Long Live the Whiteboard

My last post (The Power of Writing Things Down) generated more comments than usual. Many of you were intrigued by research showing how writing things down by hand improves retention, clarity and commitment and also reduces stress.

There’s also the accountability factor. If we take the time to write down our goals or obligations rather than keep them in our head (or phones) we’re more likely to complete them. Taking it a step further, if we write those goals or obligations on a publicly viewable whiteboard, research shows we are up to 1.4 times more likely to achieve them.

The whiteboard (aka marker board, dry-erase board, dry-wipe board, or pen-board) has long been associated with corporate conference rooms. It’s sometimes maligned as an outdated tool in this digital age – like the fax machine and typewriter. But I’ve found whiteboards to be even more useful than ever in this era of 24/7 distraction.

Everyone uses whiteboards differently

I keep an oversize whiteboard in my office even though I rarely hold team meetings there. I like having a large, non-permanent white canvas to organize my thoughts, ideas and obligations. It’s posted right next to the front door and is always in direct line of my sight. I can’t avoid looking at my whiteboard and it has all of my immediate must-do items as well as my longer-term projects that can’t be completed in one sitting. Unlike apps and project management software, I can’t turn it off or swipe left. Those obligations are always staring at me and can’t be avoided.

I’m not big on to-do lists, task lists and punch lists, because they’re so binary. Either you got it done and checked off the list, or you didn’t. That doesn’t leave room for incremental progress, which is so crucial for knowledge workers like us. When you have a complex presentation due two months from now, or a book chapter due in six weeks, or a new client who wants to sign on next quarter, it can be extremely debilitating to see an empty box left unchecked day after day, month after month. It’s far more inspiring to see that you’ve made incremental progress on those long-term initiatives. If I’m roughly 50% complete, I like to shade in half the box next to the project. If I’m just getting started, I shade in a small amount, rather than leaving it blank. And if almost to the finish line, I shade in most of the box, but not all of it.

I use various colors for certain kinds of projects, but my favorite tactic is using directional arrows. As knowledge workers, so much of our day is spent either waiting for someone to make a decision about something we’ve sent them, or they’re waiting for us to act on something they’ve sent us. It’s kind of like a mental tennis match. So, I use left-facing arrows next to items for which the ball is in my court and I use right facing arrows to designate items for which the ball is in a client’s or colleague’s court. Even on days when nothing gets checked off the list, if I leave my office with more right-facing arrows than left-facing ones, I go home in a good frame of mind. By contrast, most notetaking and to-do list apps are linear. They don’t seem to accommodate the unique, free-form way that humans process thoughts, ideas, and workflow.

But a whiteboard isn’t just for brainstorming or keeping track of tasks. It can save you from cranial overload because it gives you a convenient place to dump all the stuff that clutters up your brain. Your tasks, initiatives and projects are captured in a convenient location where you don’t have to think about them until you are ready to address them. That frees up lots of bandwidth for higher and more productive thinking. Even better, you don’t have to set up an account, a log-in, or download an app to use your whiteboard. And you don’t have to sift through endless paper files or cabinet drawers to find an idea or project outline you tucked away for safekeeping many months ago.

 

*** Our free resources section has more about this topic.

But here’s the other benefit of a physical, tactile whiteboard. It’s a finite space. When you start to run out of room, you can’t keep adding expansion slots or writing in a smaller font. You have to start prioritizing and deleting.

I probably re-sort the items on my whiteboard three or four times a day. When something has to be erased from the board because it’s not a high enough priority, I find it tremendously liberating not to have to keep thinking about it.

As Winston Churchill liked to say: “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress.”

Conclusion

What are you and your colleagues doing to capture tasks and make incremental progress? I’d love to hear from you.

#businesswriting,#thoughtleadership, #productivity

The Power of Writing Things Down

When I’m rushing out the door late for an appointment, my wife inevitably asks me to pick up some skim milk, real butter and jumbo eggs on the way home. “Three items. Nothing unusual. I’ve got this,” I tell myself and commit the task to memory.

But then comes the pesky addendums to the list about 30 seconds later. “Honey, if you see the picante salsa, not too spicy, in the jar not the can, that would be great,” she adds with full confidence that I’ll remember. “They’re right by the low-salt gluten-free taco chips, you know, with the corn meal and the sea salt not the regular salt. So, pick up an extra-large bag, not the normal large,” she adds. “We have people coming over this weekend.”

 

Uh oh.

 

I tell myself I better write this list down. I won’t have time to hit the store until after work and there’s too much time to forget. In the old days I would have whipped out a pen and Post-It note and stuck it to the dash of my car. And here’s the funny thing. The Post-It note would often go missing by the time I got to the store. But since I took the time to written down each item on the list, it was locked into my short-term memory, and I usually brought home everything my lovely wife requested.

 

But now everyone makes fun of my system, so I try dictating a voice memo to myself and add the request to my task-remind app. And, more often than not, my grocery run goes sideways and there’s hell to pay when I get home.

What’s going on?

In this fast-paced world of AI, digital transcription services and note-taking apps, it seems like we’d be getting better at remembering things and organizing our thoughts. But all of this technology may be is making us even more distracted, less organized and increasingly stressed. Research shows that writing things down by hand improves retention, clarity and commitment and can also reduce stress.

Here’s why.

Writing engages different cognitive processes than typing or mental notetaking alone. When we write something down, we process information more deeply and retain it better. A frequently cited study by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University found that people who wrote down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them compared to those who didn't.

The research found that the act of writing things down in a notebook or a journal involves more cognitive activity than typing it out on a keyboard or on a screen. This means that more areas of the brain are activated, and they are activated more intensely as we write compared to when we type.

There’s also the accountability factor. If we take the time to write down our goals on paper or on a publicly viewable whiteboard, we are 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to achieve them.

Then there’s the act of handwriting itself. a new study in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that handwriting may be irreplaceable when it comes to learning. Researchers found that writing by hand activates far more extensive and interconnected brain networks compared to typing, particularly in regions linked to memory and sensory processing.

Neuroscientists say that when we write our goals or intentions down, encoding takes place in our brains. Scientists say encoding affects the choices we make and how we act in extremely profound ways, even if we’re not conscious of it.

“As a card-carrying boomer, I keep a paper diary in addition to my electronic calendar,” admits Cecil Nazareth, CPA, senior partner of a thriving international tax firm, adjunct professor at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and part-time field hockey couch. Nazareth is one busy guy. But as he describes in his latest book, Making A Difference, “Some of my staff laugh at me, but the paper diary really helps prevent me from missing client tax deadlines, teaching assignments and family obligations. If you write everything down, it won’t slip through the cracks,” he adds. “There’s just something about writing down an important assignment or appointment on paper that makes it seem more real and less likely to be overlooked.”

Minimize distraction and procrastination. Personally, I’ve found that writing things down by hand won’t tempt you with other distraction like digital devices do. Swipe into your phone to take a note in your note-taking app and you’ll find your finger wandering over to the Instagram app. And the Twitter app. Soon enough, even though you finished typing your note 10 minutes ago, you’re still idling the hours away on your phone.

Clarity. The human brain has on average 6,000 thoughts per day. Putting our thoughts on paper is a powerful form of decluttering. When we declutter our lives, whether it's our brains, our desk or our garage, we become more productive. When you write your thoughts by hand, you can only write one word at a time. Your thoughts slow down to match your writing speed and you’ll find that it’s easier to slip out of your overthinking mindset. You’re also forcing yourself to decide what’s most important. But, if you’re taking notes or writing out to-dos on a screen, there’s literally endless space to do so; it’s actually pretty easy to mindlessly type out highlights from a lecture or make a list of every single thing that you’re thinking about in the moment.

Better attention span. The act of writing by hand requires our full attention. Because we are fully engaged, our thoughts are less likely to wander off into tangents. That’s quite rare in this day and age where attention spans are markedly shorter. Developing the habit of writing by hand will strengthen your sustained focus and attention muscles. This will help your complete tasks and become more detail oriented.

 

Improved productivity. A study published in The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience showed that writing by hand improves neural activity in certain parts of the brain, particularly those associated with focus and attention. In contrast, the ease of typing can make it tempting to multitask, reducing overall productivity.

Frees up working memory. Our working memory, also referred to as our short-term memory, is the RAM of our brain. Our brains are incredible machines, but our RAMs are sadly limited. Unlike our long-term memory, which is vast, our working memory cannot hold too much information at a time without freezing up or encountering performance issues. An overburdened working memory degrades our cognitive function, causing us to make careless mistakes.

Enhances creativity and problem solving. There’s a reason why many creative thinkers—writers, artists, and innovators—still prefer pen and paper for brainstorming and problem-solving. Writing by hand engages different neural pathways, often leading to more creative thinking and better solutions.

Stress relief. One of the best ways to quiet a busy and racing mind is to write things out longhand. Getting our thoughts and feelings on paper can offer a sense of relief. It can turn our minds from chaotic to calm in an instant. That is what the concept of writing therapy is all about and it’s extremely beneficial for our mental health. If you don’t have the time for long-form writing, you can still engage in some writing therapy by doing periodic brain dumps. This is one of the things the bullet journal is good for. This is the process of externalizing our scattered thoughts by writing them down. At a later time, these brain dumps may be organized into lists or reflections.

 

In my next post I’ll discuss why writing on whiteboards is so effective for organizing your thoughts, staying on track and preserving your sanity.

 

Conclusion

From enhancing your career, to reducing stress, to improving your relationships, taking the time to write things down strengthens your cognitive muscles and makes you more present. Sometimes going slow is the perfect antidote to this fast-paced world.

Our free resources have more.

What are you and your colleagues doing to improve your notetaking and recall? I’d love to hear from you.

 

#businesswriting, #thoughtleadership, #businesscommunication

#businesswriting, #thoughtleadership, #businesscommunication