My notes in college were filled with nose people, bulblike silhouettes of noses decorated with expressive eyes, extravagant hair-doos and earrings. Some were happy, some were sad, even more were asleep.

To understand why I doodled, you have to understand that studying newspaper reporting is no where near as exciting as being a reporter, sitting in a classroom not as much fun as chasing a story. According to Jackie Andrade, psychology professor and doodle expert, you also have to understand what happens to the brain when it gets bored.
Many people assume their brains just go dark.

Not so.

“You wouldn’t want the brain to just switch off, because a bear might walk up behind you and attack you,” Andrade points out practically. “You need to be on the outlook for something happening.”

Your brain may be awake but on dim, and in workplaces and classrooms across the world, bored people often daydream. The trouble is we dream with multiple story lines.

Cue up my daydream about going to Hawaii. My girlfriend and I board the plane. She looks fabulous. Our hotel is right on the beach. By the time, we’ve gone horseback riding, snorkeling and seen a few sea turtles, I’ve missed half the lecture or training. If I want to remember what’s going on, running my inner fantasy is a bad idea. In contrast, Andrade says, doodling forces your brain “to expend just enough energy to stop it from daydreaming but not so much that you don’t pay attention.”

In a recent study, the professor proved her theory.

The participants, doodlers and non-doodlers, were subjected to a two-and-a-half minute voice mail so dull that, according to Time writer John Cloud, it should be considered by Guantanamo officials “as a method of nonlethal torture.”

The faux-speaker drones on about redecorating a kitchen, a sick cat, the weather, someone’s new house, and [my favorite] a vacation in Edinburgh involving museums and the rain. Buried in the message is a birthday invitation and the names of eight invitees and eight places.

Unconsciously marshalling their memory cells by shading in circles and squares, the doodlers creamed the non-doodlers in a post-tape pop quiz, which asked for names of places and partygoers.

After centuries of, shall we say, “discouraging” doodling in class, educators are also beginning to discover its value. A colleague and I recently spoke to eighth and ninth graders at Seattle Girls School. Minutes into our lecture on mental health, I couldn’t help but notice that many students were not making eye contact, were not even
trying to make eye contact, were, in fact, looking down to draw in their notebooks.

“Good God, we are dying up here,” I thought.

Strangely enough, however, the teens were managing to ask astute questions.

A mystery.

After the lecture, a teacher mentioned in passing that the girls were encouraged to doodle because, she said, “It helps them to remember.”

Obviously, they’re not alone.

Ronald Reagan drew cowboys and horses, NPR writer Alix Spiegel reports. He drew hearts as well.

At an economic summit four years ago, according to Spiegel, doodles purportedly belonging to Tony Blair just about did in his reputation as a prime minister. A journalist discovered notes “covered in circles and triangles, boxes and arrows.” A graphologist decided the doodler “was clearly struggling to maintain control in a confusing world” and “was not a natural leader….”

Like sharks circling for the kill, two other British newspapers published similar conclusions.

Egad.

No. 10 Downing Street set the world straight two days later. The originator of the rootless doodles innocently left them on the chair next to his.

The doodler was our own Bill Gates.

What if the doodles had belonged to the Prime Minister and, hanging in the closet of his mind, are panicked thoughts about feeling hapless in a confusing world?

Don’t we all have those these days?

Or is it just me? And Bill Gates.

Anyway, next time you feel discouraged because nose people, architectural designs, three-headed monsters, flowers, and other abstract symbols have once again invaded your notes, realize you’re in good company.