Value of handwritten notes and sketches

Know that tools for the hands are tools for the brain. Handwritten notes are a powerful tool for encrypting embodied cognition, that is, the mind is not only connected to the body but that the body influences the mind, and in turn supporting the brain’s capacity for retrieval of information. And secondly, when you take notes by hand, your hands create a robust external memory storage: your notebook. While keyboarding is an important skill too, notably for written communication, keyboarding does not provide the tactile feedback to the brain that contact between pencil or pen and paper does. Researchers have found that note-taking associated with keyboarding involves taking notes verbatim in a way that does not involve processing information, and so have called this “non-generative” note-taking. By contrast, taking notes by hand involves cognitive engagement in summarising, organising, and conceptualising — in short, manipulating and transforming information that leads to deeper understanding. This goes for sketching and drawing too: Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “…the more minutely you describe, the more you will confuse the mind of the reader and the more you will remove him from knowledge of the thing described. Therefore it is necessary to make a drawing ... as well as to describe ...". So creating neurocircuitry for memory and meaning through the hand-brain complex is the key to understanding the value of hand-written notes and sketches. Source: https://theconversation.com/note-taking-by-hand-a-powerful-tool-to-support-memory-144049?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB