Mind the Maps

Greetings humans!

Ah, mind maps, you either love them or hate them. I'm definitely in the "meh" camp (this is very similar to my unconventional view of Marmite being 'alright').

Here is a half-finished mind map concerning the characterisation of Lady Macbeth:

Half finished because I ended up just grabbing a piece of lined paper and started to make some outline notes instead. So why do I try with these things?

1. THEY'RE SO PRETTY (when done neatly). I love using various colours, and I also feel a bit guilty for having bought a pack of 24 Sharpies and not using them very often. 
2. I am a visual learner after all. I know full well that I can learn with diagrams and colours best. But I also like the order and rigidity that outline notes provide.
3. I'm doing it on my own terms. If there's one thing people should know about me, it's that (in an incredibly arbitrary fashion, granted), I won't do what I'm told. This is prevalent in lessons where I'm forced to make my notes one way or another when such a method doesn't make much sense to me, especially if the information is new and as-of-yet-unlearned. There are definitely some lessons I've excelled in more than others because I've been able to make notes the way they make sense to me.

But why did I give up?

1. I get bored after a while. My mind is clearly still very infantile, since I can often be like a toddler who is perfectly happy colouring in one minute, but wants to read a book the next. Unless I can make a mind map quickly, the chances are it won't get finished. And I won't ever create one quickly, because they only make sense to me when they're neat. 
2. They are too time consuming (see note about neatness above). I can make sure my handwriting is legible when I'm making notes at a decent pace, meaning I get a lot more done in less time. Considering how many weeks I have left until my exams (I don't even want to think about it), something which takes up too much of my time is really not worth it. I can make neat revision guides and notes, and I can plan essays and learn the information a lot more quickly. 
3. They're not organised enough. Sure, there are different stems of the mind map which are probably in different colours, but they're not bullet pointed on lines and it's just everywhere and really confusing. I definitely learn from organised notes a lot more easily.

So, to conclude: I haven't got a clue. How about you? How do you learn best?