I found this article on the BBC website which was quite interesting.
Doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind, a study suggests.
Plymouth University researchers carried out memory tests on 40 volunteers, asking them to listen to a phone call and recall names and places.
Doodlers performed 29% better than non-doodlers, the team found.
Experts said doodling stopped people from daydreaming, which was a more taxing diversion, and so was good at helping people focus on mundane tasks.
Professor Alan Badeley, from the British Psychological Society, said: “Doodling is a relatively undemanding task so this makes sense.
“The temptation during meetings or telephone conversations that you are not particularly engaged with is to start thinking about things. You visualise things such as holidays.
“That then takes you away from the task at hand. Or you may even end up nodding off.
“However, by comparison, doodling is not that taxing and keeps you more alert so you are more likely to absorb what is being said.”
