<p>A number of studies and extensive research point out that doodling, that is scribbling or drawing in a seemingly distracted manner, is actually great for information retention in the mind and fostering of creativity.</p>
<p>Doodling sets the mind up for greater, more expansive creativity and gets the neurons to fire. It frees up memory and increases the attention span.</p>

Doodling And Creativity

Problem Solving

<p>When the mind is only working in a linguistic mode, <strong>doodling provides a visual medium to support mind processing, providing it with neurological access.</strong></p>
<p>The natural doodles that we can indulge to enhance our visual language:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Atomization</strong>: drawing the word and its elements.</li>
<li><strong>Game-storming</strong>: Fusing two random drawings together.</li>
<li><strong>Process map</strong>: Make a flowchart or visual diagram to illustrate a process or sequence.</li>
</ol>

Doodling: A Visual Aid For Engagement

<p>While we listen to people talk, taking notes interferes with our understanding, but if abstract visual doodles are created, the <strong>words turn into images</strong> and the brain gets visual support for the audio information.</p>

The Art Of Doodling

<ul>
<li>Any lesson or presentation (just like those school classes when doodling was a sin!) is a great time to doodle.</li>
<li>Any place is a great place to doodle, be it a whiteboard, a notepad, or even on our hands.</li>
<li>Our drawing ability, handwriting, or the quality of our ‘art’ is not a consideration, as doodling will help the mind work better in any case.</li>
</ul>

Doodling: When, Where and How

<h2 dir="ltr">The author of <em dir="ltr">The Doodle Revolution</em> explains how this common “time waster” is really a creative launch-pad.
</h2><figure><picture><source media="(max-width: 40em)"><img alt="Info-Doodles contain both words and images. Brown recommends them instead of traditional note-taking." srcset="https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_562, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/c_limit, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/f_auto, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/q_auto, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/fl_lossy/fc/3034356-slide-s-7-draw-your-way-out-of-any-problem-with-the-doodle-revolution.jpg 562w, https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_937, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/c_limit, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/f_auto, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/q_auto, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034356/fl_lossy/fc/3034356-slide-s-7-draw-your-way-out-of-any-problem-with-the-doodle-revolution.jpg 937w" width="537" height="397"></picture></figure><div class="caption" dir="ltr"><span dir="ltr">1</span><span dir="ltr">/16</span> Info-Doodles contain both words and images. Brown recommends them instead of traditional note-taking.</div><p>Did your boss ever catch you covering an important memo with Escher-like scribbles? In high school, did your teacher call you out for drawing on the desk, your sneakers, your skin? Today, the doodle nay-sayers are being drowned out by a growing body of research and opinion that indicates that connects that seemingly distracted scribbling with greater info retention and creativity. Companies like Dell, and Zappos, and Disney are eager for employees to doodle on the job–they even pay consultants to help them.</p><div>advertisement</div><p dir="ltr">“I can’t tell you how important it is to draw,” says Sunni Brown, whose creative consultancy <a href="http://sunnibrown.com/" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">Sunni Brown Ink</a>, teaches “applied visual thinking”– a.k.a doodling–to coders, designers, and even journalists. “It gets the neurons to fire and expands the mind.” Just why and how this happens is the topic of Brown’s recent book, <em dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Doodle-Revolution-Unlock-Differently/dp/1591845882?tag=wwwfccom-20" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">The Doodle Revolution</a></em>. Here, she shares her doodling “dos.”</p><figure><img alt="" width="447" height="447" src="https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/fc/3034356-inline-s-4-draw-your-way-out-of-any-problem-with-the-doodle-revolution.png"></figure><h2>Why Doodle</h2><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.1561/epdf?referrer_access_token=2tVdFJAZgBAvnwixYsRo504keas67K9QMdWULTWMo8Mxj7mPKVFnRVp2iP2ZOpgQ4Xl9R0Gsn8ZoAy6CsfV-dlHRPdvQPAO4jTaKYmDVE-n8eeLzY85ked2WdO0lI7LLrKyPMReDs3hCjoU__n2G0P9MtqL38cf12ug8oaLmqC3JxeqBpoBPU4vpxt2TDXz5pkx6ByZPEdLGtc87kVlsFaa_VrO9QzJcfIFB89rAJFHxYBklAUOEYu4RG5y9KMtMpVbp7fKpQKpmMy3WaUd8EQ%3D%3D" dir="ltr">Studies have shown</a> that doodling can free up short- and long-term memory, improve content retention and increase attention span. It can also <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61496-7/fulltext" dir="ltr">produce creative insight</a>, because “when the mind starts to engage with visual language, you get neurological access that you don’t have when you’re in a linguistic mode,” says Brown. Most of us use reading, writing, and talking to brainstorm, but “the human mind is very habit forming,” she says. To break that habit, you have to think in an unfamiliar medium–a visual medium.</p><h2>What To Doodle</h2><p>These Brown-recommended doodling exercises will help you rethink the familiar and make unexpected connections.</p><p dir="ltr"><strong dir="ltr">“Atomization.”</strong> Take an object and visually break it down into its tiniest parts. If you start with the word “racoon,” you might draw claws, a robber’s mask and a trash can. As Brown says, “any element of a raccoon–its body or environment–becomes a way of looking at the animal that you didn’t think about” when you considered it as a whole.</p><p dir="ltr"><strong dir="ltr">“Game-Storming.”</strong> Take two unrelated things, like elephants and ice cream, and draw them in their atomized parts. Then create drawings that randomly fuse these parts together. Like trunk-cones or melting ears. Brown has used this technique to help journalists think up unique story angles.</p><p dir="ltr"><strong dir="ltr">“Process Map.”</strong> Having trouble thinking through a problem? Create a visual display that illustrates (literally) the sequence of events. Brown calls this a “cause and effect doodle.” Sometimes, looking at pictures can help your brain make sense of a complex system better than words.</p><div>advertisement</div><figure><img alt="" width="798" height="798" src="https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/fc/3034356-inline-i-2-draw-your-way-out-of-any-problem-with-the-doodle-revolution.png"><figcaption dir="auto">JFK, word doodling “Fidel Castro”</figcaption></figure><h2>When To Doodle</h2><p>A lesson or presentation is a particularly great time to doodle. “Few of us can effectively take point-by-point linguistic notes while listening to people talk, because the auditory information competes with the written information,” says Brown. But visual attention is like a learning loophole; it doesn’t compete with what we hear. That’s why doodling in school can actually help you learn. Brown says that abstract doodling is great for these occasions, as are “info-doodles”–a combination of images and key words.</p><p>Of course, words are images. “But with language, there are too many tiny images crammed together, so the brain chokes up,” says Brown. “The optimal scenario for trying to learn a subject seems to be partly visual, partly linguistic. If gives your brain two layers of richness.”</p><h2>Where To Doodle</h2><p>The answer, according to Brown, is anywhere. “When I work with companies, the room has to be almost 80% white space, and if they don’t have it, we design it for them,” she says. This isn’t just about helping CEOs unlock their inner child. It’s about creating a fully immersive learning environment. “Your mind only has a certain capacity for storing information, so it’s important to have a physically large playing field for the brain to consider different visual possibilities.” Therefore, Brown encourages people to “draw on the floor, on each other, on table tops.”</p><figure><img alt="" width="481" height="481" src="https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/fc/3034356-inline-i-1-draw-your-way-out-of-any-problem-with-the-doodle-revolution.png"></figure><h2>How to Doodle</h2><p>Your ability to accurately render a cow or tree does not make doodling a more effective creative tool. “It’s not art class,” says Brown. But it does help to have a visual alphabet. Like the ABCs, Brown teaches her clients 12 basic shapes–including dots, lines, angles, spirals, and triangles. “When you have that alphabet available to you, you start to break the world down into visual components. A tree becomes a line with a bunch of other lines branching off.” Soon, you realize that you can draw almost any object–or an approximation of it. Doodling works the best when it’s spontaneous, which means your brain can’t be worrying about how to sketch that rocket ship. All that matters, says Brown, is that your doodles “let you see something that you didn’t see before.”</p><h4>About the author</h4><div dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Jennifer Miller is the author of <a href="http://www.byjennifermiller.com/p/year-of-gadfly.html" dir="ltr">The Year of the Gadfly</a> (Harcourt, 2012) and Inheriting The Holy Land (Ballantine, 2005). She's a regular contributor to Co.Create.</p><p dir="ltr"> <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/user/jennifer-miller" dir="ltr">More</a></p></div>

The author of <em>The Doodle Revolution</em> explains how this common “time waster” is really a creative launch-pad.


The author of  The Doodle Revolution  explains how this common “time waster” is really a creative launch-pad.

<p>Did your boss ever catch you covering an important memo with Escher-like scribbles? In high school, did your teacher call you out for drawing on the desk, your sneakers, your skin? Today, the doodle nay-sayers are being drowned out by a growing body of research and opinion that indicates that connects that seemingly distracted scribbling with greater info retention and creativity. Companies like Dell, and Zappos, and Disney are eager for employees to doodle on the job–they even pay consultants to help them. </p>

<p dir="ltr">“I can’t tell you how important it is to draw,” says Sunni Brown, whose creative consultancy <a dir="ltr" href="http://sunnibrown.com/" rel="noopener">Sunni Brown Ink </a>, teaches “applied visual thinking”– a.k.a doodling–to coders, designers, and even journalists. “It gets the neurons to fire and expands the mind.” Just why and how this happens is the topic of Brown’s recent book, <em dir="ltr"><a dir="ltr" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Doodle-Revolution-Unlock-Differently/dp/1591845882?tag=wwwfccom-20" rel="noopener">The Doodle Revolution </a> </em>. Here, she shares her doodling “dos.” </p>

<p dir="ltr"><a dir="ltr" href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.1561/epdf?referrer_access_token=2tVdFJAZgBAvnwixYsRo504keas67K9QMdWULTWMo8Mxj7mPKVFnRVp2iP2ZOpgQ4Xl9R0Gsn8ZoAy6CsfV-dlHRPdvQPAO4jTaKYmDVE-n8eeLzY85ked2WdO0lI7LLrKyPMReDs3hCjoU__n2G0P9MtqL38cf12ug8oaLmqC3JxeqBpoBPU4vpxt2TDXz5pkx6ByZPEdLGtc87kVlsFaa_VrO9QzJcfIFB89rAJFHxYBklAUOEYu4RG5y9KMtMpVbp7fKpQKpmMy3WaUd8EQ%3D%3D">Studies have shown </a>that doodling can free up short- and long-term memory, improve content retention and increase attention span. It can also <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61496-7/fulltext">produce creative insight </a>, because “when the mind starts to engage with visual language, you get neurological access that you don’t have when you’re in a linguistic mode,” says Brown. Most of us use reading, writing, and talking to brainstorm, but “the human mind is very habit forming,” she says. To break that habit, you have to think in an unfamiliar medium–a visual medium. </p>

<p>These Brown-recommended doodling exercises will help you rethink the familiar and make unexpected connections. </p>

<p dir="ltr"><strong dir="ltr">“Atomization.” </strong>Take an object and visually break it down into its tiniest parts. If you start with the word “racoon,” you might draw claws, a robber’s mask and a trash can. As Brown says, “any element of a raccoon–its body or environment–becomes a way of looking at the animal that you didn’t think about” when you considered it as a whole. </p>

<p dir="ltr"><strong dir="ltr">“Game-Storming.” </strong>Take two unrelated things, like elephants and ice cream, and draw them in their atomized parts. Then create drawings that randomly fuse these parts together. Like trunk-cones or melting ears. Brown has used this technique to help journalists think up unique story angles. </p>

<p dir="ltr"><strong dir="ltr">“Process Map.” </strong>Having trouble thinking through a problem? Create a visual display that illustrates (literally) the sequence of events. Brown calls this a “cause and effect doodle.” Sometimes, looking at pictures can help your brain make sense of a complex system better than words. </p>

<p>A lesson or presentation is a particularly great time to doodle. “Few of us can effectively take point-by-point linguistic notes while listening to people talk, because the auditory information competes with the written information,” says Brown. But visual attention is like a learning loophole; it doesn’t compete with what we hear. That’s why doodling in school can actually help you learn. Brown says that abstract doodling is great for these occasions, as are “info-doodles”–a combination of images and key words. </p>

<p>Of course, words are images. “But with language, there are too many tiny images crammed together, so the brain chokes up,” says Brown. “The optimal scenario for trying to learn a subject seems to be partly visual, partly linguistic. If gives your brain two layers of richness.” </p>

<p>The answer, according to Brown, is anywhere. “When I work with companies, the room has to be almost 80% white space, and if they don’t have it, we design it for them,” she says. This isn’t just about helping CEOs unlock their inner child. It’s about creating a fully immersive learning environment. “Your mind only has a certain capacity for storing information, so it’s important to have a physically large playing field for the brain to consider different visual possibilities.” Therefore, Brown encourages people to “draw on the floor, on each other, on table tops.” </p>

<p>Your ability to accurately render a cow or tree does not make doodling a more effective creative tool. “It’s not art class,” says Brown. But it does help to have a visual alphabet. Like the ABCs, Brown teaches her clients 12 basic shapes–including dots, lines, angles, spirals, and triangles. “When you have that alphabet available to you, you start to break the world down into visual components. A tree becomes a line with a bunch of other lines branching off.” Soon, you realize that you can draw almost any object–or an approximation of it. Doodling works the best when it’s spontaneous, which means your brain can’t be worrying about how to sketch that rocket ship. All that matters, says Brown, is that your doodles “let you see something that you didn’t see before.” </p>

<p dir="ltr">Jennifer Miller is the author of <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.byjennifermiller.com/p/year-of-gadfly.html">The Year of the Gadfly </a>(Harcourt, 2012) and Inheriting The Holy Land (Ballantine, 2005). She's a regular contributor to Co.Create. </p>

Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Here’s Why, How, And What You Should Doodle To Boost Your Memory And Creativity

Doodling And Creativity

Doodling: A Visual Aid For Engagement

The Art Of Doodling

Doodling: When, Where and How

The Mental Health Benefits of Doodling

Have you fallen for the myth of 'I can't draw'? Do it anyway – and reap the rewards

How to Master Creativity and Uncover Your Creative Genius

Bite‑sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Here’s Why, How, And What You Should Doodle To Boost Your Memory And Creativity

Doodling And Creativity

Doodling: A Visual Aid For Engagement

The Art Of Doodling

Doodling: When, Where and How

The Mental Health Benefits of Doodling

Have you fallen for the myth of 'I can't draw'? Do it anyway – and reap the rewards

How to Master Creativity and Uncover Your Creative Genius

Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career