over 80 books, including the bestselling Use Your Head, The Mind Map Book, and The Speed Reading Book, and gained international recognition through his 1970s BBC series Use Your Head. Buzan co-founded the World Memory Championships, the Mind Sports Olympiad, and the Brain Trust Charity. His legacy lives on through his books, seminars, and iMindMap software.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
August 1, 2011
Excellent Mind Mapping and study techniques. I wish I had read this book during high school.
March 1, 2016
I was given this book by a student and I found it disappointing. It had some interesting theories on memory, which I already knew about from Derren Brown's book, which also updated them and made them more interesting to me.
What I really disliked about this book is the generalising of learning techniques, which I think are different for every person, and the explanations behind trying to read quickly. I stick with the opinion that if you really want to enjoy a book you have to take your time to read it. If you want to train your eyes to read quicker and skip words, you'll read the book quicker but you won't enjoy it as much.
What I really disliked about this book is the generalising of learning techniques, which I think are different for every person, and the explanations behind trying to read quickly. I stick with the opinion that if you really want to enjoy a book you have to take your time to read it. If you want to train your eyes to read quicker and skip words, you'll read the book quicker but you won't enjoy it as much.
November 27, 2020
It contains no useful information; its title is highly misleading it tells nothing about the method of using brain whatever content is in the book can be found in the internet.
December 29, 2008
Overall: The book tries successfully to prove the points it is trying to make by giving examples and making the reader take exercises before introducing a technique and on the same / similar example/exercise after showing the technique. The techniques introduced work well. The MindMap technique, if applied, should help one remember more stuff for longer time. The speed reading technique also should help. However, the practice is necessary to get the full use of the book. The technique to review material frequently should work well too. Very useful for especially for students. Book reading methodology sounded little difficult and inefficient to me after about half of it is done. Overview concept however is good.
Directly from the book (my comments in brackets):
Pg. Quoted
1 Chapter 1 Summary: Even though one’s performance in the past has not been good, one can change that completely to a great performance.
13 Healthy body, healthy mind; Healthy mind, healthy body.
15 Chapter 2 summary: The mind is better than we think. The analogies are given to prove that the nature’s creation—the brain is much more capable than anything than any manmade technologies’ creations. The chapter also shows that the child’s mind works great.
17 Subsequent searches showed that when people were encouraged to develop a mental area they had previously considered weak, this development, rather than detracting from other areas, seemed to produce a synergetic effect in which all areas of mental performance improved.
18 Dominant Processes of each side of the brain:
Right brain: Rhythm, Spatial awareness, Gestalt (whole / the big picture), imagination, daydreaming, color, dimension.
Left brain: Words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analysis, lists.
30 Chapter 3 summary: It just says (which is very well shown later) that the current education systems don’t consider / tell how the brain works.
37 The definition of reading has 6 parts: Recognition, Assimilation, Intra-integration (comprehension), Extra-integration (Analysis), Retention, Recall, Communication.
38 There are typically two methods with which students are taught the alphabet (etc): Phonic or Alphabel method, and the other Look and Say method.
40 Speed: Even if the eye moved as slowly as one line per second, words would be covered at the rate of 600-700 words per minute (wpm). As the average reading speed on even light material is 240 wpm, it can be seen that even those estimating slower speeds assume that they cover words much more rapidly than they really do. (The effective reading speed is less mainly because the reader stops in between two words – called as fixations. One can increase the effective reading speed by reading two-three or more words at a time and reducing fixations).
41 See PDF
42 See PDF
42 The slower reader has to do more mental work than the faster, smoother reader because he has to add the meaning of each word to the meaning of each following word. The more efficient reader, absorbing in meaningful units, has fewer additions to make.
43 Myths about reading:
• Words must be read one at a time
• Reading faster than 500 wpm is impossible
• The faster reader is not able to appreciate: Actually since the faster reader will be understanding more of the meaning of what he reads, will be concentrating on the material more, and will have considerably more time to go back over areas of special interest and importance to him.
• Higher speeds give lower concentration
• Average reading speeds are natural and therefore the best: The average reading speeds are produced by an incomplete initial training in reading, combined with an inadequate knowledge of how the eye and brain work at the various speeds possible.
44 – 45 (Guiding the eye with a finger below the words being read is not a bad thing. Without the hand guiding when one tries to draw a circle mentally, it turns out as a polygon; however with the hand guiding, the eyes rotate in nearly circular pattern. When one moves the finger faster on a paper, the words are read faster as the eye is guided by the finger and tries to keep up. One can increase the reading speed effectively with this.)
47 Calculation of the wpm reading speed:
• Read for one minute – note start and stopping points
• Count the number of words on (any) three lines.
• Divide that number by three to give you the average number of words per line.
• Count the total number of lines read (balancing short lines out).
• Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines you read, which will equal your reading speed in wpm.
WPM = (number of pages read) x (number of words per average page) / (number of minutes spent reading)
60 Under normal circumstances and with understanding fairly constant, we tend to recall: more at the beginning and ends of learning periods; more of items which are associated by repetition, sense, rhyming etc.; more of things which are outstanding or unique (this is called Von Restorff effect); and considerably less of things from the middle of learning periods.
61 See PDF
64 The person who does not review is continually wasting the effort he does put in to any learning task, and putting himself at a serious disadvantage.
65 See PDF
66 The advantages of reviewing are enormous. The more you maintain your current body of knowledge the more you will be able to absorb and handle. When you study, the expanding amount of knowledge at your command will enable you to digest new knowledge far more easily, each new piece of information being absorbed in the context of your existing store of relevant information, see pg 65 PDF. The process is much more like that of the traditional snowball rolling, where the snowball gets rapidly bigger the more it rolls and eventually continues rolling under its own momentum.
71-73 See PDF
85 In the conventional note taking method, ~90% of the words are not necessary for recall purpose.
94-95 See PDF
97 Typical problems encountered in the first exercise of the MindMap include: Order, Logical sequence, Beginning, Ending, Organization, Time distribution, Emphasis of ideas, Mental blocking.
99-106 See PDF
109 The mind maps are an external “photograph” of the complex interrelationships of your thought at any given time. They enable your brain to ‘see itself’ more clearly, and will greatly enhance the full range of the thinking skills.
111-112 MUST READ for STUDENTS / Lazy folks! See PDF
118 – 132 The mind map organic study technique is divided into two main sections: Preparation and Application. Each of these sections is divided into four sub-sections:
1. Preparation: Browse, Time and Amount, Knowledge Mind Map, Questions and Goals.
Browse = Read Table of Contents
Time and Amount: Decide on the time to be devoted to a book / section before starting reading it. Then decide the target amount to cover in the time.
Knowledge Mind Map: Draw maximum amount in a mind map in ~two minutes.
Questions and Goals: Decide what you want out of the book / what questions you want answered, which should be in the context of goals aimed for.
2. Application: Overview, Preview, Inview, Review.
Overview: What is essential in a reasonable approach to study texts, especially the difficult ones, is to get a good idea of what’s in them before plodding on into a learning catastrophe. Overview does that task.
Cover the following: Results, Summaries, Conclusions, Indents, Glossaries, Back Cover, Tables, Table of Contents, Marginal Notes, Illustrations, Capitalized words, Photographs, Subheadings, Dates, Italics, Graphs, Footnotes, Statistics.
Preview: During Preview, concentration should be directed to the beginnings and the ends of paragraphs, sections, chapters, and even whole texts.
Inview: It involves “filling in” the ideas still left.
Review: Necessary if further information is still required after previous tasks to complete goals, answer questions, or solve problems.
132 Text Notes and Mind Mapping:
Noting while studying takes two main forms:
1. Notes made on the text itself
a. Underlining
b. Personal thoughts generated by the text
c. Critical comments
d. Marginal straight lines for important or note-worthy material
e. Curved or wavy marginal lines to indicate unclear or difficult material
f. Question marks for areas that you wish to question or that you find questionable
g. Exclamation marks for outstanding items
h. Your own symbol code for items and areas that relate to your own specific and general objectives
i. Mini mind maps in the margins
If the pencil is soft enough, and if a very soft eraser is used, the damage to the book will be less than that caused by the finger and thumb as they turn a page.
2. A growing Mind Map.
a. Use the earlier described mind map techniques (Also see PDF)
If one associates the completion of study tasks with personal celebration, the context of your study will become increasingly more pleasant, and thus the probability of your studying far greater.
144 See PDF
Buzan Centers
P. O. Box 3029,
Palm Beach, FL, 33480
407-833-2563. Fax: 407-659-1832
Directly from the book (my comments in brackets):
Pg. Quoted
1 Chapter 1 Summary: Even though one’s performance in the past has not been good, one can change that completely to a great performance.
13 Healthy body, healthy mind; Healthy mind, healthy body.
15 Chapter 2 summary: The mind is better than we think. The analogies are given to prove that the nature’s creation—the brain is much more capable than anything than any manmade technologies’ creations. The chapter also shows that the child’s mind works great.
17 Subsequent searches showed that when people were encouraged to develop a mental area they had previously considered weak, this development, rather than detracting from other areas, seemed to produce a synergetic effect in which all areas of mental performance improved.
18 Dominant Processes of each side of the brain:
Right brain: Rhythm, Spatial awareness, Gestalt (whole / the big picture), imagination, daydreaming, color, dimension.
Left brain: Words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analysis, lists.
30 Chapter 3 summary: It just says (which is very well shown later) that the current education systems don’t consider / tell how the brain works.
37 The definition of reading has 6 parts: Recognition, Assimilation, Intra-integration (comprehension), Extra-integration (Analysis), Retention, Recall, Communication.
38 There are typically two methods with which students are taught the alphabet (etc): Phonic or Alphabel method, and the other Look and Say method.
40 Speed: Even if the eye moved as slowly as one line per second, words would be covered at the rate of 600-700 words per minute (wpm). As the average reading speed on even light material is 240 wpm, it can be seen that even those estimating slower speeds assume that they cover words much more rapidly than they really do. (The effective reading speed is less mainly because the reader stops in between two words – called as fixations. One can increase the effective reading speed by reading two-three or more words at a time and reducing fixations).
41 See PDF
42 See PDF
42 The slower reader has to do more mental work than the faster, smoother reader because he has to add the meaning of each word to the meaning of each following word. The more efficient reader, absorbing in meaningful units, has fewer additions to make.
43 Myths about reading:
• Words must be read one at a time
• Reading faster than 500 wpm is impossible
• The faster reader is not able to appreciate: Actually since the faster reader will be understanding more of the meaning of what he reads, will be concentrating on the material more, and will have considerably more time to go back over areas of special interest and importance to him.
• Higher speeds give lower concentration
• Average reading speeds are natural and therefore the best: The average reading speeds are produced by an incomplete initial training in reading, combined with an inadequate knowledge of how the eye and brain work at the various speeds possible.
44 – 45 (Guiding the eye with a finger below the words being read is not a bad thing. Without the hand guiding when one tries to draw a circle mentally, it turns out as a polygon; however with the hand guiding, the eyes rotate in nearly circular pattern. When one moves the finger faster on a paper, the words are read faster as the eye is guided by the finger and tries to keep up. One can increase the reading speed effectively with this.)
47 Calculation of the wpm reading speed:
• Read for one minute – note start and stopping points
• Count the number of words on (any) three lines.
• Divide that number by three to give you the average number of words per line.
• Count the total number of lines read (balancing short lines out).
• Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines you read, which will equal your reading speed in wpm.
WPM = (number of pages read) x (number of words per average page) / (number of minutes spent reading)
60 Under normal circumstances and with understanding fairly constant, we tend to recall: more at the beginning and ends of learning periods; more of items which are associated by repetition, sense, rhyming etc.; more of things which are outstanding or unique (this is called Von Restorff effect); and considerably less of things from the middle of learning periods.
61 See PDF
64 The person who does not review is continually wasting the effort he does put in to any learning task, and putting himself at a serious disadvantage.
65 See PDF
66 The advantages of reviewing are enormous. The more you maintain your current body of knowledge the more you will be able to absorb and handle. When you study, the expanding amount of knowledge at your command will enable you to digest new knowledge far more easily, each new piece of information being absorbed in the context of your existing store of relevant information, see pg 65 PDF. The process is much more like that of the traditional snowball rolling, where the snowball gets rapidly bigger the more it rolls and eventually continues rolling under its own momentum.
71-73 See PDF
85 In the conventional note taking method, ~90% of the words are not necessary for recall purpose.
94-95 See PDF
97 Typical problems encountered in the first exercise of the MindMap include: Order, Logical sequence, Beginning, Ending, Organization, Time distribution, Emphasis of ideas, Mental blocking.
99-106 See PDF
109 The mind maps are an external “photograph” of the complex interrelationships of your thought at any given time. They enable your brain to ‘see itself’ more clearly, and will greatly enhance the full range of the thinking skills.
111-112 MUST READ for STUDENTS / Lazy folks! See PDF
118 – 132 The mind map organic study technique is divided into two main sections: Preparation and Application. Each of these sections is divided into four sub-sections:
1. Preparation: Browse, Time and Amount, Knowledge Mind Map, Questions and Goals.
Browse = Read Table of Contents
Time and Amount: Decide on the time to be devoted to a book / section before starting reading it. Then decide the target amount to cover in the time.
Knowledge Mind Map: Draw maximum amount in a mind map in ~two minutes.
Questions and Goals: Decide what you want out of the book / what questions you want answered, which should be in the context of goals aimed for.
2. Application: Overview, Preview, Inview, Review.
Overview: What is essential in a reasonable approach to study texts, especially the difficult ones, is to get a good idea of what’s in them before plodding on into a learning catastrophe. Overview does that task.
Cover the following: Results, Summaries, Conclusions, Indents, Glossaries, Back Cover, Tables, Table of Contents, Marginal Notes, Illustrations, Capitalized words, Photographs, Subheadings, Dates, Italics, Graphs, Footnotes, Statistics.
Preview: During Preview, concentration should be directed to the beginnings and the ends of paragraphs, sections, chapters, and even whole texts.
Inview: It involves “filling in” the ideas still left.
Review: Necessary if further information is still required after previous tasks to complete goals, answer questions, or solve problems.
132 Text Notes and Mind Mapping:
Noting while studying takes two main forms:
1. Notes made on the text itself
a. Underlining
b. Personal thoughts generated by the text
c. Critical comments
d. Marginal straight lines for important or note-worthy material
e. Curved or wavy marginal lines to indicate unclear or difficult material
f. Question marks for areas that you wish to question or that you find questionable
g. Exclamation marks for outstanding items
h. Your own symbol code for items and areas that relate to your own specific and general objectives
i. Mini mind maps in the margins
If the pencil is soft enough, and if a very soft eraser is used, the damage to the book will be less than that caused by the finger and thumb as they turn a page.
2. A growing Mind Map.
a. Use the earlier described mind map techniques (Also see PDF)
If one associates the completion of study tasks with personal celebration, the context of your study will become increasingly more pleasant, and thus the probability of your studying far greater.
144 See PDF
Buzan Centers
P. O. Box 3029,
Palm Beach, FL, 33480
407-833-2563. Fax: 407-659-1832
February 18, 2025
Great book. Mind maps seem obvious to me now, but I hadn't heard about the approach until grad school. It's amazing how many people still haven't heard of mind mapping. This provides a useful overview.
April 20, 2018
bgy hygym uuy
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2020
Highly useful tool in today's world
June 6, 2023
A workbook with exercises to improve memory and study habits. Not very theoretical and a little dated.
February 21, 2008
Incredible book on learning and how the mind works. I've found the exercises incredibly beneficial to reading faster, acquiring and maintaining knowledge and making learning an adventure. A true value for any human that wants to use their brain more effectively.
May 21, 2008
This is a great introduction to Tony Buzan and his techniques. From this book of introductions I am getting other books to find out more about specific topics.
The Mind Map Book and Speed Reading are the two books I have purchased based on reading this.
The Mind Map Book and Speed Reading are the two books I have purchased based on reading this.
October 13, 2008
Awesome and practical. Great for young teenagers. It has helped me to be a better student. The thoughts on memory are particularly insightful. I have tried to implement its principles throughout high school and college and feel like they have been very helpful.
February 9, 2008
Old book. But briliant. About how to harness your god given talent for relating ideas. Lays out how to remember everything from names to ideas.
B/B = BUY DEFINITELY
B/B = BUY DEFINITELY
June 21, 2009
Gives some of the best ways to use your whole brain and mind mapping techniques.
February 1, 2010
gud,memory map techniques gives best solution to memorize problems
June 20, 2010
I found this very helpful.
October 25, 2010
Good overview of Buzan, pretty high level. Introduces mind maps, number rhyme memory system, education hasn't been a good fit for kids brains, methods for studying and learning, when to review
November 19, 2010
The principals are strong, I'm still having problems just using one side.
September 5, 2011
Great book. Loved the advice it gave. Especially liked the advice it gave on reading. It's advice on mind mapping was a bit confusing, but if reviewed makes sense.
December 7, 2012
Maybe your brain has to be in the right place for this sort of thing.
January 29, 2013
This book was not as good as I hoped it would be. I was hoping for step-by-step instructions on mind mapping. It was a VERY dry read.
August 29, 2013
Really interesting read. Although I don't use the techniques literally, the book has influenced me to change how I structure my note taking and how I process information.
April 6, 2018
This should be a book kids have to read in the beginning of the school year
January 21, 2015
very good book on mind mapping
December 28, 2014
Interesting look at how the brain operates.
March 18, 2008
Great for learning to learn and using study skills. I liked it.
December 28, 2008
keren.. cara baru yg efektif untuk make otak :)
March 29, 2014
Useful-mind mapping technique good for taking and transcribing notes
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews