THE WONDER OF DELIBERATE DOODLING

Here's are two links, with the latest information about what I often like to call 'deliberate doodling'.

One is to BBC News, where you can read about how it "may help memory recall";

The other is to Time: Partners with CNN, where you can read about how it "could help the mind remain alert during dull tasks".

[These leads came to me recently from my younger brother who is a techno-geek.]

BOOK REVIEW: 'ACCIDENTAL GENIUS' by Mark Levy

I have had this wonderful book for quite a while & I have also reread it several times. I have been attracted to the book in the first place by what the author writes in the Introduction:

- Every recognized innovation has, in some way, been a product of human thought. It stands to reason, then, that the thoughts appearing in your mind have an enormous, potential value to you & the world;

- Sometimes your best thoughts must be coaxed out, & played with, before they reach their fullest potential;

- The world's most progressive companies have sophisticated infrastructures just to develop, and protect, the kinds of thoughts that you've already had or are capable of having;

What does this book do, in a nut shell:

It teaches you how to get at what you're thinking on paper, so you can convert the raw material of your thoughts into something useable, using an energising body of techniques called 'private writing'. It entails examining all kinds of work/life situations & creating solutions for them through personal reflection and free-form writing.

The chapter on 'Extracting Gold from a Business Book' is my personal favourite.

For me, I have often used the author's writing techniques as a catalyst to guide my own best thinking on paper. I use what I often like to term as my 'scratch pad', in the form of Bienfang NoteSketch pads.

Alternatively, I also use the A3-sized, spiral-bound, 100-pages-per-pad, 100-gms-weight drawing blocks, which most graphic artists use, in conjunction with a multi-colour/multi-utility pen from Rotring.

On many occasions, I have astonished myself by being able to wrestle with the valuable business & life insights from my own seemingly disparate 'private writing' pages. I have translated many of my valuable insights into pragmatic projects.

My sideline projects include writing book reviews on amazon.com website as well as writing my own weblogs.

I have noted that one of the most outstanding results of 'private writing' is honing my own critical & creative thinking processes.

Because of my personal interests in visual thinking, I often incorporate the 'rapid visualisation' & 'deliberate doodling' techniques I have picked up from Kurt Hanks as well as Joy Sikorski into my 'private writing' processes.

As most readers may know, the foregoing author crafted the classic book, 'Rapid Viz', among many others.

Joy crafted the following three marvellous doodling books, which I also own:

- 'How to Draw a Cup of Coffee & Other Fun Ideas';

- 'How to Draw a Radish & Other Fun Things to do at Work';

- 'How to Draw a Clam: A Wonderful Vacation Planner';

I have drawn phenomenal power from my purposeful integration of 'private writing' with 'rapid visualisation' & 'deliberate doodling'. That's why I always use a multi-colour/multi-utility Rotring pen in my work.

My scratch pad is always a visual smorgasbord of relatively heavy text, mystical doodles & logical illustrations (thanks & no thanks to my engineering training!).

To conclude my review, 'Accidental Genius', is a real, rare gem.

I strongly recommend this book to any reader who wants to explore powerful insight generation, &/or to apply some structure & purpose to - & at the end, extract some value from - all those notes you've been writing to yourself.

[Extracted from the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.]

SYNTOPIC BOOK REVIEW: Books by Joy Sikorski

I have owned the following three wonderful books by quicrky artist Joy Sikorski since the late nineties, & have re-visited them many times:

1) 'How to Draw a Radish: And Other Fun Things to Do at Work';

2) 'How to Draw a Cup of Coffee and Other Fun Ideas for Home & Garden';

3) 'How to Draw a Clam: A Wonderful Vacation Planner';

In the field of what I would like to term as 'deliberate doodling', I consider these three books to be the best in the genre.

Unlike the common doodles, which seem whimsical, 'deliberate doodling' involves some form of structure & purpose.

I am very impressed by what the author has done in the three fun books of hers.

All the three books are spiral bound, each with some two hundred pages of inspirational doodling techniques, on top of various other discovery games & paper crafts for professional & personal entertainment.

Each is sturdily constructed with two pockets for special projects, organised with ten card-board dividers & yet small enough to fit into your jacket.

From my personal perspective, they are wonderful “toys for grown-ups”:

playful, instructive & absolutely worthwhile!

The author has actually written another similar book, entitled 'Squeaky Chalk : And Other Fun Things to Draw (And Do) When There's Nothing to Do!' but for some strange reasons, I did not lay my hands on it.

For the benefit of readers, let me share this personal experience of mine:

I have combined the 'deliberate doodling' techniques from Joy with the 'rapid viz' techniques from Kurt Hanks, & integrated them into the 'private writing' processes as formulated by Mark Levy in his wonderful book, 'Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing'.

I use what I often like to term as my 'scratch pad', in the form of Bienfang NoteSketch pads.

Alternatively, I also use the type graphic artists use, i.e. the A3-sized, spiral-bound, 100-pages-per-pad, 100-gms-weight drawing blocks, in conjunction with a multi-colour/multi-utility pen from Rotring.

On many occasions, I have astonished myself by being able to wrestle with the valuable business & life insights from my own seemingly disparate "private writing"/'deliberate doodling'/'rapid viz' pages.

The doodles & illustrations often add a perceptive visual dimension to my seemingly random thoughts on paper.

My scratch pad is always a visual smorgasbord of relatively heavy text, mystical doodles & logical illustrations (thanks & no thanks to my engineering training!).

I have translated many of my valuable insights into pragmatic projects. One of the sideline projects is writing reviews on amazon.com website.

Now, another sideline project is writing my own weblogs!

To all readers:

If you really want to use both sides of your powerful brain to generate valuable insights, I can guarantee that these three books can drive your imagination engine into hyper-speed mode.

Last but not least, many thanks to Joy Sikorski, Kurt Hanks & Mark Levy for your timely & creative interventions!

[Extracted from the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.]