USE YOUR HEAD

Description

Use Your Head is written to help you do just that. By the time you have finished the book you should understand much more about how your mind works and how to use it to the best advantage, be able to read faster and more efficiently, to study more effectively, to solve problems more readily and to increase the power of your memory. This introductory section gives general guide lines about the book’s contents, and the ways in which these contents are best approached.

The chapters

Each chapter deals with a different aspect of your brains functioning. First the book outlines the most up-to-date information about the brain and then applies this information to the way in which your vision can be best used.                                                                                                                                                                   Next, a chapter explains how you can improve memory both during and after learning. In addition a special system is introduced for the perfect memorization of listed items.

The middle chapters explore the brain’s internal ‘maps’. This information about how you think is applied to the way in which you can use language, words and imagery for recording, organizing, remembering, creative thinking and problem solving. The last chapters deal with the new Organic Study Method which will enable you to study any subject ranging from English to Higher Mathematics. In the center of the book you will find mind maps which you are advised to look at before reading each chapter – they serve as a preview/review summary.

Your effort

It is essential that you practice if you wish to be able to use effectively the methods and information outlined. At various stages in the book there are exercises and suggestions for further activity.

USE YOUR HEAD

In addition you should work out your own practice and study schedule, keeping to it as firmly as possible.

Personal notes

At the end of each chapter you will find pages for ‘Personal Notes’. These are for any odd jottings you might wish to make during reading and can also be used when you discover relevant information after you have ‘finished’ the book.

Bibliography

On page 152 you will find a special list of books. These are not just books of academic reference, but include books which will help you develop your general knowledge as well as giving you more specialized information concerning some of the areas covered in Use your head.

The Time-Life books give clear and graphic accounts of such topics as Vision and the Mind, and can be used most effectively for family reading and study. My own book, Speed memory, is a combination of the special memory techniques for recalling lists, numbers, names and faces, etc. It should be used in conjunction with the information from the Memory chapter.

You and yourself

It is hoped that Use your head will help you to expand as an individual, and that through an increasing awareness of yourself you will be able to develop your own ways of thinking.

Each person using information from this book starts with different levels of learning ability, and will progress at the pace best suited to him. It is important therefore to measure improvement in relation to yourself and not to others.

Although much of the information has been presented in connection with reading, formal noting and studying, the complete application is much wider. When you have finished and reviewed the book, browse through it again to see in which other areas of your life the information can be helpfully applied.