In our digital-forward world, you may not even remember the last time you felt a pen glide on paper or a pencil scratch its way across the page. Throwing out a thought in your notes app or sending bricks of texts to a friend feels so much faster, so why bother writing by hand?
While typing is ultra efficient—and isn’t going away anytime soon—that doesn’t mean we should abandon the art of putting pen to paper entirely. In fact, neuroscientists have found some surprising benefits of writing by hand.
While similar synapses fire off in our brains whether typing or writing, the latter comes with its own set of benefits.
Writing by hand requires more parts of the brain to work together at once since it utilizes movement, vision, attention, and language, explains Sanam Hafeez, Psy.D, a New York City-based neuropsychologist. “It requires brain power that typing does not, and can benefit our learning, memory, and comprehension,” she says.
Fawad Mian, MD, a board-certified neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist, points to a 2024 psychology study that measured EEG activity to compare both handwriting and typing. “Of note, keystrokes did not engage the brain the same way,” he says.
Handwriting naturally slows us down and allows us more time to consider an idea, situation, or emotion. “This could allow more time for reflection, which can make handwriting helpful when journaling or processing emotions,” Dr. Hafeez says.
Dr. Mian agrees, adding that journaling has been proven a powerful tool in lowering anxiety and boosting our mood. He says this has been measured in science, with notable research from James Pennebaker, PhD, who developed the “Expressive Writing Protocol,” a therapeutic method in which subjects are instructed to write about traumatic events and unpleasant emotions.
Jessica Tate, MS, LPCC-S, the chief clinical officer at Milton Recovery Centers, adds that typing can do this, as well. In general, “the act of putting thoughts and emotions into words can be useful,” she says. So if handwriting doesn’t work for you, don’t pass on journaling altogether.
Similar to the way handwriting helps with memory and comprehension, it may also help jumpstart the brainstorming process. Putting pen to paper can help us come up with creative solutions, find new ideas, and solve dilemmas. “If you are trying to work through a decision, write out what you are thinking before opening your laptop,” Tate suggests. “Even five minutes can force you to identify what you actually think before you begin editing or reacting to other information.”
Again, it slows us down and naturally forces us to distill, reorganize, and process ideas versus simply recording them. This may help pave the way for creative solutions and new perspectives.
This one’s less based on data, and more about the feeling writing evokes. “Handwriting can feel more personal since there is no autocorrect, suggested response, or algorithm feeding us what to say,” Dr. Hafeez says. “I do not believe we need to toss our tech, but maybe incorporating some handwriting in our lives is an easy way to practice things we no longer have to.”
This is particularly true today, where the writing process has been simplified to entering a prompt into a machine and getting hundreds of words written for you in mere seconds.
No need to write an entire novel by hand, but you can find little ways to incorporate more handwriting into your day.