Do you take your notes by hand or type them on a laptop? This small decision can actually have a large impact on your life. Studies have shown that writing by hand increases focus, gives a greater understanding and allows you to process more of the information, improves memory, increases neural activity, and calms your mind. It is interesting how something as simple as writing on paper, something that the majority of people learn how to do at a young age, can have such a large impact on our brains.

Writing notes by hand increases focus because you do not receive the notifications that you would on your laptop. You also do not have to worry about any of the distractions such as other websites, ads, or social media. When you are more focused, you are more productive, and therefore get more work done which is a large benefit of writing by hand. When you write by hand, you will have a greater understanding of the information and process it more. Writing by hand creates a connection between the information you write and your brain, which gives you a greater understanding of the information. When you type, this connection is lost and you do not process the information as well. For example, in a lecture, writing notes by hand forces you to take down the key points and takeaways that you understand rather than essentially typing the lecture word for word and regurgitating the information instead of understanding it. Similar to how writing by hand gives you a greater understanding, it also helps you to remember the information due to the link between your writing and brain. In addition, writing by hand activates the regions of the brain that are responsible for thinking, language, healing, and memory, therefore increasing your overall neural activity. Lastly, writing by hand can be a tool to use when you need to calm your mind. Research shows that writing in a notebook or journal has proven to be calming as it lowers your intake of blue light.

Overall, try to write more of your notes or study guides by hand, it can have long lasting effects that you would not have expected!