Danny ChaiJieun doodles when she listens. To lectures, sermons, whatever. In the past, it used to bother me, because it felt to me like she was not fully paying attention. Because I can’t do that, two things at once. I can’t listen to music while I work. I can’t have the TV on in the background while doing anything else. And I can’t doodle while listening to something; my mind can only focus on one thing at a time. So I assumed the same of Jieun, that she wasn’t really paying attention when she doodled. But she insisted that doodling actually helped her focus more.
Well lo and behold, a recent TED talk argues that doodling does in fact facilitate better comprehension. As happens a lot, Jieun is proved right by science. Who knew. So maybe my endless drawings of Wolverine and Batman during youth group sermons served a greater purpose after all.