No more calls, please, we have a survey. (Usually I hate that phrase as it is so often used as a weapon.) You are not allowed to have an opinion these days if it contradicts a survey I heard of that says ...
I am in the final stages of prepping my brainstorming book (HATCH!) for publishing. It occurred to me that since I encourage (strongly) everyone in my workshops to use visual note taking (doodling) : "This book needs a chapter on the power of doodling in ALL note taking.
WHY? According to various scientific and psychological researchers "visual not taking" (a.k.a. doodling) increases retention 29 - 60 %. One problem I am encountering in adding this new chapter to my book: There is just too much to show-n-tell.
The new chapter will include McNair's Field Guide to Doodling Gooder. Now I'm thinking about collecting other people's doodled notes (especially folks in my seminars) and publishing an on line, eBook (PDF), that will be an expanded version of the new chapter: The Doodle Factor. I am having great fun with this. (Just when I thought the book was done.) My doodle guide is to assist anyone at any level to take their stick people and fun lettering to the next level ... of three.
Fact is that 75% of all learning occurs visually. Of our five senses just one, seeing, is our primary learning tool. As children we draw ... everything ... all the time. We are learning and recording what we observe. We are "taking notes" with the only language we had at the time, doodling. We had not yet learned that some people CAN draw and most people can NOT draw so we drew, and drew, and drew. Later we often heard from our parents, "Use your grown up words." (Rather than babbling or "baby talk.")
I say, now that you know your grown up words, use your drawing. It does not matter how simple, basic, child-like your doodlers are, they are yours. The evidence ("... we have a survey") shows that doddle while listening increases retention 29-60% and that people who add visuals to their note taking retain up to 90% better than those who merely write words.
There are many examples of this in science. Two of the best: Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison. The art world will tell you that it is difficult to fully appreciate da Vinci's thousands of drawings without also examining his science and inventions. Many of those famous pages are more art than words. In Edison's lab journals there is page upon page filled with virtually ONLY his drawings. From those doodles Edison has more than one thousand patents. You needn't be an artist at all to add arrows, color, boxes (framing key information), stars, big playful lettering and (yes even) stick figures to your notes.
Now here's the real news, and you are NOT going to believe this, so I will give you some sources of the info so that you can read up and decide for yourself. This will be counter intuitve to all you believe: doodling increases listen and retention skills.(And it has the added benefit of being fun.)
Professor Jackie Andrade (Plymouth University in Great Britain) published a great article in Applied Cognitive Psychology (Vol.24, Issue 1) entitled "What Does Doodling Do?" WIRED magazine online wrote about it HERE. You can download a PDF of the full article HERE on www.bigdoodles.com.
This is pretty amazing stuff and will assist you with your artistic child who doodles in class and the teachers complain, "Her mind wanders ... she's a daydreamer." You may want to print a few copies of Prof. Andrade's article to "share" with those "concerned" teachers.
[ LEFT :: my notes from a recent seminar I attended. It's a typical page from any of my 150+ sketchbooks.]
No surprise that I have gotten into more than a little difficulty with teachers over my doodling: in class, on my notes, and on my homework. My "art" always related to my homework—which I pointed out, but they did not see it my way. Especially when the assignment in fourth grade was to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and write a book report. Sitting on the floor of the endless stacks in the Pasadena main branch library, a librarian asked why I was reading Tom Sawyer.
"I have to." I said. "Homework."
"Was the assignment Tom Sawyer or Mark Twain?" She asked.
"Tom Sawyer."
"Okay." She started to walk away. "But Huck Finn is better."
When she left I grabbed a copy of The Adventures of Huck Finn. I checked them both out, started to read Tom, got bored, read Huck (more adventurous by far.) Twain should have called them the The Adventures of Huck Finn and Some Stuff Tom Sawyer Did. I wrote my book report (with illustrations) on Huck.
It was the first time I had even seen, or received, a grade with two letters: A-/C: the A minus was for the report and the C was for not reading the assigned book. I asked Miss Douglas, "What's my grade for my illustrations?" She grabbed my paper and added a third grade—the only three letter grade I ever received: A-/C/B+.
"B+?" I said.
"You can draw better than that." She said. Next time I did. And have ever since. Doodle on!
Do you doodle in your notes? Send me a photo or scan and I might included it in my book or the eBook edition. And there will no doubt be a part deux on this subject in this blog.
If you have an iPhone or iPad go now and download the FREE app: Genius Scan. You can scan (shoot with your built in camera), enhance, crop, email ... anything. The art in this article (my art) were both in one of my sketchbooks and captured, sized and transferred using Genius Scan.(Actually the stick man at top was on a napkin and Genius Scan captured it.)
Some of my favorite "just doodles" were done quickly and when I didn't care about the outcome. Doodling is not a test. Learn not to care.
(Left: Two-page spread from another of my sketchbooks: An outdoor cafe in central Madrid, Nov. 2005 ... and train tickets. I drew it for the bright red scarf and giant cup of cafe con leche. Oh, great, now I want one.)
