Write this Down, You'll Need It Later

NPR had a story I saw this morning on the importance of writing things down by hand. This is not news to me, I am a believer.

I find that a good little notebook (I'm a Moleskine guy) ranks with the phone etiquette drilled into me by my stepmother, and a good handshake as indispensable secret weapons.

Notes on a thorny little logic problem I am working right now.

The tools I bring to an assignment are varied, but the notebook has several advantages for me in my process:

• Writing longhand does slow me down a lot. This is a good thing and a necessary thing. When my brain has to sync up with the speed of my hands, I find it easier to concentrate on the subject matter and absorb its meaning.

• When I write longhand, I do find it easier to recall information, especially when there is key vocabulary that comes up again and again.

• When I type, I format. Part of my brain is always trying to resize text boxes, straighten out lines, make sure the text sits just so. There is a time for this, sure, but when I write, I know it's going to look like trash, so I free that part of my brain from making things pretty to making things make sense.

• Writing longhand means my mistakes and early iterations remain on the page. When I type, I erase history with every change, and yes, Track Changes is a feature that exists, one I cannot read without great effort and pain. With hand written notes I can glance back at the things I crossed out and see where I've been. This can provide strong insight on what to do next.

• I can put arrows anywhere I want. Compared to typing on any platform or with any tool I use, writing longhand has an aspect of drawing to it that allows me to play with relationships of information and gives another perspective on how they look together.

• Doodles are important, too. They can serve as a mnemonic device, rough diagrams, or signs into which I can pour my intent.

What's more, there is a value I find when I turn chaotic handwritten notes and diagrams into the constraints of an application or platform. Order that I can impose in a separate step on what I have already composed.

I don't write everything longhand, but I will scratch out the things that I have a hard time holding in my mind all at once. Outlines, underlying logic, thoughts that don't fit into a neatly typed paragraph, these things catch me reaching for my pen again and again.