Happy Doodle Day!
We’ve all been there: face in our hand, slouching over a desk, bored, and doodling needlessly on whatever scratch piece of paper is available. It’s a universal activity that’s frowned upon for its seemingly rude lack of attention.
But why do we do it?
According to a few articles and scientific studies, including one in Time magazine, doodling is actually your brain’s way of staying focused and awake!
From the article “Doodling forces your brain to expend just enough energy to stop it from daydreaming but not so much that you don’t pay attention.
According to a study called What Does Doodling Do by psychologist Jackie Andrade, doodling will keep you from daydreaming, and thusly, help you retain more information.
Day dreaming actually requires more brain power than doodling – thereby distracting us even further from whatever we’re supposed to be paying attention to. Doodling uses just enough brain power to keep us awake and entertained without interfering with remembering information.
Not to mention that doodling is a great way to flex the other side of your brain for a bit. Although not as scientifically proven as other findings, there are researchers who suggest that one can assume quite a bit about a person due to their doodles.
Although everyone is different, our doodles can be surprisingly similar. Common shapes come up a lot in doodles, including arrows and cubes. This may imply that our brains have some associated meaning behind these images.
(You can read more about the suggested meanings of doodles here)
So grab some paper and something to write with and make sure you celebrate today with a couple of doodles of squiggles, shapes, and maybe even dinosaurs. And next time your boss or teacher points out your doodles make sure to tell them you’re just trying to help your brain remember their lecture!