Stick figure cartoons, animals, fairytale creatures - if you think all that belongs to school notebooks and have no room in a corporate boardroom, think again. Those doodles probably helped you get through a tough day at school. The good news is that they can get you through a tough day at work and much more. Here’s how.

A creative energy channel

Art of any kind works as a therapy, no matter how bad ‘you’ think you are at it. A study by Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association corroborates that. Just 45 minutes of creative release is enough to relieve physical and mental stress, regardless of your skill level.

Doodles help you take your mind off troublesome issues at work, or in your personal life. You are completely engrossed in the doodle and that acts as an escape hatch from any stressful environment. Even the tiniest of escapes at such moments can help improve your mood and help you let go of whatever is bothering you.

Natural cognitive enhancer

Not only is doodling fun, it can unlock your cognitive memory and help you retain information better. According to a study by the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodlers are better equipped to recall pieces of information that are otherwise dull for everyone else. It’s like their brain is running on a treadmill instead of relaxing on a beach. Doodlers are what psychologists call visual learners, they can relate to images better than text or spoken word.

Productivity enhancer

No matter how much your school teachers detested doodling in the classroom (and they were perhaps right about it because you were supposed to pay attention in the classroom), doodling isn’t a waste of your time. The fact is, it makes you much more productive than those who do not indulge in similar activities.

Doodling helps you to calm your thoughts down while your brain is being bombarded with information. And when you have a calm mind, you can focus better and that in turn, increases your productivity manifold.

Source of awesome ideas

Our brains are hardwired to produce ideas. But most of the time, the entrance to this idea factory remains blocked by some kind of protest march. Relax, that’s just a metaphor. The point is, while doodling, the creative blocks to your brain are brought down like bowling pins and your mind can go back to its natural state of producing new ideas in a trance like state. Doodling helps you get into your comfort zone and allows an unhindered flow of ideas.

Everyone doodles. Some do it openly, some secretly; some draw visually delightful Rembrandts, some draw stick figure comic strips - but, everyone has doodled at some point in time. Whether one turns out to be an artist or a creative designer or a banker, doodling is just about the art of letting your thoughts loose and into uncharted, perhaps even into fantastical planes of creativity. Some people might think of it as a complete waste of time also. But the fact is that doodling can have a big, positive impact on how your day turn out to be. So do yourself a big favor and keep doodling.