The Power of the Doodle: Improve Your Focus and Memory
online.wsj.com
online.wsj.com
My method is simply to establish a scope or primary area of concern and to explore it. Usually major points of inquiry come first, responses second, and then I change colors (eg. black to red pen) and enhance those initial points with annotations, questions/concerns and relationships. If scope changes, I start a new page, often based upon a subset of the previous page that becomes a new scope of inquiry. Sometimes relationships are explored more than a QA structure. Rarely, if a mode of inquiry or visual approach is discovered to be flawed, then the page gets redrawn with the new thinking integrated. This works well for me, and the intended audience is usually only the self.
When I travel, sometimes for months on end and from a single small backpack, along with the laptop my notebook and an array of pens makes the cut. I view it as a sort of organic memory device, as well as a muse.
If you ask too many questions it formalises it too much and takes the joy away and possible shapes the outcome too much.
I will say that whilst doodling in presentations and meetings I tend to come up with some profound counterpoints while not even listening properly so perhaps it does work.