My boss said drawing on my desk pad would help me focus, so now I've got a detailed map of a fake island I named after my cat.

I spent the entire quarterly meeting on a Zoom call doodling harbors and mountains on a sticky note after he swore it would stop my screen clicking habit, and honestly I got more done that afternoon than I have all week, so has anyone else's desk art accidentally turned into a whole project?

2 comments

2 Comments

karen_roberts41mo ago

Oh man, this is such a perfect example of how our brains trick us into being productive when we think we're "wasting time." It's like when you clean your whole house just to avoid writing a paper in college, suddenly folding laundry becomes a fascinating challenge. Your boss accidentally unlocked a secret productivity hack by making you feel like drawing was okay, then your brain just ran with it and built a whole island civilization. There's something about having a small creative side project that lets the serious work get done in the background, kind of like how listening to music helps you drive better but you're not really paying attention to the songs.

grantmartinez1mo ago

Oh man, that's exactly what happened to me last year! I started doodling a little maze on a post-it during a boring training session and by the end of the week I had drawn this whole underground tunnel system with secret rooms... My productivity actually went up because I'd let my brain wander for a few minutes and then come back to work fresher. And the funny thing is, nobody ever called me out on it because I was still paying enough attention to answer questions when asked.

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