Improving Noting Skills with the Help of Mind Maps

Appreciation Technique:
Appreciation is a very simple but powerful technique for extracting the maximum amount of information from a simple fact. Starting with a fact, ask the question 'So what?' - i.e. What are the implications of that fact?

Keep on asking that question until all possible inferences have been drawn.

Appreciation is a technique used by military planners, so we will take a military example:

Fact: It rained heavily last night

• So What?
  The ground will be wet
• So What?
  It will turn into mud quickly
• So What?
  If many troops and vehicles pass over the same ground, movement will be progressively slower and more difficult as the ground gets muddier and more difficult.
• So What?
  Where possible stick to metalled roads or expect movement to be slower than normal.

While it would be possible to reach this conclusion without the use of a formal technique, appreciation provides a framework within which inferences can be extracted quickly and effectively.