THE LOOP
Doodle on, Doodlers
Good news! There have been many studies that confirm that doodling is indeed, good for you. There's even an entire department of people at Google with a job title of "Doodler" who make the Google doodles you see on the Google homepage on holidays. This is important stuff we're talking about here, people.
If you walk by my desk at any given point you'll probably see a few different notebooks (I'm a serial list-maker) that are littered with doodles. I find that if I'm doing something tedious, taking a break to doodle something every once in a while helps me refocus myself. Aside from being a focusing tool, doodling has been found to help with problem-solving. It engages different parts of the brain, so you may reach your "a-ha moment" while doodling.
Something else that's interesting is the fact that we stopped drawing at all. As we grow up, drawing and doodling is engrained in us. It's something we would do for fun! At some point or another (for most of us) drawing became something that was too daunting. BUT doodling and drawing is linked to learning and effectively processing information... so let's bring it back.
Moral of the story: don't be afraid to doodle!
Because, science.
Good and Bad Procrastination (Part 1 of 2)
I recently came across this essay by Paul Graham that I thought was a fascinating perspective on procrastination and how some forms of procrastination can actually be a good thing and ultimately help you reach higher aspirations.
He makes an interesting point that most people write about how to cure procrastination but in fact, it’s impossible to do as there is an infinite amount of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you’re not working on everything else. This leads to the question of not how to avoid procrastination but how to procrastinate well.
He outlines three types of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. The author argues that the last option is good procrastination.
His example of the type-C procrastinator is the “absent-minded professor” who forgets to shave, or eat, or even look where he’s going while he’s thinking about some interesting question. The type-C procrastinators put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff. Small stuff is essentially anything that might be called an errand or a temporarily inconsequential task like doing your laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning the house (I’m a bit of a neat freak so I struggle with putting this one off), mowing the lawn, etc.
Despite potentially annoying the people who want you to do the errands, the reason it may pay off is that real work needs two things errands don’t: long stretches of time and the right mood. If you suddenly get inspired by a project or big idea, it can be a net win to disregard everything you were supposed to do for the next couple days to work on it. Those errands may ultimately take more time when you finally get around to them but if you accomplish a lot during those few days, you will net more productivity in the end.
Artsy Shmartsy
"I have no idea what's going on but I like _____ about this."
Or, "this piece makes me feel ____."
Or, "how does this apply to me and to my life?"
