I seem to have taken up doodling again. Maybe I'm not as interested in long meetings as I used to be. But they say people who doodle actually pay better attention than people who don't. I'm not so sure.

One thing I do know: Doodling is part of a creative process that spreads to envelop much more than its place in my notebook. I love the surprises - a #1 appears without intention or forethought. The word engage captures my attention over a half-hour of listening to a financial report. In fact, I go back to it the next day during another meeting, this time an after-event debriefing, to add more embellishments. After a two-hour meeting during which I've been doodling, I'm not only not bored, I'm looking for the unexpected, listening for the relevant word. I am noticeably more open, more engaged with a process that sees and hears the world through a quirky, kaleidoscope lens.

For years I have carried around a composition book which I refer to as "my brain."  I can't manage more than one of these at a time, so everything I do gets recorded in one book: to-do lists, grocery lists, meeting notes, phone numbers, random thoughts, passwords and screen names, hand-drawn maps and diagrams, and so on.  Lately I discovered I could buy unlined composition books online, so I bought a dozen. They are much better at encouraging doodling, writing crosswise on the page, and thinking outside the box. The resulting mix of words and images also helps me remember where things are. Where is the information about my old car? Oh yes, it's inside the oriental rug in the upper left-hand corner of the #1 page.  Doodling organizes "my brain" in more ways than one.

I think doodling might be contagious. I see people sneaking peeks at my doodles. I hope they try some of their own.