How doodling can improve your life

”Life is art, live yours in color!”

Ever since I was a kid my favourite way to take notes or listen to somebody was drawing. Enough said that the educational system (aka teachers) was not my biggest fan. So my notebooks turn into calligraphy lessons. As an adult I return to doodles every time I feel out of my comfort zone.

As part of my Flipchart Design Training I teach people how to turn words in images and then how to draw them. Not MonaLisa style, but close enough so that anyone that sees the visual representation to understand the message. Why doodling is important in a meeting or in a training? Well, let me give you several reasons:

1. First of all doodling helps you boost your creativity. Being able to imagine pictures and make connection between words and graphic representation it will help your brain to create new pattern and to seek new opportunities and ways to handle when in a crisis.
2. Doodling helps you become a better listener. In order to draw what you hear you need to train your listening skill - to focus and doodle just the essential of the conversation so you get a boost on your critical thinking as well. You need to create connections and associations between what you hear and what you draw, versus just writing mindful.
3. Help you with your learning process. 80% of us are visual people, and we retain more information if we draw something rather than if we write it down. So if you write down the word bird versus drawing a bird - people will most likely remember you drawing and the symbol versus the word. More on the subject you can read in a paper drafted and published in Science by Shaaron Ainsworth that she made an experiment along side with 5 colleagues.
4. Helps you explain better. Sometimes people are having trouble understanding concepts so doodling them what do you mean it will smooth the communication and you can clear the miscommunication.

At the end of this month in Prague for Toastmasters residential weekend I will have a 50 minutes workshop on Flipchart Design and how people can use doodles to improve their lives - as trainers, as speakers or just to create better relations. Until then I would love to receive your doodles :) and if you are following me on Instagram you can learn how to add small drawings in your daily life.