Bored? Chances are you just grabbed your phone and checked out social media before clicking this message. Before the days of social media and 10-second cat videos, though, procrastination often came in the form of a pencil and doodling in a notebook. For all the glorious distraction that technology brings to our lives, it may be time to put away the electronic devices and reach for our sketchbooks next time we’re bored. This is because recent research has shown that doodling can actually be good for our attention. Participants in a 2009 investigation listened to a ‘monotonous mock telephone message’. Half of the group doodled as they listened and the other half didn’t. Their memories were then tested after the call. The group that doodled surprisingly recalled 29% more information. Doodling, unsurprisingly, may relieve psychological distress. One of the benefits of doodling is that it can relieve stress, which itself impairs our ability to pay attention and to focus on the task at hand. Going even further down the rabbit hole, our improvised, unplanned sketches may also provide a window into our subconscious. Dr. Robert Burns, a former director of the Institute for Human Development at the University of Seattle, believes that doodles can be used to diagnose a patient’s emotional problems. So, far from being the artistic equivalent of an incoherent ramble, a doodle may serve as a very useful therapeutic tool. According to Burns, ‘even at their simplest, the idle jottings we repeat in the margins of our notebooks can evoke childhood memories and associations that provide clues even to our obsessions.’ The Oxford dictionary defines a doodle as something that was scribbled absent-mindedly. While it’s true that your mind may not be fully engaged on what you’re jotting down on that notebook, it’s become clear that so much more is going on beneath the surface. So next time you’re boredom tempts you to scroll through cat pics, try doodling those cats instead. #advertising #beautifulburnout #gedankenbubbles #marionjunelenz #christmascountdown #christmasmood #quotes #memes #christmassprit #christmasfeeling #christmascalendar #tipsandtricks https://www.instagram.com/p/CIU5jizAGBg/?igshid=hnav9ij5hgf4
