Doodling might help you focus in some situations, but the evidence is more mixed than most people think. A well-known 2009 study found that doodlers recalled 29% more information from a boring phone message than non-doodlers. But more recent research paints a complicated picture, with some experiments finding no focus or memory benefits at all.
The Study That Started the Hype
Psychologist Jackie Andrade at the University of Plymouth asked 40 people to listen to a dull, rambling voicemail lasting two and a half minutes. Half shaded in shapes on paper while listening, and half just listened. Nobody was told their memory would be tested afterward. The doodlers recalled an average of 7.5 details (names and places) compared to 5.8 in the control group, a 29% advantage.
The proposed explanation is straightforward: boring tasks leave your brain under-stimulated, which opens the door to daydreaming. Daydreaming consumes a lot of mental bandwidth. Doodling, by contrast, uses just enough cognitive resources to keep your brain slightly engaged without competing with the main task. It fills the gap that daydreaming would otherwise occupy.
When Doodling Doesn’t Help
The Andrade study used a very specific setup: a monotonous audio message and extremely simple doodling (shading in pre-drawn shapes). When researchers have tested doodling in more realistic settings, the results look different. A study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology had participants doodle (both structured and unstructured) while watching a lecture, then tested their recall. Neither type of doodling improved memory compared to simply listening. Note-taking, on the other hand, significantly outperformed every other condition.
The same study measured mind-wandering directly and found no difference between doodlers and passive listeners. Note-takers mind-wandered far less than all other groups. This matters because mind-wandering prevention is the main theoretical reason doodling should help. If doodling isn’t actually reducing mind-wandering, the mechanism falls apart.
The type of doodling also matters. When researchers compared structured doodling (filling in patterns or shapes) to unstructured doodling (drawing whatever comes to mind), unstructured doodling actually led to worse recall in one study. The likely reason: creating your own drawings requires thought and decision-making, which pulls attention away from whatever you’re supposed to be listening to. A structured, repetitive pattern keeps your hands busy without demanding creative input.
Why It Still Works for Some People
The research isn’t entirely negative, and the disconnect between studies likely comes down to context. Doodling seems most helpful when the task is genuinely boring and passive, like sitting through a long phone call or waiting in a meeting where you’re not actively participating. In those moments, the alternative isn’t focused attention. It’s zoning out completely. A simple, repetitive doodle can keep you tethered to the room.
For people with ADHD, doodling falls into a broader category of sensory-motor strategies that support focus. People with ADHD often concentrate best when doing more than one thing at a time. When the primary task isn’t stimulating enough on its own, a mild secondary input (tapping a foot, squeezing a stress ball, doodling) can bring the brain’s arousal level up to the point where sustained attention becomes possible. Doodling and note-taking are both listed among recommended “touch strategies” for managing attention in ADHD.
The Stress Connection
Focus and stress are tightly linked, and there’s good evidence that drawing or doodling lowers stress hormones. A study of 39 healthy adults measured cortisol (the body’s primary stress hormone) before and after 45 minutes of art-making. Cortisol dropped significantly in about 75% of participants, with average levels falling from 17.85 to 14.77 nanograms per milliliter. That’s a meaningful reduction. Lower stress generally means better sustained attention, so even if doodling doesn’t directly sharpen focus, it may remove one of the biggest barriers to it.
This effect didn’t depend on artistic skill. Participants weren’t trained artists, and the activity included simple drawing and collage. The stress reduction appeared to come from the process itself, not from producing something impressive.
How to Actually Use Doodling for Focus
If you want to try doodling as a focus tool, the research suggests a few practical guidelines. Keep it simple and repetitive. Shading shapes, drawing spirals, or filling in patterns works better than elaborate sketching because it uses less brainpower. The goal is to occupy your hands, not your imagination.
Match the strategy to the situation. If you’re in a lecture or meeting where you need to retain specific information, note-taking consistently outperforms doodling. Notes force you to process what you’re hearing and translate it into written form, which is a much more active engagement with the material. But if you’re stuck on a long conference call or listening to something repetitive where note-taking doesn’t make sense, simple doodling is likely better than doing nothing.
Pay attention to what happens when you doodle. If you notice yourself getting absorbed in the drawing and losing track of the conversation, your doodles are too complex. Scale back to something more mechanical. The sweet spot is an activity that feels almost mindless, just enough movement to keep you from drifting.
For people with ADHD or those who tend to fidget, doodling is one option in a larger toolkit of sensory strategies. If doodling doesn’t click, similar benefits may come from other low-demand physical activities like handling a textured object or tapping a rhythm with your fingers. The underlying principle is the same: give your brain a small secondary stream of stimulation so it doesn’t go looking for a bigger, more distracting one on its own.