The older one gets, the more attention he or she must pay to avoiding health-related issues. Such avoidance often involves making routine visits to one’s doctor to ensure that everything is in working order. Yet, how does one manage making, and keeping, the many appointments necessary to stay on top of one’s health? One answer to this question is to try a Visual Mind Map. With a Visual Mind Map, one can literally “map out” everything he or she needs in order to manage routine doctor visits, from dates and times to appointment type, in one clear and spatially formatted diagram. In addition, he or she can add images and colorful graphics to the map to make the map more conceptual and appointments easier to remember. Visual Mind Maps, thus, offer individuals an effective and efficient means of keeping up with one’s health.
What are Visual Mind Maps and How Are They Created?
A Visual Mind Map is “a means of organizing information that allows individuals to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information”. With a Visual Mind Map, the creator makes use of colors and symbols to construct the map and represent his or her ideas in a non-linear format. When creating a Visual Mind Map, the individual usually begins by showing the key concept or main idea of the information as a graphic image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central topic. Subsequent themes of less importance are then attached to these branches using “child branches”, and so on. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information presented that includes the images, visual graphics, and colors the individual associates with each of the themes and ideas.
Managing Routine Doctors Visits Using a Visual Mind Map
A man, nearing 50, has just read a magazine article detailing the routine physical checkups a man his age should have on a yearly basis. Worried about his ability to remember and manage all these appointments, he decides to organize a list for himself using a Visual Mind Map. He commences his map by, first, placing an image representing his yearly doctor appointments in the map’s center. He next divides his mind map into different sections, one for each appointment type, via “branches” that he attaches to the central topic. On “child branches”, the man lists the particulars of each appointment type, such as when and where to make the appointment and doctor contact information. As he makes each appointment, he lists its date and time on “twigs” that he attaches to each “child branch”. Throughout his Visual Mind Map, the man uses any graphics or colors he associates with the information he is listing in order to make it easier for him to recall. When he has completed his map, it looks similar to the attached Visual Mind Map diagram.
Keeping Up With Appointment Visits Using the Visual Mind Map
As the year progresses, the man finds that he has no trouble making and keeping suggested doctor appointments. Once a month, he simply consults his map to find out which appointments he needs to make for the month, and lists the specific dates and times for each on the respective “branches” as he makes them. The man, thus, finds the process of managing routine doctors visits using a Visual Mind Map much easier than using an appointment book; he does not have to flip through pages of a calendar to find information because it is neatly listed in one diagram he has posted on his bulletin board. The Visual Mind Map has, therefore, given the man an effective and efficient way to ensure that he remains in good health.