With the right apps, a smartphone can do almost anything, but it’s also useful to occasionally ditch your phone in favor of a trusty notebook. Here are benefits of carrying a paper notebook.
1. Unplugging Benefits Your Brain
Switching from your phone to a notebook brings more than nostalgia—it promotes mental well-being. A notebook doesn’t bombard you with notifications, and embracing it for tasks like your to-do list can help break the cycle of smartphone dependency. Overusing digital devices may contribute to anxiety, sleep problems and waning productivity. Experts suggest disconnecting periodically to regain focus and calm.
Outsourcing a few of your digital tasks to a physical notebook can make it easier to stay away from the screen. If you don’t know what you would fill a paper notebook with, try starting with something easy like a planner, where you can keep track of your goals, to-do list and appointments in an organized fashion.
2. Endless Versatility
A notebook isn't limited to jotting down notes—it's also a sketchpad, planner, budget tracker and idea hub. Doodle, diagram, write; its flexibility adapts to any creative or organizational need. Unlike apps, paper is infinite in scope and creativity.
A notebook can be a repository for all the odds and ends you want to remember, from your monthly budget to your grocery list to your list of all the great restaurants you’ve visited or coffees you’ve enjoyed drinking. Nor do you need to use it solely for writing. It’s also a great place for your sketches, doodles and diagrams.
3. Handwriting Enhances Brain Power
There are advantages to writing by hand. It sharpens memory, improves spelling and accelerates thought processes. While typing can feel effortless, putting pen to paper activates cognitive centers that typing can't.
Studies find that writing by hand helps you process information better, remember more, and think faster compared to typing. Plus, it improves your spelling. Jotting down thoughts in a notebook is a handy way to reinvigorate the parts of your brain (and hand) that don’t get a workout when you type on a computer or a smartphone.
4. Capture Fleeting Thoughts
Memory is fleeting, so let a notebook become your reliable storage. Write down that idea, brilliant insight or the name of the restaurant with the best tacos—it’ll be there when your memory falters. After all, even those with impressive memory skills aren’t immune to forgetting details or crafting false recollections.
Eyewitness testimony in court cases has been found to be highly unreliable, and researchers have found that even people with so-called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memories—super-memory skills that allow them to remember just about every detail from their lives—are susceptible to false memories. Even when we believe we remember events vividly, our recollections can be wrong. Is it any surprise, then, that we struggle to remember phone numbers and grocery lists?
Carrying pen and paper makes it easy to write down information on the fly, providing a more accurate snapshot of the day when you go back to your notebook.
5. A Boost for Mental Health
Journaling is a well-documented therapeutic tool that aids in managing anxiety, depression and introspection. A notebook offers privacy and solace when you need to clear your thoughts or gain clarity during life’s chaotic moments.
Keeping some sort of diary helps people express inner thoughts and fears, identify negative thought patterns, and track symptoms. Even if you don’t have anxiety, keeping a journal can help clarify your feelings and get to know yourself. You may think you don’t have time to dedicate to writing every day, but if you carry around a notebook, your diary will always be on hand to write in while you’re killing time during your day.
6. Inspiration Strikes Anywhere
Many creative geniuses carried notebooks for capturing sparks of inspiration, from Beethoven's melodies to Mark Twain's travel musings. Your life doesn’t need to produce symphonies or novels to warrant a notebook. It’s simply about seizing those everyday flashes of brilliance.
Carrying a notebook has been an essential part of the creative process for centuries. Ludwig van Beethoven didn’t go anywhere without one, just in case inspiration struck while he was out. Benjamin Franklin carried a pocket notebook to chart his moral progress on his “13 virtues” character development plan. Mark Twain took notebooks with him wherever he traveled to write down observations and book ideas. The same goes for today. Modern authors and artists know that their best ideas probably won’t come to them when they’re sitting down at their desks, ready to work. Even if you aren’t planning on becoming a famous writer or composer, you no doubt have flashes of brilliance and a notebook will allow you to remember them.
7. Low-Tech Reliability
Unlike digital devices that need charging, a notebook is perpetually ready. Digital planners and apps are convenient and useful—until your phone goes dead. Paper and pen don’t require any charging and are always ready to use. Even if you use your phone or computer for most writing tasks, it’s great to keep a notebook on hand for when your digital devices run out of juice.
