I was in another exciting business meeting today. I shouldn’t complain, I don’t have nearly as many meetings as some of my coworkers. In any case, it was a conference call, with a handful of us in the room and another handful inside the speaker phone. I was doing my normal thing, doodling. So was one of my coworkers. Near the end of the meeting a non-doodling coworker pointed to the doodlers paper and made a smirky face, then pointed to his own notebook, full of notes, and nodded disapprovingly.

So, what does all this mean? If found two useful links:

CareerJournal: From Doodling to Daydreaming: An Office-Meeting Survival Guide

In fact, meetings have become so tainted that they now go by a host of other names. They’re dubbed briefings (meetings that last longer than intended), seminars (expensive meetings with handouts), presentations (meetings preceded and followed by many other meetings), videoconferences (meetings with technical difficulties) and conference calls (meetings with eye-rolling).

Associated Content: The Secret Language of Doodles

Many people who doodle may seem like they’re not paying attention to what’s going on around them. Actually, they’re very focused, but not on the doodling—they *are* paying attention, and the doodling is helping them do that. They may not even realize they’re doodling until someone points it out to them.

[ De-motivational poster from Despair, Inc. ]