Opinion: Scrolling vs Sketching — redefining a mindful break
While digital breaks feel natural and fulfilling, mindful art-based activities deliver deeper and more sustainable cognitive benefits
By Yashika Seth and Dr Garima Rajan
In an age when our phones rarely leave our hands, the idea of taking a “break” has become almost synonymous with scrolling. Breaks are meant to offer relief, yet in today’s hyperconnected world, they often fail to do so. For most people, the default break involves reaching for a phone, even if only for a few seconds. What begins as a momentary pause often spirals into several minutes of scrolling through spam texts and jumping between several apps for videos, posts, or messages. Instead of returning to work feeling refreshed, we return more drained, overstimulated, and distracted.
This reality forces us to confront a key question: If our breaks are spent immersed in the same digital ecosystem that exhausts us, can they truly be called breaks? Mindful activities such as doodling and colouring offer a contrasting form of rest — slower, quieter, and rooted in the present moment. Backed by neuroscience and psychological research, these practices have emerged as powerful alternatives that actually support attention, mental clarity, and emotional regulation.
Default Breaks
Digital breaks offer immediate satisfaction and instant gratification, pulling us towards our digital gadgets. Gloria Mark explains that living constantly connected to computers and smartphones exposes individuals to continuous digital interruptions, which research over the past two decades has shown significantly shorten attention spans and make sustained concentration increasingly difficult. (Mark & Mills, 2023). Another reason digital breaks dominate is sheer convenience. The phone is always nearby — on the desk, beside the bed, in the pocket. Over time, this accessibility turns device-checking into a reflexive habit.
Instead of overstimulating the brain, mindful activities such as doodling, colouring or simple sketching invite it into a slower, quieter mode of functioning that supports cognitive recovery
Deng and Kanter (2025) emphasise that habitual phone use rarely stems from conscious decision-making; instead, it is triggered by the smallest cues — a pause between tasks, a moment of boredom, or even a desire to escape an uncomfortable emotion. This habitual loop is reinforced through repetition and muscle memory. The more frequently the brain turns to digital content during breaks, the more automatic the behaviour becomes, eventually leading to picking up the devices even before realising that they need a break.
Digital breaks may also serve as a tool for fulfilling emotional needs. Checking messages or interacting on social platforms may provide a sense of social connection and reassurance. In high-pressure or crowded environments, scrolling through familiar content or engaging with friends can feel comforting. However, Mark (2023) notes that even purposeful digital interactions, like replying to a message, often result in passive consumption because apps are designed to keep users engaged through algorithmic suggestions and notifications. Thus, while digital breaks may begin with a sense of comfort or convenience, they often end in mindless engagement that pulls attention away instead of regaining it.
Setting New Default
Mindful activities such as doodling, colouring, or simple sketching operate through a completely different psychological mechanism. Instead of overstimulating the brain, they invite it into a slower and quieter mode of functioning that is aligned with cognitive recovery.
Kaimal et al (2016) demonstrated, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, that artistic self-expression activates brain reward pathways. What is unique, however, is that this reward activation comes without the overstimulation that digital content typically induces. Colouring and doodling provide pleasure, but they are gentle, intrinsic, and sustainable. This ease of reward makes mindful art a particularly effective break activity. It lifts mood without overwhelming the senses, and soothes the brain rather than scattering it.
Mantzios and Giannou (2018) found that mindful activities increased attentional focus and decreased anxiety. Colouring helps regulate breathing, slows the heart rate, and engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which is associated with calmness and grounded awareness. Carsley et al (2020) further support these findings, showing that mindful colouring reduced test-related anxiety among university students. These emotional benefits have a direct impact on cognitive functioning; when anxiety drops, working memory and attention capacity increase.
Mindful activities focus on the present through sensory and motor engagement. Because these tasks are absorbing without being demanding, they anchor attention. Unlike digital breaks, which promote rapid switching between stimuli, mindful activities promote attentional continuity. It gives the brain a single, steady point of focus, precisely what it needs to recover from cognitive fatigue.
Doodling vs Devices
Digital breaks are not inherently harmful. They can be entertaining, informative, and socially fulfilling. However, they fail as true cognitive breaks. They bombard the brain with rapid visual and auditory stimuli, encouraging multitasking and micro-distractions. Deng and Kanter (2025) highlight that switching between multiple types of digital content impacts the brain’s executive function systems.
Mindful art activities are fundamentally restorative. They provide mental engagement without cognitive overload. The intentional nature of the activity, such as choosing colours, making strokes, and filling shapes, places the individual in control, which is emotionally empowering. Where digital breaks scatter attention, mindful art gently gathers it. Instead of activating fast-paced reward circuits, mindful art activates slower, grounding neural pathways that support clarity, focus, and emotional stability. This results in a more effective transition back into academic or work-related tasks.
From Theory to Practice
Integrating mindful activities into daily routines can meaningfully improve cognitive and emotional functioning. These activities also help reduce emotional strain during demanding academic or professional tasks by slowing physiological arousal and creating space for restoration. For students preparing for exams or presentations, mindful art can serve as a grounding strategy, stabilising attention and preventing intrusive worries from building.
Similarly, in workplace settings, where digital overload and burnout are increasingly common, incorporating mindful art practices during breaks can help employees reset without adding to their cognitive load. This becomes especially important for younger generations, who have grown up with constant screen exposure and often return to digital stimulation during breaks without realising that such habits may be counterproductive. Simple and accessible strategies can make these benefits easy to implement. Keeping small colouring sheets on a desk, dedicating a notebook section to doodles, or even using intentionally slow-paced, mindful art apps can help people shift toward healthier, more restorative break habits.
As the line between work, study, and digital leisure continues to blur, it has become increasingly important to rethink what a break should actually achieve. Mindful activities such as doodling or colouring offer a very different kind of pause. By engaging the hands and calming the senses, they allow the mind to slow down, reduce internal noise, and settle into a steadier rhythm. These small acts of creativity help quiet anxiety and create the kind of cognitive space that a genuine break is meant to restore.
(Yashika Seth is Undergraduate Psychology Major student, and Dr Garima Rajan is Assistant Professor of Psychology, FLAME University, Pune)
