I was sitting in a meeting the other day and decided I needed to take some notes . My memory isn't the worlds best, so if I think there is something worth memorializing, I will take notes.
Typically I will just use my PDA or Laptop . I can touch type pretty fast. I can thumb type on my Sidekick almost as fast as I type using all 10.. Then when Im done, I email the notes to myself and I have a permanent, searchable record of the meeting. I've been doing this for so long, I can pretty much type as fast as I think
This particular meeting for some reason I couldnt go the digital route so I can had to go 1900s and actually handwrite my notes.
What a disaster. I couldn't write.
I literally couldn't take notes fast enough because as I wrote, I realized I couldn't read my own writing. Not only could I not read my own writing, when I tried to slow down so that everything would be legible, I realized that actually writing each letter as part of a complete word was actually difficult
I had forgotten how to write. Sure i could fight it out by going slowly. Very slowly. But any skills I had that used to enable me to quickly write what I was hearing or what my thoughts were, had left me.
Am I alone ? SHould I start a self help group ? Should I take a class with 5 year olds to relearn ???
Is writing with a pen on a pad of paper not like riding a bike ??
I Forgot How to Write !
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Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. I've found my self writing notes in cursive, then forgetting how to write particular letters in cursive so printing them... lol
This is why I go nowhere without a laptop!
john
Posted at 11:04AM on Aug 11th 2007 by John Gauger
3. I forgot cursive years ago, because of all my typing. Now I'm getting pretty slow with notes, too, but at least they're legible. This will happen to all of us, because tablet PCs just won't catch up in price fast enough. And blackberries are here to stay. Tell me you haven't texted while driving, right? RIGHT?
Posted at 11:06AM on Aug 11th 2007 by mike w.
4. After years and years of typing including a year of business school I went on exchange to Hong Kong where they (the horror) required hand written final exams. If think writing notes is hard, try composing an essay you are used to word processing and can no longer use it.
Not only that, writing HURT. My hand muscles were not used to holding and manipulating a pen for that long. It's a completely forgotten exercise.
Posted at 11:26AM on Aug 11th 2007 by Beau
5. Very funny, since I was just discussing this exact subject with my friends not too long ago. I rarely actually write anything down anymore on paper, and when I do, I really struggle - not really because I've forgotten how to write, but it's that I'm so used to typing so fast, that I try and write at that same speed, and that usually results in illegible results.
Posted at 11:29AM on Aug 11th 2007 by Hemant J. Naidu
6. I actually go through this every fall. I'm a college student who is too poor to get a laptop, so I hand-write notes for class. Come summer time, all of my writing goes digital. When classes resume this fall, I'll have a few shaky days where my writing skills won't be up to par and my class notes will be almost worthless. But it is somewhat like riding a bicycle. After a few days I'm pretty good again.
7. When I take handwritten notes, I have to write so quickly and illegibly to keep pace that if I don’t retype those notes on a computer within a few hours, the meaning of my scribbles will be lost forever.
Unless somewhere, unbeknownst to me, there is a Rosetta Stone for my scribbles.
9. Wow Mark, you're just finding this out now? I 'discovered' this handicap 2 years ago trying to write down a girls number at a party. She just gave me the 'oh, you're not too bright look' and sauntered away! *shrugs*
Posted at 12:12PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Kenneth Holland
10. I write as often as I touchtype. I find that lugging a laptop to a meeting is quite irritating to the other participants - since they want to look at my eyes to see that I'm listening. And the screen of the laptop acts as a barrier between us.
So in meetings I write - just to-do notes and who should do them and at what time. that's all. The rest I just remember for typing out minutes a little later.
hahaha
Posted at 12:31PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Arun Sadhashivan
11. Mark, I think you just did start a self help group. What a relief to know that I am not the only one. I recognized that I had lost the ability to write cursive almost fifteen years ago. Ever since my writing has been an unholy mixture of print and cursive. I stick to typing whenever possible.
12. Add me to the list. I can't write in cursive. I print everything in capital letters. It is slow but legible.
Posted at 1:20PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Josh
14. Mark as a Mavs fan living in Dallas it's time for you to come out and support the man that will change America for the better!
Dr. Ron Paul!
Posted at 1:45PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Corey
15. not alone
Posted at 1:57PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Toby Getsch
16. I have this problem as well, and I think it's indicative of a larger problem: we're just going too flippin' fast.
The reason I can't keep up is that I'm not taking the time to think. The result is that when I type I'm probably "producing" more, but the *quality* isn't quite as good because I haven't stopped to...you know...think.
Try taking a day off from typing your thoughts and write them all down instead. I think you'll find that you might write fewer words but better thoughts.
Posted at 2:03PM on Aug 11th 2007 by paul in kirkland
17. Mark,
That is great. I am attending a class right now where we can't use laptops so I have found myself in the same boat. When we first started my notes were terriable but with time they have gotten better but my hand does hurt after writing notes all day. We sometimes forget how hard it was to just take notes. I love my laptop!!!
I also disagreed with Paul from Kirkland, I as so busy writing notes I have no time to asborb the info and then when I try to read it later i am like what was that?
Posted at 2:28PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Dallas
18. I can relate Mark. I'm an English major and my penmanship is so bad my kids make fun of me. At least I never have to worry about them writing fake notes to their school teachers the way I did. My mom was easy to copy but my kid'll never be able to copy me.
I've given the schools samples of my hand writing just in case. The nut never falls far from the tree...hehheh.
Good luck...and don't worry about it. It a hundred years the written word will cease to exixt, being replaces by the electronic word. We'll all look back and consider you a pioneer.
Posted at 2:31PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Swede Swenson
19. You're not alone, I'm the exact same way. The younger generation is even worse, I've been told that some schools don't even teach cursive anymore.
Posted at 2:40PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Ben Drawbaugh
20. I've been there. Just get your self a moleskine and force yourself to jot down ideas in it. Your handwriting will come back.
Just don't try to write cursive. Its more dead than Latin is.
Posted at 2:54PM on Aug 11th 2007 by Eric Marden
1. This is one of your funniest posts, as every CEO can relate. I scribble my notes on a yellow pad and then have my assistant type them out later and then archive them. There is one minor problem, sometimes I write personal stuff -- if its a boring meeting.
I can't do the PDA thing because the other peeps would think I'm text messaging chicks.
JS
Posted at 11:00AM on Aug 11th 2007 by john shahidi