the wind sucked out everything that wasn’t tied down. I was

supposed to do some writing during those 2 weeks, but had

no documents and no power. My season of writing continued

like this clear through to the end, so my gratitude for its

completion and everyone’s support is beyond my grasp.

There are so many people to thank. It all started with

Randy Raines who introduced me to a tool called mind mapping

(which became the foundation of idea mapping) in 1991

of 1992. Vanda North, the founder and director of The

Learning Consortium and previously the founder and global

director of The Buzan Centres, certified me as a licensed instructor

and has mentored and coached me since 1992. She

also made some great suggestions for this book. I treasure her

friendship and support. Tracey Berry and Suzanne Brown

manage the office of The Learning Consortium in England,

and they are my lifeline when it comes to organizing public

workshops. The more than 14,900 individuals who have attended

my workshops have shaped the experiences that I

now share with you. I’ve also had the privilege of certifying a

global network of instructors. They are like family to me.

A big “thank you” goes to Heather O’Connor for calling

me and asking me to write this book. Scott Hagwood

introduced me to Jodie Rhodes who is an extraordinary literary

agent. Angelo Lam and Catherine Ho provided the

infamous video footage that finally made its way from Vancouver;

and Patty Sophiea edited the final video that went

into the proposal package for Wiley. And of course there is

the team at Wiley—especially Matt Holt, Shannon Vargo,

Kate Lindsay, Christine Kim, and Deborah Schindlar. Thank

you for your patience as we worked together through this

project.

This book would not be possible without all of those

who contributed their idea maps and stories. I am so grateful

for their willingness to help you learn from their examples.

You will enjoy getting to know them through these pages.

Michael and Bettina Jetter, Lisa Goldstein, Hobie Swan, and

the entire Mindjet team—I can’t thank you enough for your

support and generosity. Your software is a great gift to the

world.

I’d like to thank my parents Jim and Sheila Hall. They

shaped my life, encouraged learning, and themselves are

models of creativity. I’m grateful to my mom (who edited the

manuscript before it went to the publisher), whose mastery

of the English language is second to none. Finally, I’d like to

thank my husband Kevin Nast. He has been there from the

day I learned to create idea maps, through starting our own

business in 1997, and now writing this book. I don’t have the

words to express my gratitude for his love, support, patience,

and encouragement. He is the best!

individuals and organizations

toward overcoming

barriers to achieving success,

including those that reside in

one’s own mind.

Jamie was born and

raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana

and currently lives in

Plymouth, Michigan where

she and her husband founded

NastGroup, Inc., a training

and consultancy organization.

She has specialized in mind potential optimization since

1992. Her workshops augment mental aptitudes and maximize

individual/organizational productivity. Her range of

expertise spans Idea Mapping, Speed Reading, Leadership,

Creating Personal Missions, Memory, Presentations, Tapping

Creativity, Empowerment, Strategic Planning, Graphic

Facilitation, and Learning to Learn.

In addition NastGroup works with the UK-based company,

The Learning Consortium (TLC), where Jamie is a

Partner and Master Trainer. TLC is dedicated to bringing

the best of all learning methods and joint client solutions to

learners around the globe.

and was the only Senior Master Trainer representing Buzan

Centres worldwide. During that time she mentored over

14,900 people worldwide toward better mental productivity

and certified 109 Qualified Buzan Instructors from 24 countries.

training manual for the Buzan Centres.

She spent 12 years at Electronic Data Systems in management

and leadership training capacities and was certified

with a BA in Industrial Management and minor in Computer

Science.

Using her unique, results-oriented coaching skills, Jamie

brings her workshop right to the reader. She was published

in the October 1996 issue of Personal Excellence and was

a guest on VoiceAmerica.com in February 2004.

She is an accomplished conference speaker and has consulted

for a wide array of clients including: American Institute

of Banking, American Bankers Association, Association

of Christian Schools International, BMC Software, British

Petroleum, Chattanooga Advertising Federation, Conoco-

Phillips, DTE Energy, The Dwight School, Farmington

Hills Public Schools, Franklin Templeton, Ford Motor

Company, GM, General Physics, Institute of Management

Accountants, L. L. Bean, Macomb Intermediate School District,

MARC Advertising, Matrix Imaging, Mayo Clinic,

of Australia, Operation Smile, Pennsylvania College of

Optometry, Psychotherapy Networker, Saline Leadership

Institute, Software Spectrum, U.S. Army Ammunition Management,

University of Pittsburgh Institute For Entrepreneurial

Excellence, VHA Inc., and Willow Run High

School.

Kingdom

For more information on Idea Mapping and Jamie’s workshops

see www.IdeaMappingSuccess.com.

enthusiasm!” Jamie is a wonderful combination of

down to earth, no-nonsense, and “this is what really works,

because I know it and I have done it”—with incredible passion.

The enthusiasm is born from 15 years of sharing these

processes with busy, (often initially cynical) stressed business

people and seeing them come alive again! The processes that

Jamie shares are very simple and at the same time deeply profound

as they are based on the way all humans process information—

and they work.

This book is the culmination of all her vast experience—

all her stories of people like you who needed answers

to de-stressing the overloaded, overwhelmed sinking feeling

so prevalent in the workplace today.

Let me speak a bit more about why Jamie should be the

author of this book. Jamie was in a leadership and training

organization of an information technology company and

successful in her field when she attended one of the first internal

those that literally changed her life! Quickly she decided that

she wanted to become a trainer to be able to teach that same

class to others. This she did with great dedication to all the

details. That was taken even further in that the course was

changed from a video-driven course (those of you able to remember

that style in the early 1990s?!) to an instructordriven

course. Jamie took on the daunting task of transcribing

the videos and crafting the instructor training manual.

This she did with her ability to manage minute detail while

keeping the whole picture in clear focus by applying the same

skills she teaches!

I was very impressed by the work she did and the final

product was excellent and has now been distributed all over

the world to assist new trainers in continuing to maintain the

integrity of the processes.

Jamie and I worked closely together then and even more

after she left her previous employer to start her own training

and consultancy firm. She has earned the title of senior master

trainer and was the one person in the world that I knew

would carry the “Mental Literacy” torch forward just as I

would (if I were to unexpectedly depart!). This was extremely

gratifying.

doable, time-saving, sanity preserving processes and

templates to make your business life easier and more enjoyable!

I think that will be of use to everyone I know of in the

workplace today!

Tony Buzan has done a wonderful job of crafting and

promulgating the Mind Map technique—what Jamie offers

is that rare gift of one who has street credentials. She uses

the processes herself; she has applied them over 15 years in

the workplace. Further, she has taught over 14,900 people—

really working with them to go from understanding to actually

applying. She goes through all the “Yes, buts . . .” and

“So how do I . . .?” and “I got stuck here” to assist the habit

change from new skill to the effective use stage.

So, let me ask you . . .

Do you feel a bit (or a lot) overwhelmed?

Are you negatively stressed?

Do you feel even further behind at the end of the day

than when you started?

Does making any kind of a presentation cause you

palpitations?

Are you stuck when you are forced to come up with

new ideas?

Does clear thinking seem to elude you?

Do you need to prioritize more efficiently?

Can you not turn on your thinking ability? Or can you

not turn OFF your thinking ability!?

Would it be helpful if you could plan faster and better?

Would better analytical abilities be helpful?

Do you suffer from poor concentration?

Is your memory getting worse?!

Is there never enough time for what you have to do?

Do you feel unmotivated?

Is your memory getting worse??!!!!!!!

Would you like to be able to make better decisions?

Do you have problems to solve?

Are you trapped in “chicken circle” thinking?

Are you a procrastinator?

If you answered Yes! to three or more questions, then this

book is for YOU!

You now hold in your hands the way to solve all those

situations. You have a “Jamie-in-a-book” opportunity to have

your life changed the way hers was. Better fasten your seatbelt—

this will be a speed change for the better.

You’ll be very pleased for the rest of your life that you

started this journey.

—Vanda North

of papers and work that needs to be done? Are you

overwhelmed with everything you need to accomplish? Do

you have a difficult time organizing your thoughts? How

would you rate your ability to create new ideas, plan, communicate

your thoughts, learn, think strategically, develop

and deliver presentations quickly and with excellence? If

there were an easy tool that could save you time, increase

your efficiency, and help you get your arms around large,

complex issues (and it was fun!), would you be interested? Oh

there you are! I can see you now.

Idea Mapping is a powerful tool that can help you do all

this and more. This book uses a no nonsense approach to

teaching a new skill to all individuals in all positions in work

and life. Years ago, I picked up a book on memory—thinking

that it would help me improve my own. Do you know

there was nothing in that book that taught me to improve my

memory? I thought, “what a waste of time.” Well this book is

just the opposite. There is virtually no time spent in this

book on theory or fluff. In the following pages are exercises,

instructions, examples, stories, processes, and applications

that you can use to learn how to create idea maps.

One of the most common responses I get from people

who have learned idea mapping is that they say they now

think differently. Society and education have crammed our

nonlinear brains into a linear box and then we wonder why

learning and thinking can seem difficult at times. Idea maps

capitalize on the nonlinear, associative nature of our brains.

They are a reflection of how our brains are designed to work

naturally.

I’ve had hundreds of phone calls over the years from

people who wanted to learn the skill of idea mapping, but

were struggling. Their line of questioning has been something

like this:

“Do you have any workshops coming to my city this

year?” I regretfully and frequently answer, “No.”

“Where will your next workshop be held?” It usually

ends up half way across the country from them.

“You know, I’ve read about this mapping concept, but

I’m having problems getting started. Is there a book that can

help me with some of my struggles and show me all the ways

I can use idea mapping?” I ask them what books or materials

they read. They say the books didn’t help.

I wrote this book

• To provide a resource for every person who doesn’t have

the time or money to come to a workshop

• To transfer the skill of idea mapping from my brain to

yours

• To share honestly about some of the common struggles

many people have when learning this technique and to

provide ways to address those challenges and make your

learning easy

• To show you how you can use idea mapping in a multitude

of applications

• Because every person should have the opportunity to

learn how to idea map

The first five chapters will define idea mapping and walk

you through how to create idea maps. You’ll learn the laws of

idea mapping, how to generate ideas naturally through the

logic of association, the basics of getting started, some of the

common obstacles to idea mapping and the solutions to those

obstacles. Chapter 6 will introduce you to a dozen handdrawn

idea-mapping applications. Each will have an associated

idea map and a description from its creator. Chapter 7

also covers applications, only this time the maps were all developed

using Mindjet Pro 6 software. In chapter 8, three

individuals share how they progressed from novice to master

mapper (including examples of their maps). Chapter 9 outlines

mapping when groups need to generate ideas, plan, or solve

problems. Chapter 10 gets to the heart of idea mapping.

Now that you’ve mastered the laws and the basics, I’ll show

you some advanced mapping applications where the laws of

idea mapping are broken with good reason. In Chapter 11,

we will revisit an activity from Chapter 2 and compare your

new mapping skills with your old linear notes. Chapter 12

gives you 28 possible idea-mapping activities for you to begin

practicing. Finally, Chapter 13 gives you the ultimate

challenge—“real-time” idea mapping.

combines my years of business experience, plus my years of

teaching idea mapping, plus the experiences of 21 other idea

mappers from around the globe. This book takes you from

the beginning level and pushes you into the advanced realms

of mapping. The content of the book is all about you and

building your skills, and it is a privilege to share this information

with you.

Welcome to your Idea Mapping Workshop! My name is

Jamie Nast, and I’ll be your instructor.

solving, linear note taking—these are not reflections of

how our brain was designed to process information most

effectively. Sadly, linear communication is the primary tool

that 98% of the world is still using in business, education,

and life. From youth, we have been taught in ways that deter

us from using our full spectrum of cortical skills. According

to a recent article published by Hewlett-Packard, studies

show that people remember 10% of what they hear, 20% of

what they read, but about 80% of what they see and do. This

book will teach you a revolutionary new skill that will combat

underutilization of the brain and significantly improve

thinking and learning by combining seeing and doing.

In today’s world individuals are constantly asked to do

more with less, to squeeze 12 hours of productivity into an

8-hour day, to creatively solve problems, to market new

products, to continually be learning and developing professionally,

to streamline processes, to plan projects that incorporate

understanding and buy-in from the entire team, and

to try to balance all of these things with a personal life.

Idea mapping is a revolutionary way of effectively meeting

all these demands and doing so in a way that energizes

you and makes you more creative than ever before. An idea

map is a colorful, visual picture of the issue at hand—all on a

single sheet of paper. This frees the brain to think, see, and

understand in ways that cannot happen with a multipaged

linear document of the same information. It breaks the tradition

of linear thinking and provides a way for individuals

and teams to plan, learn, increase productivity, save time, improve

recall, and create using the logic of association and the

full range of cortical skills.

Everyone exposed to idea mapping has found it has

transformed his or her life. It works so well (seemingly

miraculously) that America’s major corporations, institutes,

and schools have hired me to train their employees. Some of

these organizations include: American Bankers Association,

Association of Christian Schools International, BMC

Software, British Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, DTE Energy,

Franklin Templeton, Ford Motor Company, General Motors,

L. L. Bean, Macomb Intermediate School District,

MARC Advertising, Mayo Clinic, Middle Tennessee State

University, Operation Smile, Pennsylvania College of Optometry,

Saline Leadership Institute, Software Spectrum,

The Dwight School, U.S. Army Ammunition Management,

University of Pittsburgh Institute For Entrepreneurial Excellence,

and Willow Run High School.

The associative process by which idea maps are developed

is easy to learn and will be explained in Chapter 2 of this

book. It mirrors how our brain naturally and freely associates

information and makes connections between pieces of data.

It’s like having a brainstorming session with the assistance of

a tool that will capture, organize, associate, and provide a

comprehensive picture of those brilliant thoughts all on one

page. Idea mapping eliminates the gridlock of linear thinking

and nurtures the visual learner in all of us.

I graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette,

Indiana, in industrial management and computer science,

and spent 12 years working as a leader for Electronic Data

Systems (EDS). I was introduced to a tool called mind mapping

(which I later developed into idea mapping) in 1991.

My logical, analytical, and sequential brain was more than a

little skeptical about its usefulness; but I also longed for a

creative tool that would stimulate the right side of my brain.

The ability of the idea map to integrate right and left cortex

skills has produced synergistic improvements in nearly everything

I do. As of this writing I have taught over 14,900 people

how to idea map, certified and mentored 109 mapping instructors

from 24 different countries, and have heard thousands

of success stories. Some of those examples will be

shared in subsequent chapters.

This book is for all individuals in all positions in work

and life. I will share exceptional achievements from typical

individuals around the globe. Anyone (especially you) can

learn to use idea mapping to make him or herself incredibly

successful! This book will show you how.

resources and to reduce the number of hours spent

working? What if there was a tool that could make you more

efficient and more organized? What if there was a technique

to enhance your creativity and your ability to communicate

ideas? What if you could discover a resource that could

change the very foundation of how you think and learn in a

way that would enhance your work and life forever? Would

you be interested?

Idea mapping has done just that for me and for millions

of others around the world. It can offer the same success for

you. What follows throughout this book is the process I take

groups and individuals through in order to teach them to use

their brains more effectively. It begins with where you are today.

Here is where it began for me.

It was late on a Friday afternoon in August of 1996, and I was

exhausted from a month of nonstop travel delivering leadership

workshops to corporate managers and supervisors of the

company for which I was employed. At the time, I was working

for EDS—a large, global information technology company.

I was one of eight hand-selected leaders asked to join a

team that develops and coaches employees throughout the

Midwest and Canada in leadership competencies. On Monday

the traveling would start all over again in another city. It

was going to be my first time teaching a new course; how-

ever, there was a problem. I wasn’t close to being prepared. It

was going to be a very long weekend.

Several months earlier I had been certified as a facilitator

for Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective

Leaders” 5-day workshop. Since receiving the certification,

I had not had the opportunity to teach the class. So not

only was I unprepared, but so much time had passed in between

becoming certified and being invited to speak on the

topic that my memories of what I had learned were vague.

Familiarizing myself with the material was going to be close

to learning it all for the first time. Realistically I needed at

least a week to review. If you have ever seen one of these facilitator

guides, you can identify with me. It is a three-inch

tome of materials (I measured my manual to be sure I wasn’t

exaggerating!) in addition to many videos. Along with one of

my team members, I was scheduled to coteach two of these

classes to two different groups in Indianapolis, Indiana, starting

on Monday.

The schedule called for us to be there for 2 weeks. On

Monday we were teaching the first day of class to Group A.

On Tuesday we were teaching the first class to Group B. We

were going to repeat that schedule until the classes were

completed for both groups. As a seasoned facilitator you

can fake a lot of things, but demonstrating an understanding

of the material is not one of them. Maybe it was selfpreservation

or the desire to salvage some of my weekend,

but a possible solution came to me.

I had been using and teaching individuals about a

trademark of the Buzan Organization) for 4 years.

(Idea mapping has its original roots in the mind mapping