Journaling releases emotion, relieves stress and improves sleep and wellbeing. It’s an opportunity to capture and reflect on thoughts without judgment. There are no rules to journaling but having a prompt or a reason to start can help you get going.

Activity idea:

• Pick a moment that suits you, and carve out as little as 5 minutes, but start today.

• Write about a moment in your day that stands out.

• Write down how you felt in that moment.

• That’s it.

• Do it again once a week or every day. It’s up to you.

Handwriting stimulates focus, motivation and ideation. Writing will help you organise your thoughts, connect the dots and see relationships between abstract ideas, resulting in more creative, innovative solutions.

Activity idea:

• Think of a problem you’re trying to solve.

• Write down the problem in a sentence or two (which is always harder than you think).

• Use a mind map with colours, shapes and space to encourage free, unfettered thinking and capture all the possible solutions.

• What jumps out at you? Look for clues to draw out a creative solution to your problem.

With tech it’s easy to fall into patterns, fonts and margins, rely on templates and repurpose material. Pen and paper don’t have the same confines and won’t standardise your approach. You’re free to think for yourself and make sense of the world. Picking up a pen lights up your brain more than using a keyboard.

Activity idea:

• Next time you need to take notes, use a pen and paper.

• You won’t capture as much or as accurately but through the act of writing, you’ll begin to process and interpret the information, automatically engaging critical thinking.

• Customised notes better suit your understanding and are much more valuable to you.

Letter writing captures a feeling and marks a moment in time that you can’t achieve with digital messaging. Letters can melt hearts, inspire action and release emotion, creating a direct connection between you and your reader.

Activity idea:

• Write a letter to a faraway friend – tell them you still think about them.

• Write a letter to your local Member of Parliament – tell them you want change.

• Write a letter to someone who is lonely – invite them to write back.

• Write a letter of praise – gratitude pays dividends.

"The use of pen and paper gives the brain more ‘hooks’ to hang your memories on,” says Professor Audrey van der Meer at NTNU. Handwriting engages your brain more which helps it remember more. Writing slows us down which helps us achieve clarity and set intentions.

Activity idea:

Next time you grab your phone or laptop to make a list, plan a schedule or set a reminder, reach for a pen and paper instead.

Writing it down makes it stickier in your memory.

Don’t believe us? Try it yourself.

The science of analysing handwriting is called graphology and it’s been used since the days of Aristotle. “Just from analysing your handwriting, experts can find over 5,000 personality traits,“ says master graphologist Kathi McKnight. So, what does your handwriting say about you?

Activity idea:

Write a few lines about yourself. (eg: hobbies, where you’ve travelled, what you do at work, your family situation).

Now look for the clues about your personality in our graphology analysis toolkit (LINK HERE).
 

Do you agree with your findings?