I’ve recently started a habit. Whenever I’m reading a book, if something really pops out at me, I neatly transcribe it into a notebook. Physically writing things down, pen to paper, is such a different experience from copy/pasting an excerpt into your notes app, or highlighting a snippet in your ebook reader.

It’s been doing some interesting things to my brain, so I had to share my experience with you on this episode, and tell you why you might like to start this habit too.

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Remember a time when the Internet was brand spanking new?

You probably didn’t exist then, I don’t know. Haha

If you’re one of the lucky few who experienced the transformation of the 90s, then you’ll recall the pure potential we felt that first time of opening a browser and looking at…colour internet!

Before that we had dial up, and we had something called shell internet. All we could access was in text. There were no pictures, nothing. It was just text. Then the proper internet came and we could see this beautiful page open with all the colours!

The guy who installed the internet onto our computer, the very first thing he opened out on Internet Explorer (that’s what existed back then), the very first website he opened was discovery.com. Perfect choice, because it was full of bright colours and gorgeous photographs of animals and geography, so many beautiful things!

My jaw was hanging open like, “woooooowwwwww”.

That’s when my real love affair with the internet began

I’d spend hours on the computer! I know that’s very common now. Everybody’s online all the time. But in the mid-nineties, it wasn’t a common thing. In fact, a lot of people didn’t even have computers at home. Very few families had them. We did, and I loved the computer.

It seemed like there was so much there, this window to the rest of the world. My curiosity was stoked, and I’d just browse and browse.

I had this habit. I’d take a notebook and whatever jokes I liked, I’d scribble them down. It was so nice. Most of what I wrote down were jokes, but I also had some lovely quotes and some excerpts from articles. So many interesting things.

I’d write them down in my notebook carefully

My handwriting in general is crap. Back then too it was. But when I was writing something I loved, like my poetry and then in this notebook, I’d write slowly and neatly. Nice round letters. It was actually readable.

Everything else I wrote, my parents would call it “Kaagekaal, Gubikaal”. That’s Kannada for crow’s feet and sparrow’s feet. “That’s what it looks like”, they’d say. *laughs*

But in my notebook, the one where I collated all my favourite little snippets from the internet, the handwriting was so neat, so beautiful! No scratching, no smudges. Neat and slow and round and well written.

Of course, over the years that habit disappeared. Life goes on, gets faster, you grow up, hustle, all of that.

Recently again, I picked up the habit

Not stuff from the internet, but from whenever I’m reading a book. Especially a non-fiction book. I realise there are so many interesting things people say that just get lost.

Yeah, when I’m doing it in e-book form, I can highlight it in my books app. But then, how often do you even go back in and look through those highlights? And of course, when it’s an audiobook, it’s all gone.

So I started this new habit just a week or so ago. I’ll be reading a non-fiction book, and then something that really pops, something I really like, I write it down in a notebook. Neatly. Not as neat as my teen years, but neat enough. Haha It works.

And of course, because it’s so precious and important to me, I use my colour-colour-colour-colour Paper Mate Flair Felt Pens to do it. It’s so nice!

I got introduced to this these pens, this particular brand, by my friend Ashley when we’d gone on a trip to Italy. We’d met on this vegan food heels retreat in Italy in 2019. And she brought a Paper Mate Flair felt black pen for each of us as a gift.

I fell in love with it! We don’t really get them in India. So when somebody travels from the US, I ask them to bring me a stash. Last time I ordered them, instead of just black, I ordered this big, colourful set! They’re called Candy Pop Colours and I love those colours.

So I’ve been using them in my writing. Especially these quotations, and creative things, something fun. Or something I want to cherish, like taking notes down in some of my classes. I use these colour-colour pens to do it all.

Anyway, the reason I am sharing all this with you is because I highly recommend you try it too.

You don’t need any fancy colours, just any normal pen and a notebook is enough. But start writing down things and collating quotes, excerpts. Just doing it digitally, it doesn’t cut it. It’s nowhere near as satisfying as doing it with pen and paper.

The way our brain works when we write things down physically is very different from the way it works when we’re typing things out

What I’ve heard is, it helps you remember things better. Sure, that’s great. But it’s not just that. It’s that feeling, that satisfaction and fulfilment of writing something down.

I want to reiterate. I hated writing as a kid, but I love it now. I love doing this. So even if you think you hate writing, try this while you’re reading something. It doesn’t have to be a book. It could be even articles, or things you’re listening to. You know, like a podcast, like this. Anything.

If there’s something you like, a sentence or two that really clicked with you, pause, take a notebook, and write it down

Over time you’re going to build this beautiful collation. And it’s going to be so nice to look at it, read through it, flip through it.

I also realised that, for example, if you’re listening to an audio book or something, it’s easy for the mind to wander. Even when I’m reading a physical book (or digital), actual reading, even there sometimes the mind will wander.

But if you’re in this mode, ready to take things down, you’re far more alert and more in tune with what you’re doing, more mindful and present in that particular activity. So it helps build mindfulness also.

Another benefit I found is that it takes me back, makes me nostalgic for the more simple days where we had radio and TV, and writing things in books and listening to cassette tapes. It was very different from being involved in the digital world all the time, so dependent on our phones on our laptops.

Just that simple act of writing, it takes me back to younger days and that also feels nice. It’s like treating your inner child to something special. And again, because you don’t have to do it and you do it now, you won’t feel like you’re being forced to do it. It’s a choice you’re making. So you’ll actually enjoy this process of writing, even if you didn’t enjoy it before.

Copying things down is not the only thing I do in this book I’ve kept aside

Sometimes when I’m walking around, when I’m doing other mundane things, certain phrases, certain thoughts and ideas pop up into my head. And I am like, oh, that’s nice. That’s a nice way of saying it, or that’s a cool idea. So I’ve started putting those also out into this book.

The simple act of copying seems to have triggered these other creative thoughts in me. Another very good benefit you get out of this.

And finally, it’s a deep sense of fulfilment in a very simple activity. You’re not putting pressure on yourself. You’re not stressing about it. Nobody else is going to read it. Your handwriting doesn’t even have to be neat. It’s just for you to look through later.

Or even if you don’t look through it later, for you to have just collected it. Something kind of productive and creative, but a very hobby level thing to do. You’re kind of tricking yourself into doing something really useful that feels like play, feels like fun.

And that’ll help you break out of this thing of, “everything I do has to be useful, has to be serve some purpose in the end, blah, blah, blah.” It’s good to do something just like a hobby, just for the joy of doing it and experiencing it.

So yeah, write things down and then see what happens, see where that takes you, what it leads to. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for you.

If you’re enjoying The Feel Good Factor, I’d love to hear back from you! Leave me a voice note about your favourite episode or a takeaway that you love from the podcast. Or even what you’d like to hear about more.

And then I’ll put your recording in one of the upcoming episodes, okay?

All right. Talk to you again next week. Take care. Bye.

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I’m a Spiritual Vegan Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur. I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and believe kindness and authenticity can make this world a happier, loving place.

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