5 Things You Might Want to Write Down

Did you know that writing by hand is more impactful than typing? That’s what a growing body of research tells us! [1]

Writing by hand uses and connects more of your brain. Handwriting incorporates your muscles and spatial reasoning in ways that a keyboard full of samey keys and a hovering flat rectangle of light (a computer monitor) don’t. More parts of your brain light up when you write by hand than when you type.

When you write by hand:

• You learn better

• You remember better

• There's even evidence that you feel better

That’s useful information! Knowing this, we can intentionally pick things to write by hand. Want to remember something better? Write it by hand! Want to understand something better? Write it by hand. Want to work through an idea more fully? Write it by hand.

Here are 5 things you might consider writing by hand:

1) Ideas (& plans)

Writing an idea down helps keep it from getting lost in the abyss of “things you’ve thought once.” A lot of the time, the most practical way to record those ideas is to type them on your phone or computer.

When you can, though, writing an idea by hand opens up a new dimension to the idea.

You can draw diagrams and arrows to connect concepts. You can cross things out and remember the thoughts you've discarded. You can alternate between paragraphs and blocks of text without having to think about formatting.

It's like writing your idea by hand gives it a place to live in your head for a little while so you can figure out if it’s a good idea or not (not all ideas are good ideas!). And if it is a good idea, you might even be more motivated to work through how to make it happen if you write it down.

(Same goes for plans!)

2) Notes to people

Oh, technology, making it so super duper easy to shoot off a text or a Teams message, or - for reasons - an email. Efficient! And yet, it’s also so super duper easy to be come off as cold, distant, or unintentionally rude when we communicate this way (classic!). We shoot messages off in terms of our projects, when - if we really want to be understood - we should be thinking about the people on the other end of the message.

When we write by hand, we write slower. We have more milliseconds - brains be crazy, yo - more time to work out what we want to say and how to say it. We can use that time to consider how our writing will sound to the person who is reading it—how we think they’ll take it.

Because it takes more time and effort, we’re also motivated to be more concise.

And there’s something special about receiving a handwritten note. Oh, man, a handwritten greeting card can really warm someone’s heart.

(Fun tip: write a person in your life a friendly handwritten note, just to see what happens.)

3) To-do Lists

Not everyone uses to-do lists and there are some good reasons why to-do lists can be counterproductive [2]. That said, people do use them, and they usually include things you want to remember to do (hence the name!).

When I do use a to-do list, I know I feel more personally invested and determined when I have a paper to-do list in hand compared to one that is typed up and hiding in an app on my phone.

And there’s something immensely satisfying about physically drawing a line across an item on a list and later crumpling that sheet of paper and tossing it in the bin when you’ve finished.

4) Calendars

My partner and I have a wall calendar in our kitchen. We don’t use it for everything - our digital calendars are for that - though the things I do write on the wall calendar, I remember.

There’s something about physically finding where in the month the thing falls on this piece of paper and branding it with my own writing muscles, declaring for all to see, “Dentist,” that makes sure I know when “Dentist” is happening.

5) Journals

Keeping a journal is like recording a history of your own life.

Everything you write in a journal has a chance to stick with you, to help you grow, learn, work through baggage and day-to-day stuff, and figure out how you want to live your life.

Just like with our ideas, it helps when we really get to know our innermost thoughts, and writing by hand does that better for us than typing.

Plus, if you’re gonna write down your most private musings, you don’t have to worry about the internet getting the password to your physical journal!

Want to work with the person who wrote this post? Michael Reilly Peraza is a transformational life coach who helps people get the results they want for themselves.

Supporting Sources

[1] Handwriting vs. typing

• Psychiatrist.com – Handwriting Shows Unexpected Benefits Over Typing (2024).

• Scientific American – Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning (2024).

• NPR – Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning (2024).

[2] To-do lists as counterproductive

• Harvard Business Review – To-Do Lists Don't Work (2012).

• Nir Eyal – The Case Against To-do Lists (And What to Use Instead) (2020). (Subscription Required 🔒)

• Fast Company – Your to-do list is sabotaging your productivity. Here's what to do instead (2023).