Pen And Paper vs Your Phone: What The Research Says

Every time I post about notebooks, someone asks whether writing by hand really makes a difference. It's a good question, and the answer is more interesting than the one most journaling brands give you.

What the research supports

Writing about how you feel has decades of research behind it. James Pennebaker's work on expressive writing found that writing about emotionally significant experiences can reduce stress and improve mood. The benefits are modest and build over weeks, which is why returning to the page matters more than doing it perfectly.

Whether you need a pen for those benefits is less clear. A widely cited 1999 study found that people who wrote about a stressful experience by hand disclosed more than people who typed. Later studies found that handwriting and typing produced the same emotional effects, and one found people simply wrote more words on a computer.

The clearest difference is in the brain. A 2024 EEG study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that handwriting activates broader networks in the brain than typing does. Handwriting is also slower, and that slower pace makes you choose what's worth putting down.

So why do I still choose paper?

Because of what it doesn't have notifications, other tabs, autocorrect, or an audience. My phone is where I reply to things, and my notebook is where I slow down enough to hear what I actually think.

Paper also lets me do things a notes app makes awkward. I draw arrows between ideas, doodle in the margins, stick in a ticket from a good day and cross things out without deleting them.

Your creativity > AI

We're surrounded by things that get generated in seconds. A page you fill yourself, with crossings-out, wonky drawings and lists that go nowhere, can't come from anyone else. That's where your inner artist gets to play.

In yoga, santosha is contentment with what is, and a messy handwritten page is a good place to practise it. Nobody is grading this notebook.

Find yours

The Rooted & Flowing journal is part of our Things on My Mind launch, with cover art by Sakina Saidi. Every order comes with a guided ritual card and my playlist, and Sakina's stickers are available in the bundle or separately.

Find yours at ladinayoga.com

If you're still on the fence, read Do you really need another notebook?, or the story of how I lost my creativity at university and found it again.

Sources

• Brewin & Lennard (1999), via physio.uth.gr: handwriting vs typing about a stressful experience
• Emotional expression and modality: computer vs paper: longhand and typing equivalent
• Phone-typing, computer-typing and handwriting (APS 2021): no difference in emotional content
• Science says handwriting helps your brain: summary of the 2024 NTNU EEG study and Pennebaker's research