The joys of handwriting

Hey friends,

I recently bought a Leuchtterm notebook (after hearing Neil Gaiman’s recommendation). I’ve been using it extensively for the past 3 days, and I’m very pleasantly surprised at the ideas I’ve generated and refined through just writing in it.

Yesterday for example, I was sitting at the dining table at home when I busted out the notebook, popped down open the pen (pilot V ball, one of my favourites) and just started writing and sketching. I was working on formalising my system for productivity and content creation (gosh that sounds pretentious), and on revamping my website to include written guides to things like applying to medical school and studying for exams.

I’d been thinking about these areas for many months, and had already made a skeleton on Notability (for handwriting on the iPad) and Notion (for typed-up notes) but switching to an analogue notebook and pen helped me consider possibilities that I hadn’t before. Other than the obvious benefits of being able to easily flick between pages and not being confined to writing linearly, there’s just a certain… je ne sais quois… that comes from handwriting in a nice dotted notebook that digital alternatives don’t offer [1].

Generalising this further, I think the medium we use to record our thoughts often ends up shaping them. For example, I suspect a student who takes notes exclusively on Microsoft Word will develop a bias towards thinking of their syllabus in a linear fashion. But a student who, in addition, uses spider diagrams and mindmaps may be better placed to ‘see’ the structure of the syllabus more clearly, and to more easily form connections between different ideas.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my joy at using an actual notebook and pen for the first time in years. Tech is all well and good, and going paperless with my iPad was a great decision for medical school, but occasionally it’s nice to take things a bit slower and deliberately write stuff out by hand.

Have a great week!

Ali

This week’s podcast episode

011 – How can we get into the habit of reading? | Not Overthinking

This week we discuss the challenges of developing a reading habit. Taimur shares his struggles with starting books and never finishing them, lamenting the small role of reading in his life. Ali offers some advice on how to read more regularly, and we share some book recommendations for listeners. Enjoy!

Stuff I enjoyed this week

1 – Podcast – The Definitive Guide To Digital Productivity – I loved this interview with Tiago Forte on the Modern Wisdom podcast. It was a discussion between two productivity nerds discussing their systems and their apps etc. This is the sort of thing I live for.

2 – Podcast – This interview with Derek Sivers is one of my favourite episodes of the Tim Ferriss Show. It was replayed on the podcast this week and so I re-listened to it and It’s definitely worth a listen if you’re interested in living a more intentional life. Also, I had dinner with Derek a few weeks ago in Cambridge and it was amazing #brag.

3 – Article – Outsourcing my Life – An interesting look at the rationale behind outsourcing various bits of our lives. This is something I’ve long sympathised with and intend to actively apply to my own life moving forward.

Kindle Highlight of the Week

We can step back from a situation and decide not to add to our first impressions by concocting a story that makes us feel bad. We can bring to mind helpful and familiar thoughts or questions when we need them, such as ‘Is this something in my control?’ or ‘Do I have a problem right now?’

From Happy by Derren Brown.

This week’s video