Try Painting When You’re Stuck on a Big Project or Need to Relax.
A quick look at any of my school notebooks will prove I’m a terrible artist, but not because I didn’t try.
Regardless of the subject, I often drew while listening to school lectures. Even today, my desk is littered with to-do lists of amateur drawings of flowers, dogs, and trees. It turns out that all these drawings can actually make me more productive.
Research shows that drawing, as a careless drawing of a picture, rather than trying to create a piece of art, can help improve your memory and cognition, make you more creative, and help you relax, Fast Company reports .
Research shows that when we draw, we actually pay more attention and remember more of the information presented. This can be especially helpful for the elderly. While this can obviously vary depending on the situation, it is promising information.
The researchers say that drawing doodles can be compared to writing notes, rather than typing them. You will engage multiple senses, which will generally increase your awareness.
And there should be nothing special about these scribbles. Even simply drawing a shape around a word can help cement it in your memory, and drawing a curved line on the page for a minute or two may be enough to help you relax.
If you start to get overwhelmed at work or get stuck with a solution for a project, give it a try, it might be exactly what you need.