Handwritten note to self: geezer-whingeing is uncool

TOP of my list of things never to leave home without (aside from the obvious, like keys, phone and wallet)? Pen and paper.

I always try to be in close proximity to a notebook and a pen or two. This is a habit I maintain, despite the fact that writing on paper seems to have gone out of fashion. Both the writing part and the paper part. Handwriting is of another era. Dead tree produce is widely scorned in this digital age.

When there’s a note to be taken you are meant to whip out your cellphone, tap an app and start typing. Not me. I have a strong aversion to those tiny keyboards made for infant-sized fingers. It’s not just the awkward typing that puts me off phone note-taking. It’s the whole process of saving what I have written.

And then remembering where it was saved. Or – ever more problematic as the years go by – even remembering I ever made the note, much less thinking of looking for it later.

Hence my continued reliance on pen and notebook. I have a special place in my bag where I keep these vital tools, so they’re always ready to hand.

My notebook is clearly visible when I rummage in my bag. So when I get home after experiencing whatever revelation it was that I deemed notable, I will not forget to read what I’ve written. In my house I have a stockpile of notebooks and pens, strategically placed at key points, so I can quickly grab one of each whenever the need arises.

I enjoy the act of putting pen to paper. I revel in the physical process of writing. I find the deterioration of handwriting rather disturbing. It seems that cursive is hardly taught any more. Young people do not seem to own pens.

In case I am sounding overly romantic – or worse yet, pedantic – my apologies. Please note that I am not advocating writing because it’s comfortably Old School. I am actually a high-speed typist and happily spend much of my day with fingers to (adult-sized) keyboard.

I simply believe that writing by hand still serves a function. Therefore I am pleased to report that the practice of handwriting, dated though it may be, has been scientifically proven to have value.

I love being vindicated by studies that confirm the merit in my way of doing things. So I was thrilled to come across research by the Association for Psychological Science showing that taking notes with a pen and paper is indeed better than typing.

If your goal is to remember the information, that is. Which, ever more as the years pass, is a key focus for me.

This 2014 study of a cohort of students shows that writing by hand improves the learning process and is better for later recall.

“Those who took notes in longhand did significantly better than any of the other students,” concluded the report in the journal Psychological Science, “better even than the fleet typists who had basically transcribed the lectures.” Even taking fewer notes, with less recording of verbatim quotes, those students using pen and paper were able to master “higher-order conceptual learning” better than those who took notes on their digital devices.

Another relevant finding is that typing on a keyboard can make you

Pen and paper are your friends when you want to remember something

remember less, for it can be purely “mindless processing”.

So how does one best deploy these vindicated super-tools? I use my notebooks for a multitude of reasons. First, of course, pen and paper are your friends when you want to remember something. I’m able to quickly scribble down a number – whether phone or licence plate. I write down thoughts and ideas, quotable quotes.

I confess to devoting a lot of paper and ink to lists. Of things to do, to buy, to research, to read, to watch, to attend, to book, to eat, to drink, to make ... Listmaking is a sub-category worth exploring separately, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Compulsive listmakers, you know who you are. You may feel I am again veering perilously close to what I vowed not to do. Geezer-whingeing, if that’s an accurate and acceptable description of burdening others with one’s yearning for the Old Days, which can annoy the youth. So check out this rationale for reliance on notebooks. It combines the wisdom of age with the hipness of youth. My fixation with pen and paper ties into that much-praised practice of Living in the Moment, aka Mindfulness.

If I’m really enjoying the moment of an experience, it may also be gratifying to recall it later.

And frustrating to be thinking, now what happened the other day (or earlier today) that was so meaningful/moving/fun?

I can just open my notebook and relive those moments.