This is one of a series of blogs on problem solving, creative thinking and creativity to support a number of public and in-house training courses on the subject with regards to strategy and business development. Please let me know (kim@kimtasso.com) if you would like further details of half and full day workshops or services to design and facilitate sessions.
Anyone who has attended one of my training sessions will know that I positively encourage doodling. I think doodling is good! In fact, I think it’s great. Most people think that this is reverse psychology in that by promoting it, people will avoid doing it! I am a compulsive doodler which is why I often divert my energy into the generally more acceptable activity of copious note-taking.
However, I was delighted to see recent evidence that doodling is actually a constructive activity which underpins the argument for its value. Doodling increases attention, so doodlers retain more information than those who don’t doodle. It appears that doodling replaces daydreaming which does lead to forgetting.
In creative thinking, doodling helps you move away from purely verbal thinking to use images and colours and visualisation which can support breakthrough thinking.
I’ve also noticed an increase in doodling videos to liven up otherwise text-based web sites.
Earlier blogs (see, for example, http://kimtasso.com/creativity-5-books-creativity/ ) make suggestions for further reading to improve your drawing ability – and not just to make your doodles more attractive.
