obamadoodle540jpg.jpegNPR has a terrific story — complete with this official Barack Obama scribble-pic — about why the human brain often prompts the human hand into doodling during boring meetings and phone calls.

Turns out that this aimless artistry isn’t so aimless after all. It’s keeps us from doing a full Walter Mitty when we’re not sufficiently challenged or engaged. As the piece explains:

“The function of doodling, according to Andrade, who recently published a study on doodling in Applied Cognitive Psychology, is to provide just enough cognitive stimulation during an otherwise boring task to prevent the mind from taking the more radical step of totally opting out of the situation and running off into a fantasy world.”

So if you catch yourself doodling tomorrow at work, fear not. But if someone else is doing so while you’re talking, it might be a warning sign.

9 Responses to “I doodle, therefore I am”

  1. Jim Seybert says:

    Three cheers for daydreamers and doodlers !!! Thanks to this research I can now honestly say my doodling keeps me engaged. I guess you could say it helps me find beauty, meaning or significance in an otherwise worthless discussion.

  2. vegasjorge says:

    Couldn’t you train your mind to doodle about the meeting/presentation. At least try to draw visualizations of the subject matter. After all why are you there in the first place to try to learn or gather some new information (even if you don’t agree with it)

    Perhaps they should do a study on those that simply take notes? I’m sure there’s limits to those that simply transcribe vs those that try to Summarize (implies process the information and provide a view of the information taken).

  3. C. A. Hurst says:

    O.K. If the meeting is that worthless to you why do you have to be there? A ROWE approach would allow you to speak up, point out that the emperor has no clothes, then move on to something productive…

  4. But wait, can’t doodling also be a different form of taking notes. It’s easy to forget, how much bandwidth the brain has, and simply putting it in idle mode is not productive. If anything, this research should provide presenters an alternative answer to “you must have been boring.” Maybe you were simply presenting to a bunch of high-bandwidth individuals.

  5. Tim Mantyla says:

    I read “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” many years ago.

    Later another book inspired by that one, on writing, came out with suggestions for connecting ideas with circles and arrows. This is essentially a doodle that puts conceptual connections on paper as a way of mapping one’s thoughts and reconnecting them in novel ways.

    These all seem to be ways of connecting the various levels and parts of our minds in new and stimulating ways. Doodling is just one way to do this.

    In the world of technical writing, “information mapping” is a way of turning writing into an organized visual format that recruits the right brain (holistic side) to help understand concepts that may be difficult to grasp merely in linear sequence, using standard ways that writing is often presented with.

    I’m going to use this link to back up my recommendation to my son’s school system: Let the kids doodle! (But ask them to explain it, and thus use the doodle as a creative educational tool.)

  6. kirsti says:

    I especially like the doodling as creative educational tool. I am not a doodler in meetings, more a list maker or note taker but I have an artist friend who does magnificent work during meetings and students who love to doodle. I would like to hear their interpretations though = that might be really telling – unlike my lists, for example….

  7. Harper says:

    I have generally felt thwarted artistically wrt drawing. Even doodling has been a struggle. When I would try to doodle, I would usually end up with not much more than has marks on a page. It was very distracting to have to think about – and by my own standards fail at – something that characteristically folks do without thinking.

    Several years ago at work, I was asked to represent my team at an inter-departmental meeting. I remember being very engaged, and came away with the best doodling by far! I experience drawing as an active part of my listening and creative thinking – definitely not a response to a boring presentation.

  8. Tracy Feld says:

    Story about a 7-year-old girl who had trouble paying attention in school, except when she was drawing or doodling…

    Teacher: What is that in your picture?

    Girl: This is a picture of God.

    Teacher: But no one really knows what God looks like.

    Girl: They will in a minute!

  9. Oh, but there are so many ways to doodle! Staving off boredom, useful indeed. But what about resting self into the fine point of a pen, and moving, each second mindful of where is, and where next. Vary the rhythm and speed, scribble and stop. Pause, very silent, till the next wisp of inspiration starts you off in a whole new direction.