The tortoise wins again!

Alan Henry, the editor of Smarter Living, a section of the New York Times “that aims to help readers live better, healthier, happier lives” wrote an article this week titled, “The Gear You Need for a New Year (and a New You)." 

The first thing Henry suggests is, “A notebook and pen for all those notes and to-dos.” He recommends his favorite journals, fountain pens and pencils, check it out.

He also references an earlier NYT article that summarizes research which found that students who used laptops to take notes versus pen and paper had a substantially worse understanding of class lectures (as measured by a standardized test) than those who took notes with pen and paper.

The reasoning behind this is super interesting. Because we can type faster than we can write, if we type what we hear we spend less time processing what we’re hearing. If we hand write, we have to process and condense what we hear to write it down.

It’s like the race between the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise wins again! Thank you @halophoenix