Nov 25, 2015
What if I told you the only way I found to write this article and getting over a writer’s block was doodling some psychedelic landscape like kids do?
Why? Because there’s nothing like neuroscience to help us understand how to work faster and better without losing our mind over our job.
Today we know exactly how our brain processes in-depth information. There are four ways learners intake information: visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic. For us to absorb the information, we need to engage at least two of these modalities, or one pattern coupled with emotion as an alternative. Doodling employs the four modalities plus emotions.
So has this something to do with the creative left side of the brain? Not really, and the analytical, rational people out there might like the reason why:
The University of Utah debunked the myth of left and right side of the brain. Using a technique called resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fcMRI), Dr Jeff Anderson successfully demonstrated that although the two sides of the brain have different functions, we do not use one more than the other one.
Dr Anderson, the lead author of the study, says:
“It’s true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people don’t tend to have a stronger left or right-sided brain network.”
So how does doodling help in using the collective brain? Apparently, this activity engages networks in the brain that would ordinarily go dormant without external stimuli to keep it active. It helps to improve creativity and memory, and a study involving 40 members of the research panel of the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge shows that individuals who kept their brain active through doodling while listening to lists of names were able to recall the lists 29% better than participants who did not.
More importantly, doodling can reduce stress and increase productivity and wellbeing at work. Some weeks ago, I met with Alicia Nees, Founder of art tape colouring books, and started to use her desk mats on a daily basis.
In a time in which colouring books for adults are best sellers in every bookshop, I found the arttapi products to stand out with their Desk Mats.
The arttapi desk mat is a patented design, offering an open faced notepad style colouring book with a non-slip mouse pad base to restrict it from sliding. The concept was created to provide readily accessible colouring while you work without adding any additional clutter to your already busy workspace.
Colouring (and doodling) on the Desk Mats helps you to concentrate during business hours, whether is during a long meeting, a phone call, or simply to have a five-minute break.
In a moment in which companies finally understand the importance of wellbeing and health in the workplace. Arrtapi created the perfect product to support employers and employees.
According to Educational Psychologist, Dr Mandy Ellis “There is a growing body of research into the cognitive benefits of doodling helping the brain to stay focused, retain information and grasp new concepts. Often when trying to engage your concentration for an extended period, the brain can drift off into a daydream. Where daydreaming has been found to engage a person’s executive functioning, (that is their higher order of thinking and planning) which detracts from their capacity to focus and retain or acquire new information, research shows that doodling requires very few of these higher order processes, thereby enabling people to free up enough brain space to allow for new learning and being able to pay attention in a more relaxed state”
Impact on Productivity
The financial impact on business in Australia through absenteeism is very significant, and it’s in the best interest of the employer to encourage cognitive wellness in the workplace, the arrtapi desk mats are an important resource to support wellness and encourage productivity in a natural way. Numerous studies have shown that stress is at the source of many physical and mental conditions. We all know how diet and exercise are essential for our wellbeing, and the ability to relax and unplug from everyday worries is just as important. Colouring books are the perfect tool to relax in busy times.
I’ve been using colouring books for months, I remember seeing a picture on Instagram and immediately went to the bookshop and bought my first colouring book. I have used it pretty much every day since then – on the train to work, at home before going to bed, it helped me getting through a horrible red eye from Bali, and now I have this mouse pad where I can colour on. It’s amazing.
I do meditate on a daily basis, and I don’t want to define this as a meditative tool, but it’s similar. It helps to relax, it helps concentration, and it helps whenever I am stuck on a project and can’t get my head around it. Although I still feel silly sometimes when I colour at my desk, I also know it’s helping me out with my creativity.
I am also well aware of the criticism around this product, one of the things I keep hearing is “I don’t have time to do something like this at work”. And you’ll hear the same about the gym, yoga, meditation, eating healthy or taking a lunch break, but we all have the time to stop and actually feel refreshed and ready to work again. That’s why we have weekends, that’s why we have holidays. We do need breaks, and if we don’t take them, if we think that working as much as we can without taking time for ourselves can be in anyway helpful towards our job or our health, then we are going to lack in productivity. How many times have you been in the office until late and achieved very little?
As studies show, its not about the time you spend doing the job, its about the quality, so take some minutes for yourself to do something you loved doing when you were younger. You might discover a new way to get through your day.
