Writing, as opposed to typing on a keyboard, engages a different part of your brain. It forces you to think more clearly and fully process your thinking. You are more likely to remember what you write than what you type. Writing gives you the edge in understanding, learning, and remembering.
I use journals to write down what I feel is important and to work through ideas. And when I am writing I don’t get pop-ups, notifications, or icons tempting me to click other applications.
Yes, computers are awesome, but it may not be wise to let them take over our whole show.
I totally agree, writing allows me to focus on my thoughts. I began writing a journal to my grandchildren so that one day when I’m gone they will have memories and history of our family. Larry we shared the same loving grandmother and I have a few cards and letters she wrote me and they mean so much to me. It must run in the family. She would be proud of you.
Enjoy your post everyday! That said, I have to disagree with you on this one. I find that I type so much faster than I can right that words flow better from brain to keyboard. 🙂
I agree!!! I love writing in journals and creating my own with plastic covers and 3 ringed binders. I LOVE using different colored highlighters and have found this to be an excellent collect and resource that can be used for future training!!
Hey Larry,
I love reading Think Daily but I will have to say that this particular post somehow did something to me. The right word spoken in the right place at the right time that I could receive. See, I have always been somewhat on the tech side of things and found myself to be mostly in the digital camp. As an example, I use Evernote to keep a daily journal for personal and professional things. Yet somehow, there has always been something lacking. Something is lost when just typing a thought. What about the stroke of the pen or the color we use? The space in between the words or how we position the pen to paper? I would always use the excuse of “well, my hand cramps up too easily and I can type so much faster!!”…so I just resigned to being a digital-only kind of guy, until today. I am by no means jumping ship from digital but your words shifted something in me. I have heard Ricko and Mike talk about journaling, not to mention, countless other great, successful people. I have been asking myself lately, am I missing something here? Then your post came and I tried for the first time in years, actually writing (in my CNLIVE journal that was given to me)! My hand didn’t cramp up and I was able to capture every nuance in my thinking. You are right! It does activate a different part of the brain. Then for all you digital camp people out there, it is so easy to capture these analog pages into something like Evernote. You have the power to categorize and index. You can even search the hand-written text and of course you have the power of the cloud to pull your notes up on any device. Then you can also incorporate video, pictures, annotations and dictation. The list goes on. It’s like a whole new world for me now and 2019 just got brighter. I’ve tried the other way as well where I would start digital and then print out to analog and put sheets in a book but still something lacking there. Starting analog and going to digital gives the benefits of both worlds and possibly activating more areas of the brain than just what writing alone could do. I suppose the possibilities are endless. To wrap up here, I come from somewhat of a recording background and a lot of old school recording artists swear by capturing everything on analog tape with analog gear first, then mastering down to digital for media consumption. It captures all the nuances of the live performance while maintaining the spirit of creativity. Analog provides infinite sampling and resolution, where digital is always going to be limited by zeros and ones. Our minds are not made up of zeros and ones but of limitless creativity! So thank you for your post. I can honestly say now that I don’t have to choose writing or typing. I can have both. We can have both 🙂