What’s the easiest way to get smarter? Just write something by hand once in a while.
We have always been told that the pen is mightier than the sword. But is it mightier than the keyboard too? Yes, it is.
Accustomed as we are to our modern devices with their speedy keyboards and auto spell-checks (of course, I mean to write ‘duck’ when I am angry!), you could say there really is no point in putting pen to paper anymore.
But what if there is a purpose to the outdated art of penmanship? Let’s find out how:
Go slow to speed up
Getting smarter: Those who hand-write notes remember more long-term than those who type.
Typing is fast. Writing is slow. And this slowing down is exactly what accelerates critical thinking and learning, which ultimately makes you smarter than the others.
Any student today will be able to type down almost every word that the lecturer says in the class (assuming that they are awake during the lecture). But transcribing doesn’t require your brain to actually engage with the matter.
However, when you take the same information and put it down on paper, it will encourage your brain to process the information and reframe it in its own words.
Research psychologists Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted an interesting study investigating just how terrible laptops are in classrooms.
Sharpen that grey matter
Getting smarter: Research shows taking notes on laptops impair learning.
Can’t remember what you typed yesterday? Blame it on your 40 words per minute typing skill.
Research from Princeton University, published in Psychological Science in 2014, found that despite the fact that typists capture more information verbatim, students who hand-write notes remember more long-term than those who type.
The other advantage of using a pen and paper is that you can move around the page quickly, circling, underlining or adding extra information in the margins.
Create, don’t hesitate
Handwriting activates multiple areas of the brain in a way that typing doesn’t, which can make you smarter.
According to a Forbes article, writing by hand unleashes a creative part of your brain that is not easily accessed in any other way.
“And high-tech magnetic resonance imaging has indeed shown that low-tech writing by hand increases neural activity in certain sections of the brain, much like meditation,” it says.
A 2012 study showed that even just reading handwritten, instead of printed, letters uses different parts of the brain. Creative thinking requires the connection of different types of ideas, and handwriting activates multiple areas of the brain in a way that typing doesn’t.
While writing by hand, we use strokes instead of a single keypress. This gives the brain more of a chance to process the ideas that are being recorded. And as creative ideas take time to emerge, giving them those extra few seconds can make a big difference.
Learn from the greats
Using a pen to write is a smarter choice, and it’s beneficial even more for seniors.
As adults, often short on time and almost always on patience, there may be no good reason to choose a pen over the keyboard. But tell that to some of the literary greats of modern time.
Stephen King, author of several horror, crime and fantasy novels, purportedly wrote Dreamcatcher in longhand—using a Waterman cartridge pen. Harry Potter author JK Rowling penned The Tales of Beedle the Bard—all 157 pages of it—in longhand, says the Forbes article.
American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino says poetry can’t be typed on a computer, and English author Neil Gaiman’s novels are also drafted in notebooks.
They all preferred to put pen to paper to improve their focus. So, take a cue from these famous personalities.
Final words
The simple act of shutting your laptop and picking up a pen may be a smarter choice and all the motivation you need. Don’t worry if your handwriting isn’t legible anymore. Just get started. It’ll get better with time.
Disclaimer: One element of handwriting may be analysed at a time, but always look at the entire handwriting sample before arriving at any conclusion.
