#ThinkfullyHabit: Doodle? Do!
What's your typical doodle? Flowers? Houses? Stars? Faces? These are amongst the most common. Or are you someone who finds themselves scribbling the same abstract or geometric shapes over and over in different ways? Whatever your preference, you’re not alone in your doodles. According to David Greenberg’s book ‘Presidential Doodles’* 26 out of 44 American Presidents doodled. Theodore Roosevelt had a tendency for doodling animals, Ronald Reagan for cowboys and football players and John F. Kennedy for sailboats. And it’s not just Presidents - Bill Gates, Samuel Beckett, John Keats and Leonardo da Vinci are all among the more famous of doodlers.
While scribbling in the margins, shading in the shapes and creating random patterns doesn’t sound particularly productive, there may actually be cognitive benefits of doodling.
“Doodling has a profound impact on the way that we can process information and the way that we can solve problems.”
WHY?
If you give yourself permission to ‘free-draw’ and doodle, it’s likely to activate a more 'unfocussed' way of thinking (giving your more ’focussed’ ways of thinking a break). To be clear, we’re talking about simple doodling rather than deliberate sketching or the more purposeful visualisation of ideas and concepts (which definitely does also have its benefits**). Here, we’re talking about doodling with absolutely no thought given to the end result.
While doodling has been associated with helping people focus and manage stress, importantly, it’s also associated with creativity and finding new solutions to problems. The very act of doodling can put the brain in a more relaxed and idle mode where information tends to be engaged with slightly differently compared to more focussed and task-orientated ways of thinking. It’s in this more relaxed mode that ideas can naturally emerge and connect together - we call this way of thinking 'Click Thinking' because it allows ideas to naturally combine, reorganise and click together. It's the act of doodling that seems to distract just enough to allow this other way of thinking to come about. As acknowledged by G D Schott in the Lancet Medical journal***, “When an individual doodles, the brain may also be highly creative, being occupied, for example, in solving mathematical problems, or generating ideas for new works in literature, art, or design.”
The other good news? Doodling is literally at everyone’s finger tips; no special skills required!
REFERENCES