Writing
Why is writing important?
Writing is important because it helps you think and helps you remember. When you put an idea into your own words, you find out whether you really understand it. Writing also keeps things for later, and it lets you say something to a person who is not with you.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The short answer
What does writing do for you?
Writing does four useful things for you.
It shows you what you really understand.
A thought can feel clear in your head. Then you try to write it down, and you get stuck halfway. That is a good thing. Now you know which part you have not worked out yet.
It helps you remember.
When you put something in your own words, you remember it better than when you only read it. The words have to come from you.
It keeps things for later.
Your head cannot hold everything. A list, a note or a diary holds it for you. You can go back to it next week or ten years from now.
It lets you reach someone who is not with you.
A message, a letter or a report says what you mean when you are not there to say it. The clearer you write, the less the other person has to guess.
Researchers have tested the first two. What they found is further down this page.
How to do it
How can you use writing in your day?
Using writing in your day does not take long. You do not need to write a lot, and you do not need to write well. Here are three simple ways.
Write it in your own words.
After a class, a meeting or a chapter, write two or three lines about it. Do not copy. Say it the way you would tell a friend.
Write from memory.
Close the book or your notes, and write down everything you remember. Then open the book again and see what you missed. The page on active recall explains this way of studying.
Write the first draft yourself.
A chatbot can write a page for you in seconds. But then you skip the thinking, and the thinking is the part that helps you. So write your own draft first. After that, use any tool you like to check it.
An example
What does fifteen minutes a day look like?
Fifteen minutes of writing a day fits into a busy week. The week below is made up for this page. It shows what one person wrote each day, and for how long.
| Day and what was written | Time | How long |
|---|---|---|
| SundayA page about the week ahead to | to | 20m |
| MondayWhat the morning meeting decided, in my own words to | to | 15m |
| TuesdayA short summary of the chapter I read on the train to | to | 15m |
| WednesdayNothing. A late night at work. | No writing | None |
| ThursdayMy reasons for the new plan, from start to finish to | to | 20m |
| FridayThree things I learned this week, from memory to | to | 10m |
| SaturdayA long letter to a friend to | to | 30m |
| The week | Wrote on six days, missed one | 1h 50m |
The week adds up to 1h 50m of writing on 6 days, with one day missed. A year of weeks like this one would be 95 hours. And the person never wrote for more than half an hour at a time.
What studies found
Does writing help you think and remember?
Yes. Studies support both. Here are four things researchers have found.
You remember more when the words come from you.
In hundreds of experiments, people remembered things they came up with themselves better than things they were only given to read (McCurdy and colleagues, 2020). In one study, some students put a text away and wrote down everything they could remember. A week later they did better on a test than students who had read the text again or drawn a map of its ideas (Karpicke and Blunt, 2011).
Writing about something helps you understand it.
School students who wrote about what they were learning in science, social studies or math learned it a little better (Graham, Kiuhara and MacKay, 2020). One reason may be that explaining shows you what you do not know. In other experiments, people had to explain in detail how something works, such as a new tax plan. After that, they said they understood it less well than they had thought (Fernbach and colleagues, 2013). The Feynman technique uses the same idea.
By hand or on a keyboard, the difference is small.
Many people say you learn more when you take notes by hand. One well-known study found that students who wrote by hand did better (Mueller and Oppenheimer, 2014). Two other teams ran the same study again, and neither found a clear difference (Morehead, Dunlosky and Rawson, 2019; Urry and colleagues, 2021). A review of many studies found that handwritten notes helped a little (Flanigan and colleagues, 2024). So use the one you like.
A chatbot that gives you the answer can hold you back.
In one large study, high school students practiced math with a chatbot. Then they took an exam without it. They scored 17% lower than classmates who never had it (Bastani and colleagues, 2025). The study was about math, not writing. Still, it is a good reason to write your own draft first.
The test
How do you know it is working?
The test
You wrote on at least 5 days of the week, for the minutes you set
for 4 weeks in a row.
Writing changes how you think, but slowly. And it is easy to believe you wrote this week when you did not.
A good way to do this test is to count the minutes from what you already write or say about your day. If you say “wrote for fifteen minutes before work”, that counts as fifteen minutes. You do not have to start a timer and then forget it. Most journaling apps only ask how your day felt. They keep your words, but they cannot tell you how many days this month you sat down to write.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: study, reading, work, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. And when you write your day down in your own words, that is a few minutes of writing too, every day. Add your writing minutes as a habit on the days you set. When what you write about your day shows them, the app ticks it off and your streak goes on.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Writing0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Writing this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where the findings come from.
Every finding on this page links to one of the sources below. We read each one for this page, the whole text or its summary.
- McCurdy, M. P., Viechtbauer, W., Sklenar, A. M., Frankenstein, A. N. and Leshikar, E. D. (2020). Theories of the generation effect and the impact of generation constraint: A meta-analytic review. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27(6), 1139 to 1165.
- Karpicke, J. D. and Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying with Concept Mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772 to 775.
- Fernbach, P. M., Rogers, T., Fox, C. R. and Sloman, S. A. (2013). Political extremism is supported by an illusion of understanding. Psychological Science, 24(6), 939 to 946.
- Graham, S., Kiuhara, S. A. and MacKay, M. (2020). The Effects of Writing on Learning in Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 90(2), 179 to 226.
- Mueller, P. A. and Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159 to 1168.
- Morehead, K., Dunlosky, J. and Rawson, K. A. (2019). How Much Mightier Is the Pen than the Keyboard for Note-Taking? A Replication and Extension of Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014). Educational Psychology Review, 31(3), 753 to 780.
- Urry, H. L., Crittle, C. S., Floerke, V. A., Leonard, M. Z., Perry, C. S. and colleagues (2021). Don’t Ditch the Laptop Just Yet: A Direct Replication of Mueller and Oppenheimer’s (2014) Study 1 Plus Mini Meta-Analyses Across Similar Studies. Psychological Science, 32(3), 326 to 339.
- Flanigan, A. E., Wheeler, J., Colliot, T., Lu, J. and Kiewra, K. A. (2024). Typed Versus Handwritten Lecture Notes and College Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 36(3), article 78.
- Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakcı, Ö. and Mariman, R. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(26), e2422633122.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- How to write betterSeven steps to clearer writing, one short note rewritten twice, and what studies found helps.
- Morning pagesWrite three pages by hand every morning. How to do it, how long it takes, and what studies say.
- How to start journalingSeven small steps for the first week, and an example first entry.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
Why is writing important?
Writing is important because it helps you think and helps you remember. When you put an idea into your own words, you find out whether you really understand it. Writing also keeps things for later, and it lets you say something to a person who is not with you.
Is writing thinking?
Often, yes. People work out what they think while they look for the words. If you get stuck halfway through a sentence, you have found the part you do not understand yet.
Does writing help memory?
Yes. You remember things you come up with yourself better than things you only read. So write notes in your own words, and try writing down what you remember before you look at the book again.
Is handwriting better than typing for learning?
The studies do not agree. One well-known study found that students who took notes by hand did better. Two other teams ran the same study again and did not find a clear difference. If there is a difference, it is small.
Does writing still matter now that chatbots can write?
Yes. In one study, high school students practiced math with a chatbot. On a later exam without it, they scored 17% lower than classmates who never had it. So write your draft yourself. Then use any tool you like to check it.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.