You ever feel like it’s getting harder than ever to remember important info – or even what you need to get at the grocery store? Just because it’s easy to put things down in the Notes app on your iPhone, if you really want to remember things – use the old tried-and-true method of writing it down on paper.
A new study shows that writing on physical paper allowed students to retain the information an hour later as opposed to other methods like taking things down on a laptop.
Researchers found that paper was more useful to our memories because each sheet of paper is physically unique – as opposed to a screen which stays the same, only what appears on it changes.
Also, those participating in the study who used paper completed tasks 25% faster than those who used digital tools.
They also tested differences between using physical pen and paper or using a tablet with a stylus and because the paper allows for uneven strokes or variations of letters, or even folds in the paper, and our brains retained the info from paper more.
So if you really want to remember what you need to grab at Stop and Shop…grab a pen!
Image Credit: Oleksii Didok / iStock / Getty Images Plus