This is Lina

In my last job, I was a jack-of-all-trades. I switched departments and that led to taking on the duties of our administrative assistant, the ghost of who would’ve been our executive assistant, and customer sales supervisor. Even though all of my correspondence was done via e-mails and phone calls, I found my best friend to be my writing pad. This was a standard, yellow-hued legal pad that I can easily rip and scribble pages on. I found myself going through pads biweekly, and they were the most ordered product on the company’s office supply account.

Handwriting, the act of using your hands to physically write on paper, is slowly being neglected in favor of a QWERTY keyboard. I enjoy the fast, sophisticated dance that my fingers exhibit when I type this post out, but hear me out on why I advocate for handwriting.

Handwriting is a great practice. Cursive is hell.

Chances are that you were still part of the generation that was forced to learn cursive. This was more extreme than crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s. This included honing the skill of writing out each word with one concise, straining stroke. Cursive is a dying lesson that I do not mind dead; calligraphy is becoming more and more popular of a hobby and skill for people who do want to learn cursive.

This is about handwriting. I mean handwritten notes, writing down a to-do list, filling out a thank you card, starting a journal, and so on. When handwriting, you should be writing however you feel comfortable. If you find yourself using a lot of symbols or doodles, feel free to do so. These notes are for yourself.

Handwriting makes everything a reality.

Our brain’s thought process is complex. It’s a multi-tasking tool that manages our body and the choices you make. While you’re working through your day, you find yourself having various thoughts and ideas that don’t pertain to your current activity. Add multi-tasking to your activity, and these floating thoughts are now overwhelmed by what’s in front of you.

Handwriting those thoughts and ideas create a pathway to reality. Statements, demands, light bulbs can now come to fruition as the act of handwriting has now created its existence. You have given them a place on earth, and similar to people, you can revisit your writings and get to know them again.

For example, you may be wrapping up your day at work and remembered you need to stop by the grocery store to pick up items. The thought of what you know you want from the grocery store now has to compete for brainpower with your current activity of ending your day at work. You may forget a few items once you get to the store, or you may even forget the store altogether. By immediately writing down on a sticky note what you will need from the store, you have now created the list and reaffirmed what you need instead of having to base off of memory.

Handwriting adds value in your words.

Writing utensils come in different weight. Remember in middle school where using lead pencils will always lead to a debate between 0.5 and 0.7 lead?

The action of handwriting was weighted down by the materials you used to write. While a keyboard can express your thoughts faster with coordination and speed, we understand that keys can be easily pressed, including the backspace button.

Meanwhile, writing involved your strength in a way that was more irreversible compared to the keyboard. You had to choose your words more carefully or else erasing them would be harder to do.

Earlier I had talked about writing giving reality to your thoughts. Writing also gives life to them. When you write, you give your thoughts existence into this world with a purpose. Were you bored and needed a form of entertainment? A great idea stemmed from staring outside of a window? Or maybe you must pick up x, y, and z from the store in order to feed yourself or accomplish a chore.

When you write, you add the symbolic value to your thoughts and ideas. You consider order of importance, how those words are important to this hour all the way to your overall life. Similar to choosing your actions, you choose your words because of its importance and value to you.

Handwriting can be a habit for bettering yourself.

Handwriting has the ability of being a great habit to develop. Just as people bottle up emotions and feelings, ideas and thoughts can also be bottled up. When you don’t express any of these, you risk allowing them to churn into negativity, regret, and disappointment.

In writing, you are able to express those emotions, feelings, ideas, and thoughts to an outlet. Writing allows us to accept our current thought process and can be a reference we can go back to when progressing through time.

My favorite idea of writing is control. I have the control to write what I want. I also have the control to do what I want with my writings. I can tuck them away to reference later in the future. I can publish my writing for others to see. I can discard and shred my writing so no one else can see. Writing is a creative outlet that allows you to express yourself while maintaining control.

Lina’s Recommended Tools for Handwriting

What makes writing satisfying to me is the tools I use. I listed a few items below that I hope supports you as it did for me:

Use a Gel Pen over pencil and rollerball pens.

I personally love Pilot G-2 Pens. I have bought their entire set of colored pens three times and found myself going through them. I don’t color-coordinate notes or pieces, but rather I enjoy the smooth application and the ease of writing with the pen.

Even if you don’t enjoy Pilot G-2’s like I do, a gel pen extracts ink easily. The satisfaction of crossing out items or the easiness of correcting a mistake by simply scribbling it out is like therapy. If you do make a mistake, you can utilize correction tape or just cross it out and utilize most of your negative blank space on your page.

Sticky notes, legal pads, and journals.

Sticky notes are perfect for lists, reminders, scribbles, and thoughts that provide little value. If you have to do something for that day only, these are the best tool. I find satisfaction in peeling a new sticky note, and I normally place them behind my phone case or on the dashboard of my car radio.

Legal pads are best for writing down plans that last between 1-3 days. Think of them like a journal you can throw away at the end of each day. I often will have a side column of my legal pad page for my daily checklist (things I know I always need to do) while the rest of the page is for notes, activities I pick up, and references.

Journals are best for ideas and thoughts that you want to cultivate or develop. Journaling can be in the classic sense, such as planning out your month, week, and day. I currently have a journal with unlined paper that was originally meant as a sketchbook. However, I utilize it to write down:

• Side projects I want to create or update, such as my podcast plans, hobbies, and activities
• Mantras (statements that I do) to help improve my mindset and lifestyle
• Plan of actions for long-term goals and milestones
• Ideas for new projects

I choose to hand write as a habit, and it has helped me in bettering myself, finding my passion, and creating this blog.

I hope that in talking about handwriting that you consider picking up even a dollar store notepad and a writing utensil to have by your side