I wanted to use this personal development challenge to get better at a couple things.

The first challenge was to Doodle.

I had 3 basic rules for this 1^st challenge:

1. I need to do it daily for 30 days. If I’m still not comfortable, I’ll continue to do it for 30 more days.
2. I’ll need to share 1 publish daily on my Snapchat Story and Instagram.
3. No over-thinking, no paralyzing self-criticism. Just do it!

So after 30 days, was I able to complete the challenge?

Yes I did!

Did I improve or was I able to move the needle and get better in anyway with Snapchat? (It’s a personal sidequest to further understand the platform... it’s what I do.)

Yes I did!

Did I notice anything? The way I think? My productivity? Any part of my day to day?

Surprisingly: Yes I did!

The Benefits of Doodling (Personal Experience)

So, before anything, let me start with a deeper explanation of why I wanted to take on this challenge.

I’ve been yearning to learn a new trick to further improve my process of how I learn things and how I present or explain concepts or strategies to people. I started reading about doodling and stumbled upon some articles talking about doodling’s other “benefits” so of which included improved concentration & recall, deal better with challenges and even find solutions to problems faster.

I’ve been a fan of meditation and being mindful for 2 years now and according to some articles, mindful doodling is a “thing” so what the heck, I wanted to try out something that compliments it.

With that said, what did I really learn or accomplish the past 30 days with this doodling challenge?

Creative Outlet

It has definitely been an outlet for my creativity and it exercises my mind to generate ideas. I started with a rather low expectation of what I can really draw, especially with the drawing limitations of the Snapchat platform but I could see my creativity come out as each day passed. I also got to generate ideas faster on what I can visualize and put all that on the screen.

New Ideas were Generated

With the nature of my work, I needed to generate ideas regularly. I learned that as I got to exercise my brain further, I could think of new sh*t so much faster and visualize it in a much clearer way.

Challenges Came Much Easier and Got Solved Faster

Another positive note was that I got motivated to take up a book about doodling, which can ultimately improve how I explain things during consultations or even blog posts. I highly recommend “The Back of a Napkin” by Dan Roam. This book helped me look at challenges in a systematic way, basically, to drill down things and visualize using drawings in order to come up with a solution or better explanation…

Seeing the Big Picture

And that new skill led me to seeing the bigger picture when it comes to planning. It’s simple to say but it’s a skill that needs to be developed by all entrepreneurs. Through drawings, I could come up with a big picture marketing campaign or how a new feature for my startup will help in the bigger scheme of things.

I’m not so sure with the following:

Improved Concentration and Improved Productivity

I’m not quite sure with this one. It seems that I’m practically the same when it comes to focus and productivity.

Looking at my to do list stats, I did clear out a lot of things but I never really noticed a significant change with how I tackle tasks. Though I improved with planning things and looked forward to handling tasks that involved ideation, there wasn’t much of a bump that I would notice. I should’ve planned this better and tracked it better. I’ll probably continue with this one.

At the end of the day, which of my goals in my list got accomplished?

• I want to be even more productive (Not Sure)
• I want a creative outlet (CHECK)
• I want to be better at communicating the value that I can offer (CHECK)
• I need to be better at Connecting and Engaging as I tend to fall off rather quickly (CHECK – People engaged when I posted the drawings)
• I want to better offer advice and help fellow entrepreneurs with what I know, so they can succeed much, much earlier. (CHECK and VERIFIED)
• With that said, I also wanted to up my Snapchat game, hence I used that platform to put my doodles on. (CHECK)

Did I fail to follow any of the rules?

1. I need to do it daily for 30 days. If I’m still not comfortable, I’ll continue to do it for 30 more days. (CHECK)
2. I’ll need to share 1 publish daily on my Snapchat Story and Instagram. (CHECK for Snapchat but Failed to publish daily on Instagram but I should’ve clarified that in the rules. I have a template on Instagram and which means I can’t really just post daily doodles. I did post every few days.)
3. No over-thinking, no paralyzing self-criticism. Just do it! (CHECK)

I spotted some weird stuff near the office….

A video posted by Dennis Seymour (@denseymour) on Nov 9, 2016 at 7:19pm PST

Key Takeaways or Action Steps

I highly suggest that other entrepreneurs take on a personal development challenge like this. It can be a “bother” at times but it can help you a lot. It can also help you better understand how you think and be more mindful of things. Just do it!

My Tips for Starting a Challenge Like This:

1. Schedule a time everyday to do this. You’ll notice that you’ll keep trying to generate ideas throughout the day. Always looking for something interesting and opening up your mind to more things.
2. Grab a stylus… if you’re doing it on Snapchat. It’s not the easiest thing to draw on if you just use your fingers.
3. Commit that you’ll see it through the end. If you can’t think of an idea at that time, snooze and remind yourself to do it later in the day.
4. Just do it!

Let me know if you’re going to do a challenge. Just snap me or comment below! I’d love to hear from you!

The post How to Get Better at Snapchat – 30 Day Doodle Challenge appeared first on Dennis Seymour.