Pay Attention and Doodle
I found this article from Time Magazine last week and felt that I had to write about it. It details a study with suggests that doodling while sitting in class or a meeting might actually help people pay better attention to details than most people assume. The reason why I was so excited about it is because I am a hardcore doodler. If you were to look at almost all the note pages and handout I received in college you would probably be pretty hard pressed to find any that were not entirely covered in doodles and sketches. The thing is that I never felt like my doodling detracted from my learning or ability to contribute in class. I have tried to explain this to several people, including some of my professors, but have always felt that I got skeptical reception at best. Still my grades never suffered. For me doodling is without a question a way to focus. It isn’t so much paying great detail to the little illustration, but rather grounding the consciousness in a place where I am able to gather more information (which is much like what the article describes). I think it is really cool to know that what I had previously felt about my doodling is quite possibly pretty accurate. Of course, realizing that there is a whole bunch of different learning styles, I have to assume doodling my not work for everybody, but if it does help out then more power to you.
