We can think about the benefits of writing in two categories: cognitive and practical.
The cognitive benefits are about how writing affects our mental processes. The way of thinking, making decisions, feeling, etc. The practical ones are about how it’s is useful to us on daily basis. Writing an email, sending a postcard, leaving a sticky note for your partner on the fridge, and so on.
Writing is a communication medium between us, our minds, and those that need to understand something from us.
In reality, writing is everywhere. Applying for school or a job, learning or taking an exam, going to the doctor or therapist, etc. Looks like, we are told to write in many situations, yet we are not really able to. Capable or not, sometimes we have to do it if we want to get somewhere or achieve something.
Let’s briefly see what are the key benefits that writing provides.
Writing makes you a better speaker 🔗
Almost anyone that is a good speaker, is also a good writer. Or at least they write. This does not apply to public speaking only. There are people that have a very clear expression in their everyday conversations too. Professors, lectors, coaches. Many of them will tell you their secret of the clear expression. They write the things that they later talk about.
The simpler we are in our written form, the clearer we are in our conversations. Writing is a gym for our speaking. It is like a rehearsal before the main event. If you don’t write it before you speak it, you will sound like you are doing a live rehearsal during the main event. And anyone that has given a public speech, knows that that’s a bad idea.
Becoming fluent in writing means that your thoughts are in place. Writing is an outcome of our thinking process. Once we write about something, we already have it figured out. But the figuring out should not be said aloud. The few versions before the main one are called drafts. Verbal drafts are the worst because we cannot analyze them once we say them. Don’t speak in drafts. Speak in the final version of what you want to say.
To do so, write, chew, spit and repeat until you reach that version.
Better observe your thoughts 🔗
We are biased towards our thinking as it’s something that happens in our own brains. When we come to a certain conclusion we tend to think it’s the best one.
Eureka! It’s not.
Our thoughts are based on the knowledge we have from our previous experiences. Any assumption we make when we are thinking about something, could be misleading and that can be the reason to draw wrong conclusions. Because the process is subjective, we start to believe those conclusions. Thus, we like to think of ourselves as imposters, frauds, or end up with even worse mental health-related problems.
One reason is that once we come up with an idea, we forget about the original thoughts that formed it. We remember the last part, but not how we came there. One way for us to remember that path is through writing.
Writing helps us observe our thoughts that are the scaffold of our final ideas. That is why complex mathematical problems are not verbal, but rather, written down. And that is why you don’t solve them in your head, but by writing down formulas, unknowns, and operations. Complexity requires external observation. When you write about it, you solve half of it.
By putting our thoughts on paper, we make it easier for us to see them from another perspective, usually more objective one. That is why the basic methods of writing, like journaling or keeping a diary are so powerful. It’s because by doing so we build a writing habit that helps us take internal emotions and place them outside of us.
Materialize your feelings 🔗
If you could take your negative feelings, turn them into play dough and make something of it, what figure would you do?
A written word is a thought in material form. Emotional materialization is another benefit of writing. When you write, you empty yourself from the negative or emphasize the positive feelings. That is why often therapists ask their patients to start writing during their therapies.
For example, a good part of a type of therapy called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), is writing. The point is, to help the patients create materials that can be used to re-learn their falsely learned habits. Some therapists go even further by merging two concepts: CBT and expressive writing.
Expressive writing is personal writing, indifferent to form or writing conventions, that can be used to create a dump of emotions. Those that write expressively, write bout ongoing negative feelings that preoccupy them, unhappy situations or thoughts, etc. They take it out of their heads.
Writing is not efficient because the world suddenly became hyped about it, but rather because it’s a natural way to extract our inner emotions. It’s like screaming in a well.
Use of writing in business 🔗
When I started my professional career as a software developer I was shocked by the amount of writing I had to do on daily basis. I was a junior and often I was taking tasks where I had to write a summary of a specification, and also give my opinion about it. I was clueless, to be honest, and quite frustrated about what I had to do.
It turned out, that was one of the greatest business-writing experiences I had. The reason I was asked to write, was that my more experienced superiors knew that writing is a great way to memorize things. Also, they made use of it by create business prospects later. In the end, we sent those prospects to our stakeholders, that would create offers, specifications, etc.
Writing is the fundament of all businesses. More about it, in the next article.
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