Instead, it is the useful tool of a brain that is trying to stay focused.ĭoodling keeps your brain connected enough to the task at hand that it doesn’t skip off to other, more fanciful, lines of thought when the current task is boring.
It’s evidence that doodling isn’t a sign of a distracted brain. What does this mean for all of us scribblers? Those characters in the margins are proof that you are more focused than the person sitting next to you.Īccording to research by Jackie Andrade, PhD, of the University of Plymouth, UK, when participants monitored a monotonous mock telephone message for the names of people coming to a party, the doodling group performed better on the monitoring task and recalled 29% more information on a surprise memory test than those who didn’t doodle. It’s also the part of the brain you use to direct your attention - which is serious business when it comes to staying focused in conference rooms, classrooms, or even on that boring teleconference where Joe is going over the very same thing he presented last week.Īll of those hearts, flowers, and stick people were busy firing up neurons and increasing blood flow. It’s the part of the brain involved in managing your ability to problem-solve, reason, use logic, and remember things. When researchers looked inside the brains of people who were doodling, coloring and free drawing, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), they found that all three activated the prefrontal cortex. Is it “silly” if it’s firing up your prefrontal cortex? What if I told you that there is science that proves doodles aren’t silly, nor are they a sign of lower intelligence? In fact, doodles are evidence that you are smarter, more analytical, and better focused than your non-doodling colleagues. When you doodle, are you struck by the illogical fear that someone is going to call you out and send you to the principal’s office?
Do you ever look down to see that you’ve doodled all over the margins of your meeting agenda, then quickly hide it so that no one else notices?ĭoes it make you cringe in embarrassment when others at the table are taking logical, linear, non-doodled notes and you look down to see your page covered with flowers, random angles, or that cartoon guy who is looking over a fence?
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