Doodle Away!
When I was in school, I loved starting out every year with empty, brand new notebooks and folders. The clean expanse of empty space and bright colors felt fresh, studious, and mature, and I would always swear to myself that this would be the year I kept them that way. But then, a couple weeks would pass. I would relax a bit. And one day as our teacher was lecturing us about not leaving stinky food in our desks over the weekends I would start drawing on the cover of my notebook, without even thinking about it. It was that mindless kind of drawing otherwise known as doodling.
I never wrote boys' names on there. It was never "Brigitte-n-Bobby" written in a big heart. I would have been mortified. It was just lines, patterns, and inevitably a few flowers and close-ups of eyeballs. Within a few months I would find myself hunting for tiny open spaces in between other drawings, and my notebooks were covered in ink like a biker with a full body tattoo. And I would feel a little bit guilty.
Do you find yourself doodling at your desk while you're on a conference call? Drawing stars and curly-q's all over your grocery list while you're trying to remember what you need to buy? Well last year, a scientific study showed that doodling can actually be beneficial to our concentration! In fact - shocker - now some schools are even starting to encourage doodling in class!
So if you tend to doodle, embrace it! Now that I know it's not a "bad" thing, I have been trying to doodle more, and I find it really helps. If I'm feeling overwhelmed, stressed, stuck in a rut, out of ideas ... I actually make myself just put a pen on an empty sheet of paper while I do something else, like watch the news, or talk on the phone. Sometimes I draw, and sometimes I write words or short phrases. It really does help me tackle problems or ideas that I'm easily distracted from or bored with.
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Comments
Bud Friday, January 22, 2010
Oh the care free days of doodling in school. I mostly did it when I was bored. The times the teacher was teaching things I already knew, thus I just sat and doodled. But unlike you, I never tried not to mess up my new notebooks. Along with the proper class notes, I kept private notes in the margins. Things I was thinking at the time. Things about what was going on or what I wanted to do. Ideas, promises, place to go, all sorts of ideas written in the margins, notes on the inside of the front and back covers, along with all of the doodles.
I don’t know if there was any benefit to any of it. I thought that someday I would look back at all those notebooks and read all the remarks in the margins. But things as they are, and so many moves, the notebooks have long been lost, doodles and all.
Joe436 Friday, January 22, 2010
I'm sending that article to my boss.
Blargal D. Alien Friday, January 22, 2010
Hello,Brigitte.
I have found a tech way to doodle while at work. I use a program called bloccad,which allows me to "build" things with LEGO blocks on screen. I do get work done,but my creative side must be fed ,too.
Marie M.C. Friday, January 22, 2010
Now I know why I whiled away the hours doodling during my school years. I was bored! Oy vey. But at least I got all the answers right due to my doodling. It stopped me from the joy of the
endless day dreaming I so loved.
Brigitte, I always learn something new from you. Thanks and welcome!
Richard Kairnes Friday, January 22, 2010
I love to doodle. I usually draw stick people with happy faces.
When I ship boxes via UPS, I always draw a happy face :) on it for the people who help carry that box from point A to point B.
I want them to know I appreciate them and their efforts even though their efforts are anonymous to me.
(0)
/|\
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Like That!!!
Richard
Rhode Island :}
romeo Friday, January 22, 2010
my favorite doodle is my signature
Rob Friday, January 22, 2010
Hahaha, I always doodle when I'm on the phone. It's a habit. I don't realize I'm doing it till I'm off the phone.
Christopher Glen- Bott Friday, January 22, 2010
I find that if I have a pen and paper nearby when I'm on the phone then by the end of the phone call I will have doodled something. The longer the call the more extravagant the doodle.
It's a trait I've noticed with a lot of people. Try it next time you make a call to anyone, see if you feel obliged to scribble something.
Willow from BTVS: "A doodle. I do doodle. You, too. You do doodle, too."
Yvan Saturday, January 23, 2010
I love to doodle. I printed out my schedule for this semester last week and by yesterday i don't have any space to doodle anymore. Hehehe... It didn't even matter to me what I drew, I just do. :)