I am a chronic doodler and i will not be stopped

by tatiana gallardo

I have an addiction. Every single time I am sitting in front of a sheet of paper – be it a page in a book, a napkin, a syllabus, a grocery list, maybe even a birth certificate – and I have a writing utensil in hand, I will begin to doodle. Boldly. Colorfully. Shamelessly.

However, my doodle past is not free of trauma. In elementary school, I recall with horror when my math teacher stopped her lesson to pull the pencil out of my hand mid-bird drawing.

"Tatiana, pay attention," she seethed. I was mortified. The kids around me giggled as my bird doodle lay depressingly wing-less on top of some long division homework. Even then, I was more indignant than I was embarrassed. Her command was unnecessary. I had been paying attention. In fact, doodling helps me concentrate even more than simply listening.

I swear I am not pulling this out of my ass. I've been citing this as fact ever since I saw a CBS Sunday Morning special on the higher purpose of doodling nine years ago. Those that are deep
Some of my past professors have thought I’m kidding when I say this. I'm not. In a 2009 Applied Cognitive Psychology study, doodlers remembered 29 percent more details from a lengthy voicemail recording compared to their non-doodling counterparts.

People may smirk at me mid-class, doodling away in my worn edition of "Hamlet,” but little do they know: I'm paying serious attention. My eyes may be on the paper in front of me, but my ears are open. And they're hearing everything.

Tatiana Gallardo | @vividtatiana