to doodle whilst on jury service?

[stainesmassif]

today was my first day on a very boring case, first time juror.
for the first half of the day i had great difficulty sitting still.

after lunch i discovered that my pencil and paper - provided by the court! could be put to great use by doodling - which helped stop the fidgeting, and also aided my concentration.

so after about an hour of what was becoming fairly intricate doodling the man next to me tapped me on the knee and nodded at the pencil as if to say 'turn it in'.

AIBU to doodle? i appreciate, it is a very quiet environment, and possibly the noise of the pencil is a distraction? or am i within my rights? the pencil and paper are an open invitation to doodlers?

yeah, I saw the link above, however, one study does not prove anything. I recently finished psychology degree where i learnt of a few theories regarding divided attention each with their own studies 'proving' their beliefs. Just because a person says it is so, doesn't mean you have to believe them implicitly, there is more 'evidence' out there, you have to make your own mind up. I'm sticking with what I believe that you can't concentrate on two things as well as you can concentrate on one.

from my own experience - have been sent home early today, not mning in court on my iphone - drawing triangles does not distract me from listening to an involved legal argument, triangles are just not that interesting.

i expect to receive more anti doodling responses, and would like to refer my learned friends to my responses above.

As you say, you can't prove it's helping you concentrate rather than you're not listening.

The one time I was on a jury the Sheriff (for I am in Scotland's Wild West) used the threat of contempt of court and potential prison sentence to persuade us that it would be best to stay awake and concentrate.

So if you were caught it would depend what the judge thought about doodling.

You're right shona - my worry would be that the judge would expect the appearance of concentration as well as concentration itself, regardless of whether it improved staines' actual concentration.

I did a fortnight's jury service a few years ago - I chaired the jury for two cases, and I found it was fascinating.