Writing benefits

Summary

The author emphasizes the numerous cognitive and communicative benefits of regular writing, including improved communication skills, vocabulary expansion, enhanced thinking abilities, and reduced stress.

Abstract

The article discusses the personal insights of the author regarding the impact of reduced writing activity over a period in late 2023. The author reflects on the adverse effects of writing less, drawing a parallel to neglecting dental hygiene, and identifies several advantages of maintaining a regular writing practice. These benefits include becoming a more effective communicator and conversationalist, as writing hones one's ability to articulate thoughts clearly and select words judiciously. Regular writing also enriches vocabulary by highlighting overused words and introducing new concepts, thereby enhancing the writer's life experience. Writing is presented as a powerful tool for improving thinking skills, as it allows for the solitary generation, assessment, and assimilation of ideas, leading to better decision-making and reduced stress. The author encourages readers to write, even about what they have read, to reap the cognitive benefits, improve memory, and become more organized thinkers.

Opinions

Writing regularly enhances communication skills and makes one a more engaging conversationalist.
Regular writing practice expands vocabulary and enriches one's experience of life.
Writing is seen as a means to improve thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
The author believes that good thinkers, who are often good writers, experience less stress due to their confidence in decision-making.
Writing about what one reads can improve memory and the retention of ideas, as well as organizational thinking.
The author suggests that writing is a beneficial habit with no real downside.

Writing benefits

For the last few months of 2023, I’ve not been writing as much as I used to. There have been fewer letters to friends, fewer notes on the books I’ve read, less journaling, and fewer articles on Medium. Just like you’d soon notice a negative effect if you stopped brushing your teeth twice a day, I’ve noticed a negative effect of writing less. The flip side of that is that I’ve been able to identify numerous undeniable benefits of regular writing.

Writing makes you a far better communicator and a more engaging conversationalist. I’m an effective communicator, but not as good as I was when I wrote regularly. When you write longhand you don’t have the option of deleting any errors, so you have to think about what you’re putting on paper. The process of selecting the words that make it onto the paper, and thinking about the order of sentences and concepts that will best get your message across is an exercise that improves not only your writing, but your speech as well. Your powers of persuasion, your ability to entertain and connect with another person, and the enjoyment you can get from conversing and interacting with other people, are all improved by regular writing.

A corollary of this is that writing improves your vocabulary. You will quickly notice when you write, that there are certain words you fall back on far too often, and you will become aware of the ideas you have difficulty communicating because you don’t know the correct words to describe them. I believe that the more words and concepts you become familiar with, the richer your experience of life becomes. As the breadth of your understanding increases, you get more from the world you inhabit.

Writing makes you a better thinker. The better you can think, the better you will live. Your ability to move through life effectively, happily, and without unnecessary stress and confusion is positively correlated to your ability to think. What is thinking? It is the generation of ideas, the assessment of those ideas, and then the assimilation of those ideas into one’s corpus of other knowledge. Most people cannot think without talking to another person. Conversation becomes a situation where two or more people do one person’s thinking. Simply stated, it is difficult for most people to think completely by themselves because they must play three separate roles; generator of ideas, assessor of ideas, and assimilator of ideas. Writing, usually done in silence or alone, allows you to practice all three roles. I have found that I can think better when I write regularly. Good thinking allows me to solve problems and reach decisions far more quickly and confidently.

Better thinkers are less prone to stress. Stress is often the result of not knowing what to do, or not being confident in your decisions. The better you can think, the more confident you will be in your decisions, and the fewer answers you will lack. Good thinkers always seem to know what to do, and good writers are good thinkers.

The above are all benefits I miss when I stop writing regularly. Noticing that is what has made me write this article. I hope you take heed and start writing. If you have nothing to write about, go and read something, then write about what you have read. Doing so will improve your memory and your retention of ideas. As you write, you will also be explaining the ideas to your audience, which means those ideas must be organised amongst your current ideas. All at once you’ll be getting smarter, becoming a better communicator, improving your ability to think independently, and probably becoming a better decision maker who experiences less stress than people who don’t make a habit of writing.

Get writing. You can’t really lose.