This article started with the post-it note doodle above. I was wondering if I could make a little exercise that would help to get people doodling.
My brain + question + a pen = my favorite way to think.
Do you doodle? If not, now is a great time to start — all your colleagues on that video call will just think you’re taking notes. And get this — it could boost your memory of the discussion by almost 30%.
A few years ago, Professor Jackie Andrade at the University of Plymouth asked 40 participants to listen to a long recorded message for the names of people coming to a party. Half were randomly assigned “to a ‘doodling’ condition where they shaded printed shapes while listening to the telephone call.”
The doodling group recalled 29% more information than the non-doodlers when they were surprised with a memory test. Here’s the full study.
Pretty great results for basically coloring, right?
If you have kids, you know how they’ll scribble on anything and everything (Darwin’s kids even laid claim to the manuscript for Origin of Species with their cartoons). Somewhere along the journey through school and work, we decided it looked unprofessional to doodle in the conference room.
The wise and wonderful cartoonist and author Lynda Barry observed, “When little kids draw, they use the paper as a place for an experience. The paper is where this thing is going to happen, and the happening part of the experience is the reason to do it. When we get a little older the paper ...goes from being a place for something to happen to a thing with a drawing on it, a drawing that can be judged as good or bad.”
But Prof. Andrade concluded from her study: “Unlike many dual task situations, doodling while working can be beneficial.” So join me in reclaiming the humble act of doodling, starting with adopting my friend Sunni’s new definition of the doodling as “making marks to help you think.”
Here’s Barry’s quick way to get back in touch with your inner doodler:
Fold a piece of paper into quarters, draw a quick scribble in each of the quadrants.
Turn the paper upside down and set a timer for 60 seconds (per quadrant).
Turn that scribble into a monster.
“There’s no way to do this wrong—or right for that matter. Monsters can look like anything,” says Barry.”...drawing and writing by hand can set up conditions for discovery and insight in real time.”
Give your screen and keyboard a break, pick up your favorite pen, and rediscover the experience of letting the marks come as they like.