Paper is becoming rare, at work or in our daily lives. Even children, as early as elementary school, are now using tablets and computers. However, handwriting has significant benefits for cognition, which scientific studies demonstrate one after the other.
Handwriting, the brain gym
Studies have shown that children Understand and remember the alphabet better when they write it by hand rather than when they type it on a keyboard. Likewise, adults absorb and remember course content better if they take notes by hand.
This difference is because handwriting makes us think more deeply and digest information. When we type on the keyboard, we tend to focus on taking notes word for word without really assimilating the content we are writing. On the other hand, writing by hand requires us to summarize and understand the essentials, thus promoting a better integration of ideas.
Note-taking in short, is A creative strength training exercise.
Beneficial complexity
Recent research in neuroscience — I am happy to cite recent research in this field as a creativity speaker — has revealed that the benefits of handwriting are due to the complexity of the exercise compared to typing on a keyboard.
Writing by hand mobilizes many regions of the brain: you have to exert the right pressure on the pen, visually monitor the letters formed, and match what you write with your mental schema. By comparison, keyboard typing is monotonous and uniform, requiring less of your brain power. Understand: writing on a keyboard is cortical laziness.
Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills the brain is capable of.
According to Marieke Longcamp, a specialist in cognitive neuroscience, “handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of.” This complexity stimulates neural connections and promotes the association of ideas. In short, brain plasticity.
And that's good, because if you want to be innovative and creative, that brain plasticity is exactly what you need.
Engaging the body to stimulate the mind
The subject has been known for a long time (about the virtues of sport, but also From boredom). Robert Wiley, a cognitive psychologist, says that “producing handwritten forms allows you to make associations between the body and what you see and hear.” In other words, the physical commitment required by handwriting creates stronger connections between our body and mind, encouraging the emergence of new and creative ideas.
Move to stimulate creativity. With just your fingers, that would be enough. Not bad isn't it? I should have written this article by hand, too bad.
In short
By engaging our brains in more complex ways and pushing us to think more deeply, handwriting is proving to be a much more powerful tool for stimulating our creativity than we could have imagined.
The next time you are looking to innovate or develop new ideas during a creativity session (after a creativity conference for example?) , consider leaving your keyboard aside and grasping a pen. You might be surprised by the results.
