“Creativity allows people to be affective” — Bill Gates No matter what subject, creativity and inspiration will certainly fuel your learning (and even enjoyment!) while studying. Writing by hand actually influences your cognitive processes in a way that slows you down — in a good way — <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/writing-on-paper_n_5797506.html">and helps forge creativity and new ideas </a>. One study we found even suggests that writing by hand is more <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/69182/">strongly linked to emotion processing </a>compared to typing. This could lead to a more mindful and creative mindframe while studying too!

5. Boost your creativity and inspiration

Research suggests that students who hand write their notes seem to <a href="https://course.ccs.neu.edu/cs2500f16/taking-notes.pdf">think more intensely </a>about the material as they write it due to <a href="https://comum.rcaap.pt/handle/10400.26/20098">increased focus </a>.So, not only are we able to diminish pesky distractions by switching to hand written notes but also increase our focus on the information we’re supposed to be taking in.

1. Increase your focus

One thing is being able to concentrate more but research also suggests that we can take this one step further and actually increase our capacity to understand and process information on a deeper level. One study looking at students learning Algebra found that those taking handwritten notes <a href="http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:gIyxOyo5Kh4J:scholar.google.com/+handwriting+vs+typing+and+learning&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5">experienced a higher degree of transfer of information </a>than those typing. Supporting research suggests that <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away">typing notes leads to a more shallow processing of information, </a>almost like your brain is in sleep mode! Whereas handwriting is more efficient at processing information overall.

2. Understand and process more information

If we don’t remember the insight, did we even learn anything at all?Sometimes studying can feel like a memory game more than anything else. So why not give ourselves the best chance at remembering what we need to for that final paper or exam? We found tons of research pointing to an <a href="https://comum.rcaap.pt/handle/10400.26/20098">increase in information retention when hand writing notes </a>instead of typing them.Students are able to <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away">perform better </a>through recalling information when needed. There should be <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/154193120905302218">more pen-to-paper studying to help increase memory </a>and learning.

3. Improve your memory

Alongside the above research, there’s also a lot to be said for being able to doodle when note taking and in periods of studying. One study found that those who doodle r<a href="https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2016/01/04/the-benefits-of-using-doodling-and-sketchnotes.html">emember 29% more of the information presented to them </a>than those who don’t. The best part? You don’t have to be an artist to doodle your way through that lecture, just get scribbling!

4. …and Embrace the doodle!

We all know that distractions are the enemy of productivity, especially when trying to keep our heads down and study. But apart from reducing the amount of interruptions are there any other…