Start writing on paper today!
By: Creator S Keep
Tags: Development, Productivity, Journaling, Blog, Writing

What? Why writing on paper? Why writing at all?

Writing is a really powerful tool for development, not only for project creation and to find creativity, but also to develop ourselves.

Writing allows you to materialize your thoughts and ideas and put them into words in an organized manner. Also, you get the possibility to read again your previous thoughts and ideas, which can bring you new perspectives.

For me, writing is a big deal since I always had some trouble organizing my thoughts and defining a direction to follow.

I know all this seems painfully obvious, but the fact is that from what I see and for personal experience, we tend to not write enough.

And I can ensure you: it matters!

Keep in mind that, depending on what task you are performing, you might want to adjust the type of writing.

Here are some examples.

To-do lists

To-do lists are great for task management. They allow you to jump from task to task quickly without wasting time thinking about what to do next.

And hell, you’ll feel great whenever you cross those pesky little tasks!

These lists are really useful and I’ve used them a lot on my previous job to organize my daily tasks efficiently. So I came up with this lable system to skim from task to task in an even easier way:

P for pending — this means that I still haven’t picked up that task;

for pending — this means that I still haven’t picked up that task; C for in course — this means that I’m currently doing the task;

for in course — this means that I’m currently doing the task; PC for pending: client — this means that I’m waiting for something from the client in order to proceed;

for pending: client — this means that I’m waiting for something from the client in order to proceed; F for finished- this means that the task at hand was finished and closed by the client;

for finished- this means that the task at hand was finished and closed by the client; CV for client validation — this means that I’m waiting for the client to validate the job at hand.

If you want to start using to-do lists, or if you are already using them, I really recomend some kind of label system made for your daily activities.

Pros and cons

Have you ever had an idea that seems so good that you want follow so badly but you end up finding out that it’s not viable?

Yes, this also happened to me, quite a lot actually.

When we don’t think so much about the concept and the logical structure of what we want to build or achieve, the end becomes meaningless or unsustainable. Just like an house without it’s foundations.

Writing pros and cons can really help you solidify ideas and concepts, as well as to find out weaknesses and inconsistencies on your projects and ideas.

Writing random thoughts

Have you ever felt like the Great Well of Ideas ran out of, well, ideas? I believe that every creator already experienced this.

It’s quite normal, actually.

For me, the best way to make the Great Well of Ideas to run again is to spill out everything that crosses my mind. To Brainstorm, if you will.

This way, you get a list of random thougth that you can read later, and maybe you will get an idea out of it. Or maybe you can show the list to a friend in order to brainstorm some more, now in a collective way.

I believe that it’s better to have a record of random thoughts in order to have some kind of basis than to have nothing at all.

You can always draw!

You don’t need to write words in your notebook in order to organize your thoughts and ideas, you can always draw! And don’t worry, for this purpose you don’t need to become a Picasso or something.

Drawing is really useful to visualize and solidify thoughts and ideas that would be much more difficult to convey through words.

For instance, it’s common practice for coders to draw a lot of diagrams in order to understand a problem and to lay a strategy to solve it. It’s also a great way to explain an idea to someone else. And you might get some giggles and have a good time with that person.

Ok, so why should you writing on paper?

I know that we live in a digital world and that writing directly on your devices can give you a lot of advantages. But believe me when I tell you that writing on paper is really different.

There is some kind of emotional reaction that sticks with us when we write on paper that we don’t experience while writing on a digital device.

I’m not an expert on psychology, but I believe that what makes the difference here is to write the word yourself rather than pressing buttons.

The latter feels the same way every time, but produces a different result. On the other hand, writing the words yourself require you to put the effort to draw the characters your own unique way.

Maybe that’s why we tend to memorize better when we write manually?

Pro-Tip: As technology progresses, it’s becoming rarer to use a notepad to write down your notes, so if you use one, it will make you look smarter.

Conclusion

Writing is indeed a very useful and versatile tool that allows us to develop our projects and ourselves more efficiently. It allows us to:

Organize ourselves better;

Gather and solidify ideas and concepts;

Explain our ideas more efficiently;

Measure our growth;

Evaluate options and approaches;

Practice focusing on tasks;

Some of these actions may be accomplished on your computer’s notepad, it’s true, but writing on paper increases the benefits that writing provides you.

Now, I’ve got to ask:

Are you writing on a daily basis? If you do, what forms of writing do you use ?

? If you don’t write on a daily basis, are you considering getting your hands on some paper and start writing?

Either way, I would love to know what you have to say, so let me know in the comments!

Oh, and since you are about to start writing, why don’t you check out my previous post about creating cool projects?

Until next time!