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Today I came across an interesting article in the Time magazin about an experiment that shows that if you doodle during a meeting or presentation you are able to remember more details afterwards.
And that reminded me of an interesting post of Jeff Cobb on his blog Mission to Learn about taking notes. Are you a note-taker? I have to confess: Yes I am!
I was always taking notes during my school years and the law studies. And even today, when I learn something I am always taking notes of what I learn. I go even further. After awhile I sit down and rewrite my notes again. This way I am able to remember almost everything.
Jeff describes his experience that brought him back to taking notes. He was watching some presentations he downloaded for a long flight on his iPod. This is what happened after he landed:
But then, as the plane was landing – a mere 15 minutes or so after I had stopped watching the presentations – I came to a disturbing realization: I had only the vaguest memory of what was covered in each lecture.
Do you know this feeling? I do. It’s like the information is still somewhere in your head but you only have a vague idea that is left. You cannot really remember the content.
Taking notes, reviewing notes, reflecting on notes is, in my opinion, one of the most basic steps any of us can take towards transforming our learning experiences into higher value.
I totally agree with this. As I said, I work a lot with my notes, I even rewrite them to sort my ideas. And I think this is the key factor. Reading a book, watching a presentation or a video is only the first step. If you review your own notes, sort the ideas that they match your own way of thinking and dealing with a problem is much more efficient than just learning given information.
Now what about doodling? We all know doodlers. Back in school they were those guys that never paid attention, right? Wrong! Can you remember, when the teacher tried to suprise them with a question of what the teacher said most of the time those doodlers knew the answer. So it ended like “Ok, that was luck. But now you stop doodling!”
Why did they knew the answer when they were obviousely not paying attention? Because they did. Maybe they did not know it but they did.
Psychologist Jackie Andrade showed that doodlers actually remember more than non-doodlers when asked to retain tediously delivered information, like, say, during a boring meeting or a lecture. [...]
Why does doodling aid memory? Andrade offers several theories, but the most persuasive is that when you doodle, you don’t daydream. Daydreaming may seem absentminded and pointless, but it actually demands a lot of the brain’s processing power. [...]
Doodling, by contrast, requires very few executive resources, but just enough cognitive effort to keep you from daydreaming, which — if unchecked — will jumpstart activity in cortical networks that will keep you from remembering what’s going on. [...]
You can read the whole story over here. On average the doodlers in this study were able to remember and astonishing 29% more of the information than the non doodlers! Wow, that’s something to think about!
So how can we combine these techniques? The study mentions that you don’t have to doodle, you can play with your pen or search for old chewing gums underneath the table as long as you are not starting to daydream.
What are your ideas?
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