Why Handwriting Could Be Good For You

Introduction

Text from the Instagram post below:

1. Dr. Tanaka tracked seniors over 80 in Kyoto and found one constant: they wrote by hand for 15 minutes a day. Typing uses one neural pathway, but physical writing hits 17 different zones. You’re robbing your focus when you pick a keyboard over a pen.

2. MRI scans show that writing by hand forces your brain to manage spatial logic and memory at the same time. This effort keeps you off autopilot. Typing is just muscle memory, while writing is active thinking. It’s the clear difference between simple data storage and actual cognitive engagement.

3. In one trial, those journaling by hand had 41% better recall and 34% faster processing. “The pen builds the hardware,” Tanaka noted. The industry hid this for years to protect revenue, since you can’t patent a pen. They chose profit over your memory. Write three original sentences every morning to keep your mind sharp.

I am trying to find conclusive evidence on this study, as the second post says Tanaka is a Nobel Prize winner for studies on nicotine, but I cannot find corroboration of that.

I cannot find anything, but this implies that handwriting can be used to monitor brain functions. Most of the articles I have found talk of writing and drawing to spot signs of Alzheimer's rather than to prevent it.

The music is "Hands" by Jewel from her album "Spirit"

So What Am I Doing?

Whether this study is accurate or not, I thought I would start handwriting for fifteen minutes a day just to see if it has any effect on my mental state and memory. Here are a couple of pages that I wrote today.

This is from the text above:

Write three original sentences every morning to keep your mind sharp.

I think we can all do that, can't we?

I do enjoy handwriting in cursive script, even though the finished article may not be exactly pretty. When you handwrite, you don't have any spell checkers, grammar checkers or autocorrect. Everything is done by you.

I have known a few people, some younger than me, who we have lost to Alzheimer's. My dad turned 91 this week and pretends he can't use his mobile phone or a computer, but he writes a lot (mostly letters of complaint) and is still driving. So the implications from that one case are that it is good to write or draw.

A pen or pencil is the most versatile writing or drawing implement, but you do need one handy with a pen and paper. As you can see, I am now writing this using a keyboard, with software that includes autocorrect and lots of other things.

When we write by hand, everything has to be done with our hands and brains, and that exercises us more than when we use a keyboard.

We do rely on and use technology far more than we used to, because, for the most part, it makes our lives better. I sometimes think I am failing because I only know one personal phone number and a handful of addresses, but I don't need to know them because they are stored on various devices. Many years ago, I would use phone books or address books that I had put together.

Sometimes I forget things that I know that I should know, and usually the fact or name surfaces, and failing that, I know how to find the information.

Maybe technology has allowed us to clear out our minds and use the space for other creative tasks and pastimes. Do I need to know twenty phone numbers? No. Do I need access to twenty phone numbers? Yes, but they are stored in places accessible to me.

Conclusion

I will keep handwriting each day. I don't know if it is benefiting me, but it is giving me enjoyment, and that is a good thing.

Thank you for reading.

I would love to know what you think, and whether you handwrite during your day.