What Neuroscience Says About The Link Between Writing and Productivity

Depending on your area of studies, you may or may not be familiar with neuroscience and the effect of its research. In short, neuroscience explores the different ways our brain reacts to different situations, whether it’s multitasking and watching a TV show while doing essay writing or jogging while listening to music. The research possibilities are endless and neuroscience does it’s best to find out exactly how our brain reacts in each of them.

What we are here to discuss, is what neuroscience has to say about the link between writing and productivity, since we need a little bit of both in our daily college life. We always seem to have an assignment on hand and we may or may not feel like doing college writing that particular day. Why is it that we find it difficult to muster up the energy to do some work, knowing that it’s for our own good? Let’s take a look at some of the factors at play.

“Multitasking drains your energy”

The scientists have recently proven the life-long suspicion that many of us had about multitasking; it drains your energy and makes you more tired. While you may think that music helps you do your paper writing more effectively, it’s actually detrimental in the long run. Keep in mind that listening to any kind of background noise while working can distract you in an instant, and put you back into working mode without you even realizing it.

It’s even worse if you play the TV right next to you while working. You can be a essay writing guru and still get distracted from your work, just because we are taught that whatever is on TV is fun and attractive to our eyes. Try to make your workplace focused on your laptop or notebook as much as you can. Leave out any sort of option for multitasking for those few hours a day when you are working. You will feel fresh and energized even after sitting at your laptop for a few hours, just because you focused better.

It basically means that your brain jumps in and out of productivity while you are doing your college writing and in turn, you feel more exhausted when you finish your work. While many of us think that music (or any kind of visual or audio stimuli) helps us focus, it’s actually the other way around. Just ask any of the numerous professional writers about what they do to focus on their work and it will be anything but background noise.

Writing and productivity

“Writing is more effective than typing”

While it may be tiresome to do essay writing in your notepad, you can jot notes and brainstorm by writing instead of typing. Research has discovered that writing things down with a pen is more likely to make you remember certain things in contrary to typing them out on your keyboard. Bear in mind that this is subjective and like everything else neuroscience says, depends entirely on your personal characteristics and preferences.

When it comes to college work and essay writing, try to think of it this way: if it’s easier to remember things by writing them down, this means that you will study faster and be more productive. Writing and productivity go hand in hand, and this is the most direct way to connect those two.

Think about it for a moment and imagine that you are doing college writing. The numerous research and sources that you have to go through might be too much to write through and even then, you have to type out your paper to submit it. However, during that paper writing process you are free to go about doing things however you see fit. The basic gist of it is that by using your hand to form letters, you are more likely to memorize them than by pushing a key on your keyboard. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Our brains are made to memorize gestures and hand movements; this is why the sign language has become so prominent with handicapped people, police, and military to name a few examples.

“Writing makes you more creative and productive”

By actually taking a pen-and-paper approach to your everyday work, you’ll notice that you are able to think of new ways to do different things. Studies have shown that paper writing makes your brain feel like you are playing basketball or driving a race car. It triggers the same kind of chemical reaction in your brain and in turn, this makes you more creative and able to come up with new and interesting ideas.

Think of it this way. Your essay writing skills may not be up to the task of what your professors are looking for. This is okay, because not everyone is great at everything. What you can do about this is apply some of the discoveries of neuroscience in order to trick your brain. Try canceling out any distractions and background noise while doing paper writing. Go to your safe place and try writing instead of typing at your laptop, because the laptop will easily distract you without even realizing it.

The trick is to actually see the result of your paper writing right there in front of you. When you see the words you put on paper, with your own hand and handwriting, you will feel differently about the entire assignment. It will feel more personal, and this is where writing and productivity come together. You will become more productive and creative as a result of seeing the progress that you’ve made.

Neuroscience is discovering new information about our brain on a daily basis and it’s a wonderful time to live in. Any discoveries that it makes can fundamentally change the way we do things, and the link between writing and productivity in this case is just one example. Keep a close eye on the developments going on in neuroscience; you may be surprised as to what you discover yourself.