The Power of the Humble Pen and Paper.

The pen is still mightier than the keyboard.

                                                              Photo by cottonbro on Pexel.

I love the good old-fashioned pen and paper.

In the digital world, we have forgotten the inherent benefits of writing with an old-fashioned pen and paper. The benefits of digital tools cannot be ignored. But we cannot become slaves to technology.

I am a big kindle fan and cannot deny the ease with which books can be searched and downloaded. Even while reading on a Kindle, I have a pen and paper to take notes. Kindle has a feature that allows you to highlight and share to other apps and devices. But I prefer making notes with pen and paper.

I have a weakness for pens, and whenever I am in a stationery shop, I look for ball pens, fountain pens, and colour pens and buy at least a couple of them.

                                                 Photo from Shubha Apte

Since my childhood, I have had this weird passion for pen collection. Over the years, I have gathered quite a good collection, and they are constantly jostling for space on my desk. It sounds strange to some when I tell them that a new pen always inspires me to write. A writing instrument can indeed inspire and motivate.

“A pen transmits the voice of the soul “- Fennel Hudson.

There is truth in what Hudson has said.

The simplicity of pen and paper prevents your mind from getting distracted. Let’s face it, technology can be addictive because of the ease of doing things, but it can also be distracting.

I find myself visiting different websites and getting lost in all the noise when I choose to write using the keyboard or on my tablet. Without the internet, all you have are your thoughts, the silence, and your brain can roam free. I sometimes end up doodling, but that I consider a positive thing.

Writing with pen and paper is a slow process. It helps you slow down and allows you to think with deep focus and gather your thoughts.

Putting pen to paper is both physically and mentally satisfying. The texture and touch of the paper and its smell encourage and stimulate your mind, forcing your hand to write.

A study from a team of Japanese researchers suggests handwriting on paper leads to greater brain activity and memory retention compared to writing with a stylus on a tablet. The study was published in the journal “Frontiers in behavioural neuroscience”.

Scientific studies show how handwriting benefits the brain and our neurological systems and, therefore, our mental health and wellbeing.

Anybody with a deep love for writing with pen and paper can relate to these studies.

Experiments conducted with school and college students demonstrated that students who wrote by hand showed better results, came up with more ideas and were more creative than those who wrote on a computer.

I have developed the habit of unplugging, turning off all devices and sitting quietly in a room with a pen and paper. It feels very relaxing and satisfying to create something using pen and paper.

As Ruskin Bond, in his book “ It’s a wonderful life: roads to happiness”, says, “there is a certain sensuous intimacy about this connection between pen and paper that is absent from any other form of writing; maybe it is the texture and touch off the paper the flow of ink, the movement of the pen, the connection of all three with the human hand and the hand’s connection with the mind of the writer.”

I am one of those people who is obsessed with pens.

The voice typing feature in a google doc is a game-changer! It does not take long to convert what you have written on paper into digital format. Voice typing allows you to write, edit, and navigate your document without using the keyboard. It saves you the time and effort required to type on the keyboard.

The pen and paper still trump the keyboard. Writing by hand sparks creativity.

Benefits I have experienced writing with a good old pen and paper.

1. One of the biggest benefits is that it improved my health. I had severe pain in my elbow, forearm, wrist and hand due to long hours on the computer. It caused extreme fatigue, pain and muscle strain. My doctor advised me to slow down and improve my posture while working on the computer. I started spending more time with pen and paper, significantly reducing stress and pain.
2. Pen and paper help me slow down, remain focused and force me to think.
3. It helps me avoid all distractions from the internet world.
4. It helps boost my creativity; the outcome is always better whether I am doodling or working on a draft.

“There are thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write” William Makepeace Thackeray.